made of iron inlaid with brass and copper; the furriers, most beautifully-sewn patchwork of antelopes' skins; the habit-maker, sheets of mbugŭ bark-cloth; the blacksmith, spears; the maker of shields, his productions, and so forth; but nothing is ever giv en without rubbing it down, then rubbing the face, and going through a long form of salutation for the gracious favor the king has shown in accepting it.

When tired of business, the king rises, spear in hand, and, leading his dog, walks off without word or comment, leaving his company, like dogs, to take care of themselves.

Strict as the discipline of the exterior court is, that of the interior is not less severe. The pages all wear turbans of cord made, from aloe fibres. Should a wife commit any trifling indiscretion, either by word or deed, she is condemned to execution on the spot, bound by the pages and dragged out. Notwithstanding the stringent laws for the preservation of decorum by all male attendants, stark-naked full-grown women are the valets.

On the first appearance of the new moon every month, the king shuts himself up, contemplating and arranging his magic hornsthe horns of wild animals stuffed with charm-powder-for two or three days. These may be counted his Sundays or church festivals, which he dedicates to devotion. On other days he takes his women, some hundreds, to bathe or sport in ponds; or, when tired of that, takes long walks, his women running after him, when all the musicians fall in, take precedence of the party, followed by the wakungŭ and pages, with the king in the centre of the procession, separating the male company from the fair sex. On these excursions no common man dare look upon the royal procession. Should any body by chance happen to be seen, he is at once hunted down by the pages, robbed of every thing he possesses, and may count himself very lucky if nothing worse happens. Pilgrimages are not uncommon, and sometimes the king spends a fortnight yachting; but whatever he does, or wherever he goes, the same ceremonies prevail-his musicians, wakungă, pages, and the wives take part in all.

But the greatest of all ceremonies takes place at the time of the coronation. The prince-elect then first seeks favor from the kings of all the surrounding countries, demanding in his might and power one of each of their daughters in marriage, or else recognition in some other way, when the ilmas makes a pilgrimage to the deceased king's tomb, to observe, by the growth and other

signs of certain trees and plants, what destiny awaits the king According to the prognostics, they report that he will either have to live a life of peace, or, after coronation, take the field at the head of an army to fight either east, west, or both ways, when usually the first march is on Kittara, and the second on Usoga. The mgussa's voice is also heard, but in what manner I do not know, as all communication on state matters is forbidden in Uganda. These preliminaries being arranged, the actual coronation takes place, when the king ceases to hold any farther communion with his mother. The brothers are burnt to death, and the king, we shall suppose, takes the field at the head of his army.

It is as the result of these expeditions that one half Usoga and the remaining half of Uddŭ have been annexed to Uganda.

CHAPTER X.

KARAGUÉ AND UGANDA.

Escape from Protectors.-Cross the Kitangulé, the first Affluent of the Nile.-Enter Uddă.-Uganda.-A rich Country.-Driving away the Devil.-A Conflict in the Camp.-A pretending Prince.-Three Pages with a diplomatic Message from the King of Uganda.-Crime in Uganda.

To Kufro, 10th.

CROSSING back over the Weranhanjé spur, I put up with the Arabs at Kufro. Here, for the first time in this part of the world, I found good English peas growing. Next day (11th), crossing over a succession of forks, supporters to the main spur, we encamped at Luandalo. Here we were overtaken by Rozaro, who had remained behind, as I now found, to collect a large number of Wanyambo, whom he called his children, to share with him the gratuitous living these creatures always look out for on a march of this nature.

To Kisaho, 12th.

