else from the coast inland to the Great Lake,
are here deficient, and rice cannot be grown.

But perhaps the very absence of the luxuriant
vegetation of other regions has proved favourable
to the physical development of the races in
and about Ugogi. They are fairer, which shows
better blood; they are all clothed in cotton, even
—which is quite unusual in Africa—the very
children, and many wear sandals made of hide.
They are hospitable to the stranger, who is
always greeted with a salutation. The races
inhabiting the two first regions drive him from
their door, but here the host places the stool—
for there is but one in each hut—for his guests,
and seats himself on the ground. He prepares
a meal of milk and porridge, and on parting
gives, if he can afford it, a goat or a cow.

The third region offers one great advantage,
it is a place where fat people are appreciated.
Many years ago the first caravan that passed
through Ugogi was led by one Zumah Mfumbi,
a fat man. The people were lost in admiration,
but they doubted the reality of his corpulence.
After many experiments, however, they were
convinced that there was no mistake about it;
and then they said it was wonderful, it was
beautiful, and this fat man must be God himself.
But they did not rest satisfied with this
conclusion, they said that as he was a god, and
was on the spot, he might as well improve the
country and give them rain. In vain the fat
man pleaded and protested, they grew angry
and were about to put the contumacious deity
to death, when some heavy showers fell and he
was released.

The fourth region extends to the eastern
banks of the Malagarazi River, and is the far-
famed Land of the Moon. This is the very
garden of Central Inter-Tropical Africa, and Burton
gives the most glowing account of its peaceful
rural beauty. There are villages at short intervals,
well-hoed plains, herds of cattle, flocks of
goats and sheep, and a general aspect of
barbarous comfort and plenty.

The rainy season, or south-west monsoon
begins earlier than on the coast, and the rain,
hail, and thunder storms are very violent. But
the monsoon is not the unhealthy season, as the
inundation is then too deep; it is only when
evaporation has dried up the waters, and swamps
of reeking and putrid black vegetable mud cover
the low lands, and winds howl over the country
night and day, that cold and cough, ague and
rheumatism, dysentery and deadly fevers
prevail.

Strange to say, influenza is as much dreaded
in the Land of the Moon as in England. But
this is in the summer when the cold east wind
from the mountains of Usagara brings with it a
sudden chill. The nights seem to be always
cold, and in the height of summer one is glad of
a blanket at night. As a set-off, flies and
mosquitoes are less troublesome than in any other
part of Africa. In this region we find the great
Wanyamwezi tribe, the typical race in this part
of Central Africa. Their industry and commercial
activity, which are, however, only comparative,
give them a superiority over the other
races. They extend to the shores of the Great
Lake, and it is they who not only trade with
the coast on their own account, forming large
caravans, but they also act as porters to the
Arab merchants. The race is said to be long
lived, and they have both bodily strength and
savage courage. Skins are more commonly
worn than cloth, and children are very rarely
clothed at all. They are all very fond of
ornaments, strings of large beads, crescents of
hippopotamus teeth, brass and copper bangles and
massive rings for the wrist and ankles, and it
is for these chiefly that they trade. They
remove the eyelashes, and enlarge the lobes of the
ears.

They also have learned from the Arabs to
bury their dead. In former times some man
used to carry the corpse out of the village on
his head and throw it into the first jungle where
wild animals abounded, and they so much
objected to the Arab funeral that they would
assemble in crowds to close the way. But the
merchants persevered till they established a
right, and now the Wanyamwezi also bury their
dead. If a man dies from home, they turn
the face of the corpse towards the mother's
village, and the body is buried standing, or
tightly bound in a heap, or placed in a sitting
position with the arms clasping the knees.
When a chief is buried, three female slaves are
buried with him—alive—to preserve him from
the horrors of solitude. One really remarkable
characteristic of the Wanyamwezi is their love of
club life. In every village there are two of these
clubs—Iwánzá, they are called; one for the men,
one for the women. The Iwánzá is a large hut,
smeared with smooth clay, and often decorated
with a rude attempt at carving. Strangers and
travellers are not admitted to the women's club,
but they are always received in the men's. In
this Iwánzá the villagers spend their days, and
often their nights, gambling, eating, drinking
pombe—their beer—and smoking bhang and
tobacco. They are very foul feeders, and will
chew the clay of ant-hills rather than eat nothing.
They will devour animals that have died of
disease, and carrion—the flesh of lions, leopards,
elephants, rhinoceroses, asses, wild cats and
rats, beetles and white ants. But they will not
eat mutton or poultry, or eggs, or waterfowl,
saying it is not their custom.

Immediately before a man becomes the chief
of his tribe he is taunted and insulted, " Ah!
now thou art still our comrade, but presently
thou wilt torture and slay, fine and flog us."
Du Chaillu gives an almost identical account of
the conduct of the tribes on the West Coast
when choosing a chief.

The fifth and last region is the region of the
Great Lake, Tanganyika. This lake occupies
the centre of the length of Africa, but is nearly
one-third nearer the East than the West Coast.
It is about seven hundred miles north of
Livingstone's Lake Ngami, and some three hundred
and forty miles south-west of Captain Speke's
Lake Nyanza. It is supposed to be some three