How I Found Livingstone Travels, Adventures And Discoveries In Central Africa Including Four Months Residence With Dr. Livingstone By Sir Henry M. Stanley
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By 10 A.M. We Were In Camp In The Midst Of An
Imposing View Of Green Sward And Forest
Domed by a cloudless sky.
We had again pitched our camp in the wilderness, and, as is the
custom of
Caravans, fired two shots to warn any Washensi having
grain to sell, that we were willing to trade.
Our next halting-place was Kisemo, distant but eleven miles from
Msuwa, a village situated in a populous district, having in its
vicinity no less than five other villages, each fortified by
stakes and thorny abattis, with as much fierce independence as if
their petty lords were so many Percys and Douglasses. Each
topped a ridge, or a low hummock, with an assumption of defiance of
the cock-on-its-own-dunghill type. Between these humble eminences
and low ridges of land wind narrow vales which are favored with the
cultivation of matama and Indian corn. Behind the village flows
the Ungerengeri River, an impetuous stream during the Masika
season, capable of overflowing its steep banks, but in the dry
season it subsides into its proper status, which is that of a small
stream of very clear sweet water. Its course from Kisemo is
south-west, then easterly ; it is the main feeder of the Kingani
River.
The belles of Kisemo are noted for their vanity in brass wire,
which is wound in spiral rings round their wrists and ankles, and
the varieties of style which their hispid heads exhibit; while
their poor lords, obliged to be contented with dingy torn clouts
and split ears, show what wide sway Asmodeus holds over this
terrestrial sphere - for it must have been an unhappy time when the
hard-besieged husbands finally gave way before their spouses.
Besides these brassy ornaments on their extremities, and the
various hair-dressing styles, the women of Kisemo frequently wear
lengthy necklaces, which run in rivers of colours down their
bodies.
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