After working round the end of the great spur, while following down the crest of a fork, we found Karagué separated by a deep valley from the hilly country of Uhaiya, famous for its ivory and coffee productions. On entering the rich plantain gardens of Kisaho, I was informed we must halt there a day for Maula to join us, as he had been detained by Rumanika, who, wishing to give him a present, had summoned Rozaro's sister to his palace for that purpose. She was married to another, and had two children by him, but that did not signify, as it was found in time her husband had committed a fault, on account of which it was thought necessary to confiscate all his property. At this place all the people were in a constant state of inebriety, drinking pombé all day and all night. I shot a montana antelope, and sent its head and skin back to Grant, accompanied with my daily report to Rŭmanika. Maula having joined me, we marched down to near the end of the fork overlooking the plain of Kitangŭlé, the Waganda drums beating, and whistles playing all the way as we went along.

Halt, 13th.

To Narueri, 14th.

We next descended from the Mountains of the Moon, and span

To Kitangǎlé, 15th.

ned a long alluvial plain to the settlement of the solong-heard-of Kitangulé, where Rumanika keeps his thousands and thousands of cows. In former days the dense. green forests peculiar to the tropics, which grow in swampy places about this plain, were said to have been stocked by vast herds of elephants; but, since the ivory trade had increased, these animals had all been driven off to the hills of Kisiwa and Uhaiya, or into Uddŭ beyond the river, and all the way down to the N'yanza. To-day we reached the Kitangulé Kagéra, or river, which, as I ascertained in the year 1858, falls into the Victoria N'yanza on the west side. Most unfortunately, as we led off to cross it, rain began to pour, so that every body and every thing was thrown into confusion. I could not get a sketch of it, though Grant was more fortunate afterward, neither could I measure or fathom it; and it was only after a long contest with the superstitious boatmen that they allowed me to cross in their canoe with my shoes on, as they thought the vessel would either upset, or else the river would dry up, in consequence of their Nep

To Ndongo, 16th.

tune taking offense at me. Once over, I looked down on the noble stream with considerable pride. About eighty yards broad, it was sunk down a considerable depth below the surface of the

land, like a huge canal, and is so deep it could not be poled by the canoemen, while it runs at a velocity of from three to four knots an hour.

I say I viewed it with pride, because I had formed my judg ment of its being fed from high-seated springs in the Mountains of the Moon solely on scientific geographical reasonings; and, from the bulk of the stream, I also believed those mountains must attain an altitude of 8000 feet* or more, just as we find they do in Ruanda. I thought then to myself, as I did at Rŭmanika's, when I first viewed the Mfumbiro cones, and gathered all my distant geographical information there, that these highly saturated Mountains of the Moon gave birth to the Congo as well as to the Nile, and also to the Shiré branch of the Zambézé.

I came, at the same time, to the conclusion that all our previous information concerning the hydrography of these regions, as well as the Mountains of the Moon, originated with the ancient Hindus, who told it to the priests of the Nile; and that all those busy Egyptian geographers, who disseminated their knowledge with a view to be famous for their long-sightedness, in solving the deepseated mystery which enshrouded the source of their holy river, were so many hypothetical humbugs. Reasoning thus, the Hindu traders alone, in those days, I believed, had a firm basis to stand upon, from their intercourse with the Abyssinians-through whom they must have heard of the country of Amara, which they applied to the N'yanza-and with the Wanyamuézi or men of the Moon, from whom they heard of the Tanganyika and Karagué mountains. I was all the more impressed with this belief by knowing that the two Church missionaries, Rebmann and Erhardt, without the smallest knowledge of the Hindus' map, constructed a map of their own, deduced from the Zanzibar traders, something on the same scale, by blending the Victoria N'yanza, Tanganyika, and N'yassa into one; while to their triuned lake they gave the name Moon, because the men of the Moon happened to live in front of the central lake. And later still, Mr. Leon, another missionary, heard of the N'yanza and the country Amara, near which he heard the Nile made its escape.

Going on with the march we next came to Ndongo, a perfect garden of plantains. The whole country was rich-most surprisingly so. The same streaky argillaceous sandstones prevailed as in Karagué. There was nothing, in fact, that would not have In "Blackwood's Magazine" for August, 1859. R