42 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

six of them being down with small-pox. Provisions were very cheap here, and I purchased eleven fowls and a large basket of beans for a doti (four yards) of merikani or unbleached calico.

Before, however, going any further it will be well to describe more minutely the mode of travelling in this part of Africa, and the system of barter. The travelling had almost entirely to be done on foot, on account of the existence in many districts between the East Coast and the Victoria Lake of the terrible tsetse fly (Glossina morsitans), whose bite is fatal to horses, camels, mules, and oxen, so that none of these animals can be used as beasts of burden ; donkeys are more or less employed, as they are hardier than the others, but sooner or later they almost invariably fall victims to the tsetse. The wapagazi or porters, who are almost the only means of transport in Central Africa, come chiefly from a large tribe, called Wanyamwezi, who inhabit a country called Unyamwezi, to the south of the Victoria Lake.

Every year thousands of these people come down to the coast, either carrying the ivory of Arab traders, or on their own account, to engage as porters in upgoing caravans. They come in parties of ten, twenty and upwards from the various districts and towns, each being under a niampara (lit. grandfather) or local chief, through whom they are engaged, and who receives the food allowance for his gang of men, every day when on the march. Most of these porters