are overbearing, and when this is resented, then slaughter ensues. I got
some sweet plantains and a little oil, which is useful in cooking, and
with salt, passes for butter on bread, but all were unwilling to trade.
Monangoi was over near Lohombo, and heard of a large trading party
coming, and not far off; this may be Syde and Dugumbé, but reports are
often false. When Katomba's men were on the late foray, they were
completely overpowered, and compelled by the Manyuema to lay down their
guns and powder-horns, on pain of being instantly despatched by bow-shot:
they were mostly slaves, who could only draw the trigger and make a
noise. Katomba had to rouse out all the Arabs who could shoot, and when
they came they killed many, and gained the lost day; the Manyuema did
not kill anyone who laid down his gun and powder-horn. This is the
beginning of an end which was easily perceived when it became not a
trading, but a foray of a murdering horde of savages.

The foray above mentioned was undertaken by Katomba for twenty goats
from Kassessa!--ten men lost for twenty goats, but they will think twice
before they try another foray.

A small bird follows the "Sassassa" or _Buceros cristata_. It screams
and pecks at his tail till he discharges the contents of his bowels, and
then leaves him; it is called "play" by the natives, and by the Suaheli
"Utané" or "Msaha"--fun or wit; he follows other birds in the same
merciless way, screaming and pecking to produce purging; Manyuema call
this bird "Mambambwa." The buffalo bird warns its big friend of danger,
by calling "Chachacha," and the rhinoceros bird cries out, "Tye, tye,
tye, tye," for the same purpose. The Manyuema call the buffalo bird
"Mojela," and the Suaheli, "Chassa." A climbing plant in Africa is known
as "Ntulungopé," which mixed with flour of dura kills mice; they swarm
in our camp and destroy everything, but Ntulungopé is not near this.