ossession of any one, a stronger neighbour would seize and
bear off the prize in triumph. All right was now a matter or pure might,
and lucky it was that it did not end in a fight between our men and
the villagers. These might be afterwards seen, one by one, covered with
blood, scampering home each with his spoil--a piece of tripe, or liver,
or lights, or whatever else it might have been his fortune to get off
with.

We were still in great want of men; but rather than stop a day, as all
delays only lead to more difficulties, I pushed on to Magomba's palace
with the assistance of some Wagogo carrying our baggage, each taking one
cloth as his hire. The chief wazir at once come out to meet me on the
way, and in an apparently affable manner, as an old friend, begged that
I would live in the palace--a bait which I did not take, as I knew
my friend by experience a little too well. He then, in the politest
possible manner, told me that a great dearth of food was oppressing the
land--so much so, that pretty cloths only would purchase grain. I now
wished to settle my hongo, but the great chief could not hear of such
indecent haste.

The next day, too, the chief was too drunk to listen to any one, and I
must have patience. I took out this time in the jungles very profitably,
killing a fine buck and doe antelope, of a species unknown. These
animals are much about the same size and shape as the common Indian
antelope, and, like them, roam about in large herds. The only marked
difference between the two is in the shape of their horns, as may be
seen by the woodcut; and in their colour, in which, in both sexes, the
Ugogo antelopes resemble the picticandata gazelle of Tibet, except that
the former have dark markings on the face.

At last, after thousands of difficulties much like those I encountered
in Uzaramo, the hongo was settled by a payment of one kisutu, one
dubani, four yards bendera, four yards kiniki, and three yards merikani.
The wazir then thought he would do some business on his own account, and
commenced work by presenting me with a pot of ghee and flour, saying at
the same time "empty words did not show true love," and hoping that I
would prove mine by making some slight return. To get rid of the animal
I gave him the full value of his present in cloth, which he no sooner
pocketed than he had the audacity to accuse Grant of sacrilege for
having shot a lizard on a holy stone, and demanded four cloths to pay
atonement f