UGOGO AND IEAMBA TO NG'URU. 59 then demands a good many more, whereupon ensues a vast amount of talk, which may take two or three days, and which is rarely, if ever, concluded in less than one day. When the envoy has reduced the chiefs demands as low as he can, he comes back and says the chief " is sitting on pombe and won't hear reason," or " his head has got big since the white man came," or " the white man is a great sultan in his own country, and must pay a big hongo," and " he must have twenty or thirty or forty cloths," as the case may be; so one measures out the cloth, only too thankful that another of the vexatious delays is over. The hongo having been paid, the big drum of the village is beaten as a sign that the caravan is at liberty to proceed, and generally a return present of a goat or bullock is made by the chief.

At Mvumi an instance occurred of the wanton rascality of the Arab traders in trying to injure European travellers. An Arab on his way from Unyanyembe to the coast pitched his camp near us, and having called on us, was treated with great civility ; and after our hongo was settled we wrote a letter to Lieutenant Smith telling him what we had paid, that it might be a guide to him, and sent it up to the Sultan of Mvumi, requesting him kindly to give it to our " brother " whom we expected shortly to follow us ; he agreed to do so, and took the letter. Just then in came our Arab friend, and on