What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the NileSpeke, John Hanning
History
What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile
Speke, John Hanning
Horn of Africa -- Description and travel; Nile River; Tanganyika, Lake
The lazy pagazis finding themselves now, as it were, in clover, a
country full of all the things they love, would not stir one step
after 11 A.M. Were time of no consequence, and coloured beads in
store, such travelling as this would indeed be pleasant. For the
country here, so different from the Ujiji line, affords not only
delightful food for the eyes, but abounds in flesh, milk, eggs, and
vegetables in every variety. The son of the Mséné Sultan, who lives
between Unyanyembé and Ujiji, and became great friends with us when
travelling there, paid me a visit to-day. He caught me at work with my
diary and instruments, and being struck with veneration at the sight
of my twirling compass and literary pursuits, thought me a magician,
and begged that I would cast his horoscope, divine the probable extent
of his father's life, ascertain if there would be any wars, and
describe the weather, the prospects of harvest, and what future state
the country would lapse into. The shrewd Bombay replied, to save me
trouble, that so great a matter required more days of contemplation
than I could afford to give. Provisions were very dear when purchased
with white beads, for they were not the fashion, and the people were
indifferent to them. I paid him one loin-cloth for four fowls and nine
eggs, though, had I had coloured beads, I might have purchased one hen
per khete (or necklace). Had this been a cloth-wearing instead of a
bead-decorating nation, I should have obtained forty fowls for one
shukka (or loin-cloth), that being the equivalent value with beads,
equal, according to Zanzibar money, to one dollar. It is always
foolish to travel without an assortment of beads, in consequence of
the tastes of the different tribes varying so much; and it is more
economical in the long-run to purchase high-priced than low-priced
beads when making up the caravan at Zanzibar, for every little trader
buys the cheaper sorts, stocks the country with them, and thus makes
them common.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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