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THE DRESS OF THE WAGANDA.

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his language was uniformly correct. On his complaining of sickness, medicine was brought him by page, one of our men having first to taste it. In all probability the page was made to swallow the pill instead of the king! He and all his people were less suspicious of us than of any traders; our presents were received without the usual form of preparation; whereas, when Dr Kiengo, the native of Unyamuezi, gave his offering of five giraffe tails, a mould of Kittara copper, &c., all were dipped into plantain wine or m'wengé," which had to be drunk by the Doctor to show there was no impurity connected with the presents. A pill, having great virtues, was licked all over for the same reason by Kiengo.

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The ingenuity of the Waganda in imitating our chairs, mode of walking, dress, gun-covers, &c., was very striking. Having seen so many of our pictures, they at last took to drawing figures of men in black upon their bark-cloths.

At light work they are highly ingenious. Their spears, knives, drums, shields, ornaments, houses, &c., are made with great taste and exactness. Their barkcloths are cut from several varieties of ficus, beaten upon a log with a mill-headed wooden hammer, and sewn beautifully together into large shawls, ranging in uniform tint from salmon-colour or maize to a brick red. These are very becoming on an African skin, and when worn by our Seedees as a turban, the harmony of colour was pleasing. Our men in Uganda could not be distinguished at a distance from the natives; for their Zanzibar clothes being worn out, they dressed like them in bark-cloths, or the skins of cattle and antelope prepared by leaving on the hair.

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THE FOOD AND CLIMATE OF UGANDA.

The skins of small antelope, made white and soft as kid, are put together so well that the sewing with banana or aloe fibre is scarcely observed. They have not attained the art of the brazier. The habits of the people are so simple, that the fresh green leaf of the banana serves them as a plate. Wine they drink out of a corner of their cow-skin coverings; shoes, hats, and gloves they have not yet obtained; and a strip from a reed is their knife, as we have often seen when the palace guards were at their excellent meal of good boiled beef, mashed plantain, and wine. Their dinner was a strange good-humoured scramble, the strongest keeping meat from the weakest by snatching it away or tossing it about. They are excellent cooks, cutting butcher-meat up into very neat joints, wrapping them with fresh plantain leaves, and boiling all in a large earthen pot full of plantain, to which, by this process, a rich flavour is added. Our Seedees missed many a good dinner by not partaking of this fare, on account of their profession as Mussulmans. They could not eat plantain that had been boiled with unlawful meat.

Lightning was said to be very much dreaded at Uganda, but no cases of death occurred from it during our stay. One of the king's houses was burnt down, the accident causing a great commotion, because on the occurrence of such a calamity it is every one's duty to render aid. We did not call that day (the 30th June), because an interview would have been impossible. The storm had commenced by rain at 1 P.M.; during a lull we had thunder, lightning, and hail; by 5 P.M. all had cleared away, and .82 inch of rain had fallen. During June, misty showers fell

THE CLIMATE OF UGANDA.

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almost every day, but not enough to measure in a rain-gauge. The valleys were veiled every morning by a dense fog, and very often we had no sun the whole day. The heaviest shower noted was in the following month of July (4th), when 1.04 inches were measured.

CHAPTER XI.

UGANDA TO UNYORO CAPITAL, 7TH JULY TILL 9TH SEPTEMBER 1862-FIRST STAGE, CAMPS UNITED, UGANDA TO KAREE—THE CATTLE AND SPORT OF THE COUNTRY-ONE OF THE SEEDEES KILLED BY THE NATIVES—BUDJA, THE CHIEF NATIVE OFFICER MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS-CAPTAIN SPEKE PROCEEDS TO THE LAKE NYANZA-ANTELOPE-SHOOTING-DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF THE AUTHOR'S ADVANCE-SPEKE RETURNS, AND THE CAMPS ARE UNITED · ELEPHANT-HUNT IN UNYORO.

ALTHOUGH the distance from Uganda to Unyoro by a direct route was reported not much above eighty miles, we were not confident of the fact. The marches given by the natives can seldom be depended upon. A M'ganda without a load will march the whole day, stopping at every hut where he can get anything to eat or drink. A laden Seedee thinks six miles, or even less, a day's work. How, therefore, could we anticipate that Unyoro was so near to us as eighty miles? The journey may be divided into three sections the first, from Uganda to Karee, when Speke and I travelled together; the second, when Speke tried the water route and I the land; the third,

WE MARCH TOWARDS UNYORO.

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when we joined our forces and marched into Unyoro headquarters.

I. UGANDA TO KAREE, FOUR MARCHES; CAMPS

UNITED.

The country at first was hilly. As we proceeded north, it gradually assumed the appearance of parks and grazing grounds, dotted with trees and clumps of bushes, favourable for stalking. Water was abundant in the sandy-bottomed streams and miry swamps. With this change of outline, we had no longer the gigantic reed of Uganda; it was replaced by a waving grass three feet high. The trees were small, the same as those species met with 5° south of the equator. Scarcely one-tenth part of the route was under cultivation. Plantain groves were more abundant than fields of sessamum and Indian corn; and in the houses we occupied, bundles of seeroko and jooggo (a pulse and bean) were found. It was a disagreeable march in one respect; for as soon as our caravan halted at a grove, the cultivators fled, and when we entered their houses we found the fire burning, with earthen pots, grain, and vegetables, and their beds and bark-cloth bedding undisturbed. All the etceteras about their snug little domiciles lay at the mercy of our men. Knives, shields, shells, beads, skins, pipes, tobacco, &c., hung from the roof, or were stuck into the rafters; and, on our leaving, it was not a rare occurrence to find that our men had ruthlessly burnt some of the supports of the hut to make themselves a fire to cook their food. This they would do most wantonly, although they had the best of the country, paying nothing for the plundered goats and other property per

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