fifty khete, or five fundo per day, for two years, and if I
purchased only eleven varieties, I might consider myself safe
enough. The purchase was accordingly made, and twenty-two
sacks of the best species were packed and brought to Capt. Webb's
house, ready for transportation to Bagamoyo.

After the beads came the wire question. I discovered, after
considerable trouble, that Nos. 5 and 6--almost of the thickness
of telegraph wire--were considered the best numbers for trading
purposes. While beads stand for copper coins in Africa, cloth
measures for silver; wire is reckoned as gold in the countries
beyond the Tan-ga-ni-ka.* Ten frasilah, or 350 lbs., of brass-wire,
my Arab adviser thought, would be ample.
_________________
* It will be seen that I differ from Capt. Burton in the spelling
of this word, as I deem the letter " y " superfluous.
________________

Having purchased the cloth, the beads, and the wire, it was with
no little pride that I surveyed the comely bales and packages lying
piled up, row above row, in Capt. Webb's capacious store-room.
Yet my work was not ended, it was but beginning; there were
provisions, cooking-utensils, boats, rope, twine, tents, donkeys,
saddles, bagging, canvas, tar, needles, tools, ammunition, guns,
equipments, hatchets, medicines, bedding, presents for chiefs--in
short, a thousand things not yet purchased. The ordeal of
chaffering and -haggling with steel-hearted Banyans, Hindis, Arabs,
and half-castes was most trying. For instance, I purchased
twenty-two donkeys at Zanzibar. $40 and $50 were asked, which
I had to reduce to $15 or $20 by an infinite amount of argument