Uguha Head-dresses
A strong wind from the East to-day. A current sweeps round this islet Kiséngé from N.E. to S.E., and carries trees and duckweed at more than a mile an hour in spite of the breeze blowing across it to the West. The wind blowing along the Lake either way raises up water, and in a calm it returns, off the shore. Sometimes it causes the current to go southwards. Tanganyika narrows at Uvira or Vira, and goes out of sight among the mountains there; then it appears as a waterfall into the Lake of Quando seen by Banyamwezi.
23rd July, 1869.—I gave a cloth to be kept for Kasanga, the chief of Kasengé, who has gone to fight with the people of Goma.
1st August, 1869.—Mohamad killed a kid as a sort of sacrifice, and they pray to Hadrajee before eating it. The cookery is of their very best, and I always get a share; I tell them that I like the cookery, but not the prayers, and it is taken in good part.
2nd August, 1869.—We embarked from the islet and got over to the mainland, and slept in a hooked-thorn copse, with a species of black pepper plant, which we found near the top of Mount Zomba, in the Manganja country,[6] in our vicinity; it shows humidity of climate.
3rd August, 1869.—Marched 3-1/4 hours south, along Tanganyika, in a very undulating country; very fatiguing in my weakness. Passed many screw-palms, and slept at Lobamba village.
4th August, 1869.—A relative of Kasanga engaged to act as our guide, so we remained waiting for him, and employed a Banyamwezi smith to make copper balls with some bars of that metal presented by Syde bin Habib. A lamb wasstolen, and all declared that the deed must have been done by Banyamwezi. "At Guha people never steal," and I believe this is true.
7th August, 1869.—The guide having arrived, we marched 2-1/4 hours west and crossed the River Logumba, about forty yards broad and knee deep, with a rapid current between deep cut banks; it rises in the western Kabogo range, and flows about S.W. into Tanganyika. Much dura or Holcus sorghum is cultivated on the rich alluvial soil on its banks by the Guha people.
8th August, 1869.—West through open forest; very undulating, and the path full of angular fragments of quartz. We see mountains in the distance.