30 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

with interest the doings of the strange man with the

pale face. In the courtyard at the back of the

house some donkeys and a fine sheep were tethered,

the latter being a present from the Wali or Gover-

nor of Bagainoyo ; a few Wanyamwezi porters were

cooking their evening meal of beans or mtama

(millet) in little earthenware pots, placed on three

stones over a small fire of sticks, and others were

tying up goods into the long sausage-shaped bundles

which are the favourite form for loads. In front of

the house a motley group of Arabs, "Wanyamwezi,

coast Negroes (Wamerima), and a few dirty Beluch

soldiers blocked up the narrow street.

After the day's work was over we strolled round

the town, passing the neat grounds of the French

mission, where a troop of boys returning home from

their day's work passed us with a polite

" Bon soir,

messieurs." Then on to the beach, alive with

burrowing crabs, and when the tide was out

showing a large expanse of mud and sand strewn

with shells and haunted by curlews, sandpipers, and other wading birds. Towards the mouth of

the Kingani, a mile or two from the town, dense

masses of mangrove shrubs are found growing in

the water, while here and there a stranded dhow

left by the receding tide lay high and dry out of

water. Then, as the sun has set and the grey

twilight is rapidly stealing over all, and the white

line of breakers on the coral reefs out at sea grows