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might hope to arrive on that same day. They were moving
at the rate of fourteen miles per hour, and the guidance
of the balloon was becoming difficult, as they dared
not rise very high without extreme dilation of the gas, the
country itself being at an average height of three thousand
feet. Hence, the doctor preferred not to force the
dilation, and so adroitly followed the sinuosities of a
pretty sharply-inclined plane, and swept very close to the
villages of Thembo and Tura-Wels. The latter forms
part of the Unyamwezy, a magnificent country, where the
trees attain enormous dimensions; among them the cactus,
which grows to gigantic size.
About two o'clock, in magnificent weather, but under a
fiery sun that devoured the least breath of air, the balloon
was floating over the town of Kazeh, situated about three
hundred and fifty miles from the coast.
"We left Zanzibar at nine o'clock in the morning,"
said the doctor, consulting his notes, "and, after two
days' passage, we have, including our deviations, travelled
nearly five hundred geographical miles. Captains
Burton and Speke took four months and a half to make
the same distance!"
CHAPTER FIFTEENTH.
Kazeh.--The Noisy Market-place.--The Appearance of the Balloon.--The
Wangaga.--The Sons of the Moon.--The Doctor's Walk.--The Population of the
Place.--The Royal Tembe.--The Sultan's Wives.--A Royal Drunken-Bout.--
Joe an Object of Worship.--How they Dance in the Moon.--A Reaction.--
Two Moons in one Sky.--The Instability of Divine Honors.
Kazeh, an important point in Central Africa, is not a
city; in truth, there are no cities in the interior. Kazeh
is but a collection of six extensive excavations. There
are enclosed a few houses and slave-huts, with little courtyards
and small gardens, carefully cultivated with onions,
potatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, and mushrooms, of perfect
flavor, growing most luxuriantly.
The Unyamwezy is the country of the Moon--above
all the rest, the fertile and magnificent garden-spot of
Africa. In its centre is the district of Unyanembe--a
delicious region, where some families of Omani, who are
of very pure Arabic origin, live in luxurious idleness.
They have, for a long period, held the commerce between
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