130 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

greeted them most affectionately, and then rushing up to me, almost embraced me in his eagerness. I was the man who had acted as O'Neill's and my kilangozi from Mpwapwa to Ng'uru ; he was chief of a village near, and hearing that I was passing, came out to meet me. He expressed great sorrow that we had not camped the previous night at his village, as he " would have given us something to eat," and begged me to pay him a visit when I returned from Unyanyembe. Soon after parting from our demonstrative friend we narrowly escaped a fight. As we were passing through a field, an old woman who was hoeing corn took fright, and, thinking us Kuga Euga (highwaymen), rushed off to the village screaming, and soon a crowd of men, armed with guns, bows, and spears, came rushing down towards us. I walked slowly to meet them, and as they got near shouted their ordinary salutations. They stopped, evidently astonished at hearing a white man address them in their own language ; we entered into conversation with them, and the affair ended in a hearty laugh at the fright they had received, and in plentiful abuse of the old woman who had raised the alarm. From there we went on to the village of a chief called Mtinginya, a man of great authority in this part of the country as he had made blood brotherhood with Mirambo, the renowned African Buonaparte, also because he possessed a large number of guns. He had the character of being