balsams, hibiscuses, dissotises, green and white ground orchids, scarlet aloes, and numberless species whose

boxes-made of bark, in which these half-domesticated bees constructed their hives and stored their honey. These "honey-boxes," called by the natives "Mizinga," which word is also applied to cannons on the coast, are familiar objects in East Africa, and may generally be met with in the vicinity of villages.

CHAPTER V.

ARRIVAL AT MANDARA'S COURT.

BEFORE describing my first interview with Mandara, the chief of Moši, it may be well to say a few explanatory words about his actual position and previous

career.

By Sir John Kirk's advice I directed my steps to his kingdom and capital in the first instance, for we both imagined that I had only to conciliate this personage in order to be able to range free and undisturbed over the whole of Kilima-njaro.

It was, however, a great mistake-though one I was a long time finding out-because Mandara ruled over a very small tract of land, and only up to 6000 feet altitude, and being at constant war with his neighbours, and his little kingdom in a continual state of blockade, his protection as far as it influenced a peaceful residence on the upper slopes of the mountain was worse than useless. Had it not been that the time spent perforce in Mandara's country was of little use for natural history purposes-for I could not forget that I had come out principally to study the alpine district near the snow-line, and not the rich but more typically African fauna and flora at lower levels-I should little regret the months I passed in Moši, for I regard Mandara as one of the most remarkable Africans I have

ever met. He is a man whose portrait should be placed with certain others of his contemporaries, Rumanika, Mtesa, the Kasongo, whose lineaments stand out sharply amid the obscurity of Savage Africa, and whose names, so associated with the pioneers of African exploration, will certainly not fall into oblivion.

As far as we can trust to his own traditions as to his ancestry, it would appear that his grandfather was a younger brother of the ruling chief of Mpoko, or Mpokomo, a state lying to the west of Moši. He seems to have been a great warrior, and protected his few subjects so zealously against the raids of the Masai (who at that time menaced the very existence of the Čaga mountaineers), that he formed them in time into a prosperous and thriving community. The origin or etymology of the name Moši (pronounced in English "Moshy") is not very clear. In the language of Taveita it means "smoke," which, from the fact that at all times puffs of white smoke arising from the constant burning of weeds are to be observed, when the land is seen from the plains below, is a not improbable derivation; still it may be more likely drawn from some term in Ki-čaga, the language of the country. As it is sometimes pronounced Muši or Muži, I thought it might have been akin to the common Bantu word muji," a town or settlement; but as that term becomes "muri" in Ki-čaga, I am still at a loss. However this may be, Moši is the well-known name on Kilima-njaro of the little state founded, as tradition goes, by Mandara's grandfather. This hero is supposed to have fallen in battle with the Masai, and his second-some say his third-son inherited the power. He strengthened his position by marriage, and espoused several princesses of the reigning families in the vicinity of his

kingdom. From one of these was born Mandara, or as he appears first to have been called, Makindara. The explanation of his name, like that of his state, is not so clear in meaning as are most specimens of African nomenclature. His own subjects pronounce it "Mandara" (Mangdara), and the other inhabitants of the mountain "Makindara." I have sometimes fancied it might be a contraction and corruption of Mange-ndara = Mandara, viz. the Chief Ndara.

Mandara's mother seems to have been a very shrewd and clever woman, and under her long regency the state of Moši flourished. Apparently in those happy days peace prevailed among all the sections of the Čaga people inhabiting Kilima-njaro. Or at least there were no internecine wars, and the only conflicts were occasional skirmishes with the Masai, whenever those rovers tried to extend their cattle-raids to the mountain pastures. But then came the cursed slavetraders the Swahili Arabs, or Arabized Mohammedan half-breeds-from the Zanzibar coast. Finding the united inhabitants of Čaga1 too strong to submit to forcible slave-raiding or kidnapping, they tried to effect their purpose by introducing discord into the local politics. Selecting some particular chief-especially a young, ambitious man like Mandara, when he commenced to reign-they gave him rich presents, and filled him with flattering speeches, and persuaded him that if he took advantage of the unprepared state of some of his neighbours, and suddenly marched an army into their territory, he might not only reign as paramount chief over Čaga, but would also make a nice

1 At the risk of reiteration I might remind my readers that Čaga is the native name of the entire inhabited districts on the slopes of Kilima-njaro.