Ugo

“ He, however, thought it better to yield, since, as Ugo and Bernardo attended him in the short walks he was able to take, an escape was impossible, and its attempt would but make his situation more unpleasant. ”

“ She seized the hearts of those hard and serious men as a wind takes the strong oak-trees, and rocks them on their knotted roots, and leaves them with the song of soaring among their branches. Italy shone about her; the lake, the plains, the peaks, and the shouldering flushed snowridges. Carlo Ammiani breathed as one who draws in fire. Grizzled Agostino glittered with suppressed emotion, like a frosted thorn-bush in the sunlight. Ugo Corte had his thick brows down, as a man who is reading iron matter. ”

“ In six months I felt sure Ugogo could be made lovely and orderly, a blessing to the inhabitants and to strangers, without any very great expense or trouble; it would become a pleasant highway of human intercourse with far-away peoples, productive of wealth to the natives, and comfort to caravans. I learned on arrival in Ugogo that I was for ever debarred from the hope. ”

“ Happy end of an Expedition! And the Doctor's Journal lost for ever—the fruits of six years' labor!
But in this land it will not do to fight unless driven to the very last extremity. No belligerent Mungo Park can be successful in Ugogo unless he has a sufficient force of men with him. With five hundred Europeans one could traverse Africa from north to south, by tact, and the moral effect that such a force would inspire. Very little fighting would be required. ”

“ SCENE III.—The Rialto. Ugolino discovered leaning against the ballustrudes watching the moon, which is just setting in the distance.
Count. Down, thou bright lamp of heaven, get thee down,
And hide thy brilliancy beneath the wave,
Which leaps to thee, ere thou sink'st to rest,
Down to thy ocean bed, and leave the earth,
To darkness suited to the direful act,
Which here must be committed—Down, fair queen,
From thy star-spangled throne ”

“ Should there be such a one, Uhha, fortune would smile upon him always, his every wish would be granted and he would live to a great age, for he would have nothing to fear from the river devil, who would help him in all his undertakings. But listen, Uhha, tell no one what I have told you! I shall wait a little longer, and then if there be no such friend in the village of Obebe I shall return to my father and mother, the Ugogo, and destroy the people of Obebe. Not one shall remain alive. ”

“ Large prairies of grass also are exposed in many places, and the villagers have laid much ground bare for agricultural purposes.
Altogether, Ugogo has a very wild aspect, well in keeping with the natives who occupy it, who, more like the Wazaramo than the Wasagara, carry arms, intended for use rather than show. The men, indeed, are never seen without their usual arms—the spear, the shield, and the assage. ”

“ Count. Yes!
'Tis Ugolino! like an adder's fang,
Let the name strike into your sinking heart,
And make an easier passage for my sword.
Ser. What mockery is this? put up thy weapon,
If I have wrong'd thee, speak it like a man,
And I will answer thee as may become one.
Count. If thou hast wrong'd me, "if," but words are idle
And fall like snow-flakes on the beacon fire.
Thou can'st not make me reparation—Life itself
Was not so dear to me as was Olympia,
And she has scorn'd me—and for thee—thee, villain! ”

“ Extensive fields of grain had heralded the neighbourhood of the villages, at the sight of which we were conscious that the caravan was quickening its pace, as approaching its halting-place. As the Wasungu drew within the populated area, crowds of Wagogo used their utmost haste to see them before they passed by. Young and old of both genders pressed about us in a multitude—a very howling mob. This excessive demonstrativeness elicited from my sailor overseer the characteristic remark, "Well, I declare, these must be the genuine Ugogians, for they stare! stare—there is no end to their staring. ”

“ The heart of the region is Ugogo, the most populous and the best cultivated country, divided into a number of small and carefully cultivated clearings by tracts of dense bush and timberless woods, a wall of verdure during the rains, and in the hot season a system of thorns and broomwork which [297] serves merely to impede a free circulation of the air. These seams of waste land appear strange in a country populated of old; the Arabs, however, declare that the land is more thinly inhabited than it used to be. Mgunda Mk’hali, the western division, is a thin forest and a heap of brakey jungle. ”

