32 UGANDA AND TEE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

ready we started, accompanied for a short distance

by Machandi's wives and girls, who came to say

good-bye to me. I found that there were no women

in the caravan, and asked the reason ; on which I

was told that they did not care to run the risk of

their being captured by Kabrega, and as no women

could now be sold as slaves at Mruli, it was no good

taking them. This would seem to indicate that

here at least the slave trade has been stopped.

From Kahiira, the land, which is rolling ground

and covered by fine trees, giving it the appearance

of a large park, forms a depression for about four-

teen miles. The grass, which was much longer

than it was when we passed over this country in

the preceding February, was about three feet in

height. There were evident traces that at some

part of the year the ground was a swamp. We

camped that night on some high ground marked by

five very tall Borassus palms, growing in order thus

° o ° , and this is the southern limit of this kind of

palm. It was here that poor Maraku had been

killed a short time previously. Marks of the fight

still remained, and there were strewn about the

place the ashes of the huts that had been burnt

down.

There were a good many elephants about, whose

trumpeting was a strange lullaby. During that

night I saw a magnificent meteor, which seemed as

large as a cricket-balL It passed rapidly from west