iew was alarming, for one word from him could
have ruined my projects. As it was, I feared my followers might take
fright and refuse to advance with me. I thought it good policy to talk
of there being many roads leading through Africa, so that Rumanika might
see he had not got, as he thought, the sole key to the interior. I told
him again of certain views I once held of coming to see him from the
north up the Nile, and from the east through the Masai. He observed
that, "To open either of those routes, you would require at least two
hundred guns." He would, however, do something when we returned from
Uganda; for as Mtesa followed his advice in everything, so did Kamrasi,
for both held the highest opinion of him.

The conversation then turning on London, and the way men and carriages
moved up the streets like strings of ants on their migrations, Rumanika
said the villages in Ruanda were of enormous extent, and the people
great sportsmen, for they turned out in multitudes, with small dogs
on whose necks were tied bells, and blowing horns themselves, to hunt
leopards. They were, however, highly superstitious, and would not allow
any strangers to enter their country; for some years ago, when Arabs
went there, a great drought and famine set in, which they attributed to
evil influences brought by them, and, turning them out of their country,
said they would never admit any of their like amongst them again. I
said, in return, I thought his Wanyambo just as superstitious, for I
observed, whilst walking one day, that they had placed a gourd on the
path, and on inquiry found they had done so to gain the sympathy of all
passers-by to their crop close at hand, which was blighted, imagining
that the voice of the sympathiser heard by the spirits would induce them
to relent, and restore a healthy tone to the crop.

During this time an interesting case was brought before us for judgment.
Two men having married one woman, laid claim to her child, which, as it
was a male one, belonged to the father. Baraka was appointed the umpire,
and immediately comparing the infant's face with those of its claimants,
gave a decision which all approved of but the loser. It was pronounced
amidst peals of laughter from my men; for whenever any little excitement
is going forward, the Wanguana all rush to the scene of action to give
their opinions, and joke over it afterwards.

29th and 30th.--On telling Rumanika this story next morning, he said,
"Many fu