Water Was So Scarce In The Wells At This
Season That We Had To Buy It At The Normal Price Of Country Beer;
And, As May Be Imagined Where Such Distress In Food Was Existing,
Cows, Goats, Sheep, And Fowls Were Also Selling At High Rates.
Our mules here gave us the slip again, and walked all the way
back to Marenga Mkhali, where they
Were found and brought back by
some Wagogo, who took four yards of merikani in advance, with a
promise of four more on return, for the job - their chief being
security for their fidelity. This business detained us two days,
during which time I shot a new variety of florikan, peculiar in
having a light blue band stretching from the nose over the eye to
the occiput. Each day, while we resided here, cries were raised
by the villagers that the Wahumba were coming, and then all the
cattle out in the plains, both far and near, were driven into the
village for protection.
At last, on the 26th, as the mules were brought it, I paid a
hongo or tax of four barsati and four yards of chintz to the
chief, and departed, but not until one of my porters, a Mhehe,
obtained a fat dog for his dinner; he had set his heart on it,
and would not move until he had killed it, and tied it on to his
load for the evening's repast. Passing through the next
villages - a collection called Kifukuro - we had to pay another
small tax of two barsati and four yards of chintz to the chief.
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