The several plagues of locusts,
fleas, and lice sink into utter insignificance compared with this
fearful one of earwigs. It is true they did not bite, and they
did not irritate the cuticle, but what their presence and numbers
suggested was something so horrible that it drove one nearly
insane to think of it. Who will come to East Africa without
reading the experiences of Burton and Speke? Who is he that
having read them will not remember with horror the dreadful
account given by Speke of his encounters with these pests?
My intense nervous watchfulness alone, I believe, saved me
from a like calamity.
Second to the earwigs in importance and in numbers were the white
ants, whose powers of destructiveness were simply awful. Mats,
cloth, portmanteaus, clothes, in short, every article I possessed,
seemed on the verge of destruction, and, as I witnessed their
voracity, I felt anxious lest my tent should be devoured while
I slept. This was the first khambi since leaving the coast where
their presence became a matter of anxiety; at all other camping
places hitherto the red and black ants had usurped our attention,
but at Mpwapwa the red species were not seen, while the black
were also very scarce.
After a three days' halt at Mpwapwa I decided of a march to
Marenga Mkali, which should be uninterrupted until we reached Mvumi
in Ugogo, where I should be inducted into the art of paying tribute
to the Wagogo chiefs. The first march to Kisokweh was purposely
made short, being barely four miles, in order to enable Sheikh
Thani, Sheikh Hamed, and five or six Wasawahili caravans to come
up with me at Chunyo on the confines of Marenga Mkali.
CHAPTER VII. MARENGA MKALI, UGOGO, AND UYANZI, TO UNYANYEMBE.
Mortality amongst the baggage animals. - The contumacious Wagogo -
Mobs of Maenads. - Tribute paying. - Necessity of prudence. - Oration
of the guide. - The genuine "Ugogians." - Vituperative power. - A
surprised chief. - The famous Mizanza. - Killing hyaenas. - The Greeks
and Romans of Africa. - A critical moment. - The "elephant's back." -
The wilderness of Ukimbu. - End of the first stage of the search. -
Arrival at Unyanyembe.
The 22nd of May saw Thani and Hamed's caravans united with my own
at Chunyo, three and a half hours' march from Mpwapwa. The road
from the latter place ran along the skirts of the Mpwapwa range;
at three or four places it crossed outlying spurs that stood
isolated from the main body of the range. The last of these hill
spurs, joined by an elevated cross ridge to the Mpwapwa, shelters
the tembe of Chunyo, situated on the western face, from the stormy
gusts that come roaring down the steep slopes.
