The
business that day remained unsettled, and the night following
was, as one may imagine, a very sleepless one to Hamed. As it
turned out, however, the loss of the donkeys, the after heavy fine,
and the sleepless night, proved to be blessings in disguise; for,
towards midnight, a robber Mgogo visited his camp, and while
attempting to steal a bale of cloth, was detected in the act
by the wide-awake and irritated Arab, and was made to vanish
instantly with a bullet whistling in close proximity to his ear.
From each of the principals of the caravans, the Mnyamwezi had
received as tribute for his drunken master fifteen doti, and from
the other six caravans six doti each, altogether fifty-one doti,
yet on the next morning when we took the road he was not a whit
disposed to deduct a single cloth from the fine imposed on Hamed,
and the unfortunate Sheikh was therefore obliged to liquidate the
claim, or leave his donkeys behind.
After travelling through the corn-fields of Pembera Pereh we
emerged upon a broad flat plain, as level as the still surface of
a pond, whence the salt of the Wagogo is obtained. From Kanyenyi
on the southern road, to beyond the confines of Uhumba and Ubanarama,
this saline field extends, containing many large ponds of salt
bitter water whose low banks are covered with an effervescence
partaking of the nature of nitrate.