“ The Wahehe may be styled the Romans of Africa. Resuming our march, after a halt of an hour, in foul hours more we arrived at Mukondoku Proper. This extremity of Ugogo is most populous, The villages which surround the central tembe, where the Sultan Swaruru lives, amount to thirty-six. The people who flocked from these to see the wonderful men whose faces were white, who wore the most wonderful things on their persons, and possessed the most wonderful weapons ”

“ Kibuya of Mdaburu. On the 1st October, 1857, we left the Ziwa late in the morning, and after passing through the savannahs and the brown jungles of the lower levels, where giraffe again appeared, the path crested a wave of ground and debouched upon the table-land of Ugogo. The aspect was peculiar and unprepossessing. Behind still towered in sight the Delectable Mountains of Usagara, mist-crowned and robed in the lightest azure, with streaks of a deep plum-colour, fronting the hot low land of Marenga Mk’hali, whose tawny face was wrinkled with lines of dark jungle. ”

“ The ministers, who are generally brothers or blood-relations, are known as Wázágíra (in the singular Mzágírá) , and the councillors, who are the elders and the honourables of the tribe, take the Kinyamwezi title “Wányápárá.”
The necessaries of life are dear in Ugogo. The people will rarely barter their sheep, goats, and cows for plain [311] white or blue cottons, and even in exchange for milk they demand coral, pink, or blue glass beads. A moderate sized caravan will expend from six to ten shukkah per diem. ”

“ Ugogo supplies western Usagara and the eastern regions of Unyamwezi with this article. It is, however, far inferior to the produce of the Rusugi pits, in Uvinza, which, on account of its “sweetness,” finds its way throughout the centre of Africa. Elephants are numerous in the country: every forest is filled with deep traps, and during droughthy seasons many are found dead in the jungle. The country is divided into districts; the tusks become the property of the Sultan within whose boundaries the animal falls, and the meat is divided amongst his subjects. ”

“ During a fierce downpour of rain, the porters all quivering and quaking with cold, we at length emerged from the jungle, and entered the prettiest spot in Ugogo—the populous district of Usekhe—where little hills and huge columns of granite crop out. Here we halted.
Next day came the hongo business, which was settled by paying one dubani, one kitambi, one msutu, four yards merikani, and two yards kiniki; but whilst we were doing it eight porters ran away, and four fresh ones were engaged (Wanyamuezi) who had run away from Kanyenye. ”

“ Both men and women are usually very ugly, but tall and vigorous, and, in spite of their frank and open countenances, they are nothing better than a set of freebooters, ever ready to spoil the smaller and weaker caravans.
The third zone extends as far as Kazé, and comprises the vast territory, a hundred miles square, known under the name of Ugogo. Its general aspect is arid and monotonous in the extreme. In several parts the soil is condemned to everlasting drought, water being found only in the large pits dug by the natives. ”

“ The Wahehe frequently make a foray upon the fat cattle of Ugogo. They travel from their own country in the south-east, and advance through the jungle, and when about to approach the herds, stoop down, covering their bodies with their shields of bull-hide. ”

“ SCENE IV.—Apartment at Ugolino's. Storm heard without.
Enter Ugolino, hastily with a letter, followed by Angelica, d. f. l.
Count. Stand off! art mad?
Ang. I shall be shortly!
Count. Cross not the famish'd tiger in his path,
Away, I say! ”

“ In the Ugogo district, on the opposite side of the mountains, wforest growths are rare, large animals still abound, especially in the districts remote from the trade routes. ”

“ VIVALDO, UGOLINO and SORLEONE DE (fl. 1291–1315) , Genoese explorers, connected with the first known expedition in search of an ocean way from Europe to India. Ugolino, with his brother Guido or Vadino Vivaldo, was in command of this expedition of two galleys, which he had organized in conjunction with Tedisio Doria, and which left Genoa in May 1291 with the purpose of going to India “by the Ocean Sea” and bringing back useful things for trade. Planned primarily for commerce, the enterprise also aimed at proselytism. ”

