The
Karuma Falls, If Such They May Be Called, Are A Mere Sluice Or
Rush Of Water Between High Syenitic Stones, Falling In A Long
Slope Down A Ten-Feet Drop.
There are others of minor
importance, and one within ear-sound, down the river, said to be
very grand.
The name given to the Karuma Falls arose from the absurd belief
that Karuma, the agent or familiar of a certain great spirit,
placed the stones that break the waters in the river, and, for so
doing, was applauded by his master, who, to reward his services
by an appropriate distinction, allowed the stones to be called
Karuma. Near this is a tree which contains a spirit whose
attributes for gratifying the powers and pleasures of either men
or women who summon its influence in the form appropriate to
each, appear to be almost identical with that of Mahadeo's Ligna
in India.
20th. - We halted for the men to collect and lay in a store of
food for the passage of the Kidi wilderness. Presents of fish,
caught in baskets, were sent us by Kija. They were not bad
eating, though all ground animals of the lowest order. At the
Grand Falls below this, Kidgwiga informs us, the king had the
heads of one hundred men, prisoners taken in war against Rionga,
cut off and thrown into the river.
21st and 22d. - The governor, who would not let us go until we saw
him, called on the 22d with a large retinue, attended by a
harpist, and bringing a present of one cow, two loads flour, and
three pots of pombe. He expected a chair to sit upon, and got a
box, as at home he has a throne only a little inferior to
Kamrasi's. He was very generous to Bombay on his former journey
to Gani; and then said he thought the white men were all flocking
this way to retake their lost country; for tradition recorded
that the Wahuma were once half-black and half-white, with half
the hair straight and the other half curly; and how was this to
be accounted for, unless the country formerly belonged to white
men with straight hair, but was subsequently taken by black men?
We relieved his apprehensions by telling him his ancestors were
formerly all white, with straight hair, and lived in a country
beyond the salt sea, till they crossed that sea, took possession
of Abyssinia, and are now generally known by the name of Hubshies
and Gallas; but neither of these names was known to him.
On the east, beyond Kidi, he only knew of one clan of Wahuma, a
people who subsist entirely on meat and milk. The sportsmen of
this country, like the Wanyamuezi, plant a convolvulus of
extraordinary size by the side of their huts, and pile the jaw-
bones and horns of their spoils before, as a means of bringing
good-luck. This same flower, held in the hand when a man is
searching for anything that he has lost, will certainly bring him
to the missing treasure.
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