Next
Morning, Sure Enough, Before We Could Get Under Way, M'yonga Sent
His Prime Minister To Say That The King's
Sisters and other
members of his family had been crying and tormenting him all
night for having let me off
So cheaply - they had got nothing to
cover their nakedness, and I must pay something more. This
provoked fresh squabbles. The drums had beaten and the tax was
settled; I could not pay more. The kirangozi, however, said he
would not move a peg unless I gave something more, else he would
be seized on his way back. His "children' all said the same; and
as I thought Grant would only be worsted if I did not keep
friends with the scoundrel, I gave four yards more merikani, and
then went on my way.
For the first few miles there were villagers, but after that a
long tract of jungle, inhabited chiefly by antelopes and
rhinoceros. It was wilder in appearance than most parts of
Unyamuezi. In this
jungle a tributary nullah to the Gombe, called Nurhungure, is the
boundary-line between the great Country of the Moon and the
kingdom of Uzinza.
Chapter VI
Uzinza
The Politics of Uzinza - The Wahuma - "The Pig's" Trick - First
Taste of Usui Taxation - Pillaged by Mfumbi - Pillaged by Makaka -
Pillaged by Lumeresi - Grant Stripped by M'Yonga - Stripped Again
by Ruhe - Terrors and Defections in the Camp - Driven back to Kaze
with new Tribulations and Impediments.
Uzinza, which we now entered, is ruled by two Wahuma chieftains
of foreign blood, descended from the Abyssinian stock, of whom we
saw specimens scattered all over Unyamuezi, and who extended even
down south as far as Fipa. Travellers see very little, however,
of these Wahuma, because, being pastorals, they roam about with
their flocks and build huts as far away as they can from
cultivation. Most of the small district chiefs, too, are the
descendants of those who ruled in the same places before the
country was invaded, and with them travellers put up and have
their dealings. The dress of the Wahuma is very simple, composed
chiefly of cow-hide tanned black - a few magic ornaments and
charms, brass or copper bracelets, and immense number of sambo
for stockings, which looked very awkward on their long legs.
They smear themselves with rancid butter instead of macassar, and
are, in consequence, very offensive to all but the negro, who
seems, rather than otherwise, to enjoy a good sharp nose tickler.
For arms they carry both bow and spear; more generally the
latter. The Wazinza in the southern parts are so much like the
Wanyamuezi, as not to require any especial notice; but in the
north, where the country is more hilly, they are much more
energetic and actively built. All alike live in grass-hut
villages, fenced round by bomas in the south, but open in the
north. Their country rises in high rolls, increasing in altitude
as it approaches the Mountains of the Moon, and is generally well
cultivated, being subjected to more of the periodical rains than
the regions we have left, though springs are not so abundant, I
believe, as they are in the Land of the Moon, where they ooze out
by the flanks of the little granitic hills.
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