“ Clouds on hills and occasional showers. Very hot sun. Breeze at 9 or 10. Gusts at night. Furious E. wind. Sometimes no dew; sometimes dew like rain. Draft in descent to heated plains.
Ugogi, a new climate. Somaliland near Harar, or Upper Sind. Hot and dry, dewless: wind and dust. Sky intensely blue; stars like young moons. Very healthy. Ugogo similar. Great heat and cold. Dew somewhat copious. No clouds. Furious E. wind from the hills.
440OBSERVATIONS MADE AT UGOGO, ETC., DURING THE MONTH OF OCTOBER, 1857.
Therm. tied to hind pole of tent, opposite entrance, 2 feet from ground. ”

“ It was before a creature of this sort, gigantic, grotesque, decadent and foreign, that Ogga stared with all his eyes, thinking to please Lhatto by bringing back to her some trophy from its body. The strange beast continued its prolonged feeding and Ogga watched. The night, darkening the valley with blue shadows, that sensibly thickened, overtaking each other and pressing like a repulsing force the fleeing lights, rising upward on the mountain, soon hid the animal, and with the night came rain and a low wind raising innumerable voices in the great woods. ”

“ Of all the young bachelors in his tribe not one was more highly esteemed than Ug, the son of Zug. He was one of the nicest young prehistoric men that ever sprang seven feet into the air to avoid the impulsive bite of a sabre-tooth tiger, or cheered the hearts of grave elders searching for inter-tribal talent by his lightning sprints in front of excitable mammoths. Everybody liked Ug, and it was a matter of surprise to his friends that he had never married. ”

“ Where the opening valleys of the Fair Land turned northward into the Dismal Country of heaped ridges, interminable peat hogs, low woods, and scanty or puissant streams, upon an upland sparingly covered with trees, and almost on its incline to the lowland beyond it, dwelt Ogga—the mastodon hunter. ”

“ Yes! in the prehistoric, in Ogga, the gaunt horror of the desire to kill had arisen. The pallid beast of hatred, ridden by the clutching hags of envy and jealousy and spite and terror, ran before Ogga in his path. He—Ogga—stared wildly at the image of a man, stifled and gasping, held at the throat by Ogga’s hand—his own—until the eyes started from their sockets, turning their lifeless whitenesses downward and upward in the wanton agony of death. ”

“ He was a handsome young fellow, and stated that he was called Odo, and was the son of a neighbouring king, and that, having gone forth in search of treasure and adventures, he had succeeded in amassing a large quantity of gold and precious stones, and was on his way home, when he heard of the wonderful bird, who could foretell the future. He had gained the valley and was almost close to the bird, when he incautiously looked back, hearing wild cries for help, and in that moment he had been turned to stone, and his were the quaintly shaped chests Olga had noticed. ”

“ At last, with a broken bough, he brushed the fire aside and thrust the bear strips upon the stones, almost covered with fervent cinders. Thus was it cooked, and Ogga and Lhatto, prototypes of the long retinue of woodmen who have found life and wonders and new gastronomic pleasures in the primeval forests, were again made strong and buoyant and resolute. Through the favoring fortune of birth, these two aboriginal lovers carried within their untutored natures, some of the quintessence of noble instincts, and there was between them neither violence nor shame. ”

“ In the chapter on The Place the marvellous variety of natural conditions under which both Ogga and Lhatto lived—for we have seen in their various and errant life, however specialized, they were meeting all of them—were those which appealed to their wonder, their fear, their admiration, awoke in them joy and amazement and desire, fed the springs of poetic impulse, stirred the sense of worship and dependence, and propagated the thrilling currents of question and imagination. ”

“ And then by the dear subtlety of all things great and good, with passion came also, with unhesitating foot, reverence and happiness and aspiration, and Love thus born made of Ogga a divine thing, and of Lhatto, yet unwaking, yet unknown, a woman drifting ashore in a little awkward boat from the irresolute sea, it made of her a wonder of life, full of affluent loveliness, full of assured excellence, full of peace, and Ogga, feeling all these things, knelt and touched the hand of the sleeping girl. ”