perty to Karague, promising to go
there with them himself. They found here also Sheikh Snay, who, with
other Arab merchants, came at once to call on them. Snay told him that
he had an army of four hundred slaves prepared to march against the
chief, Manua Sera, who was constantly attacking and robbing their
caravans. Speke advised him not to make the attempt, as he was likely
to get the worst of it. The other Arab merchant agreed that a treaty of
peace would be better than fighting.

Musa gave him much information about the journey northward, and promised
to supply him with sixty porters from his slave establishment, by which
arrangement Speke would have a hundred armed men to form his escort.

Musa loudly praised Rumanika, the King of Karague, through whose
dominions the expedition was to pass.

Some time, however, was of necessity spent at Caze in making
preparations for the journey, the two travellers employing themselves
during it in gaining information about the country.

The Wanyamuezi, among whom they were residing, are a polite race, having
a complete code of etiquette for receiving friends or strangers; drums
are beat both on the arrival and departure of great people. When one
chief receives another, he assembles the inhabitants of the village,
with their drums and musical instruments, which they sound with all
their might, and then dance for his amusement. The drum is used, like
the bugle, on all occasions; and, when the travellers wished to move,
the drums were beaten as a sign to their porters to take up their
burdens. The women courtesy to their chief, and men clap their hands
and bow themselves. If a woman of inferior rank meets a superior, she
drops on one knee and bows her head; the superior then places her hand
on the shoulder of the kneeling woman, and they remain in this attitude
some moments, whispering a few words, after which they rise and talk
freely.

The Wanyamuezi, or, as they are familiarly called, the Weezee, are great
traders, and travel to a considerable distance in pursuit of their
business.

When a husband returns from a journey, his favourite wife prepares to
receive him in a peculiar manner. Having put on all her ornaments, to
which she adds a cap of feathers, she proceeds, with her friends, to the
principal wife of the chief, when, the lady coming forth, they all dance
before her, taking care to be thus occupied when the husband makes his
appearance, a band of music play