to show me the excavations in his
country: he declined, by saying that I came from a crowd of people,
and must go to Kabwabwata, and wait awhile there, meanwhile he would
think what he should do, whether to refuse or invite me to come. He
evidently does not wish me to see his strongholds. All his people
could go into them, though over ten thousand: they are all abundantly
supplied with water, and they form the storehouses for grain.

_22nd October, 1868._--We came to Kabwabwata, and I hope I may find a
way to other underground houses. It is probable that they are not the
workmanship of the ancestors of the present occupants, for they
ascribe their formation invariably to the Deity, Mulungu or Reza: if
their forefathers had made them, some tradition would have existed of
them.

_23rd October, 1868._--Syde bin Habib came over from Mpweto's; he
reports Lualaba and Lufira flowing into the Lake of Kinkonza.
Lungabale is paramount chief of Rua.

Mparahala horns measured three feet long and three inches in diameter
at the base: this is the yellow kualata of Makololo, bastard gemsbuck
of the Dutch.

_27th, 29th, and 30th October, 1868._--Salem bin Habib was killed by
the people in Rua: he had put up a tent and they attacked it in the
night, and stabbed him through it. Syde bin Habib waged a war of
vengeance all through Rua after this for the murder of his brother:
Sef's raid may have led the people to the murder.

_29th October, 1868._--In coming north in September and October, the
last months of the dry season, I crossed many burns flowing quite in
the manner of our brooks at home, after a great deal of rain; here,
however, the water was clear, and the banks not abraded in the least.
Some rivulets had a tinge of white in them, as if of felspar in
disintegrating granite; some nearly stagnant burns had as if milk and
water in them, and some red oxide of iron.

Where leeches occur they need no coaxing to bite, but fly at the white
skin like furies, and refuse to let go: with the fingers benumbed,
though the water is only 60 deg., one may twist them round the finger and
tug, but they slip through. I saw the natives detaching them with a
smart slap of the palm, and found it quite effectual.

Swifts, Senegal swallows, and common dark-bellied swallows appeared at
Kizinga in the beginning of October: other birds, as drongo shrikes, a
bird with a reddish bill, but otherwise like a grey linnet, keep in
flocks yet. _(5th Decembe