of Usui, which is on the road to Zanzibar. This metal
was more commonly worn than copper; being an importation,
it seemed to be in greater favour.
The dwellings were detached grass huts, generally
in the middle of plantain orchards, and forming three
sides of a hollow square, with some charmed poles
outside. A store-hut raised upon piles is built in the
centre space, to contain their grain, hoes, &c. The
bark-cloth tree, or ficus, which we had not seen for
several months, abounds in the district, but never
grows to any great size. The people collect the flat
linear leaves of a rush growing on the river-bank,
and extract salt from them. After being dried and
burnt the ashes are washed, and the water, which becomes
impregnated with salt, is used to boil potato or
plantain. Some leaves of this rush measure fourteen
feet. The papyrus is here converted into door-screens
(like a hurdle). Strips from its stem bleach white in
drying, and make beautiful fish-creels, while its pith
is converted into wrappers or coverings for jars of
wine. The pith-wood supplies floats, door-bolts, and
oval-shaped shields to the people. A tree with compound
leaves was an object of Phallic worship—the
only instance of the kind we knew of. These, with
the universal bottle - gourd, were amongst the most
useful plants we observed.
We found fresh eggs placed in the forks of trees
near houses, said to be put there as medicine or M’ganga.
None were rotten, though several placed similarly in
the ceilings of the huts were shaken, to try them, and
then replaced. The spoil of hippos, their skulls, tusks,
&c., lay in small heaps near the houses of those who
possessed tackle for killing them. It was not thought
lucky to throw these away, and a beautiful convolvulus
(Argyreia sp.) with immense mauve flowers, was
planted by their side. With a branch of this plant in
the hand of the hunter, it is believed that he is certain
of sport.
The millstone in use here is a slab from the brick-
red, rough-grained granite seen along the pathways,
and it is placed inside a hut, embedded in and edged
round with clay. Any round stone in the hands of a
woman, who kneels to her work, rubs down the grain.
These stones had not been seen in Uganda, as the people
there seldom grind corn. Another slab, with irregular
fracture, seemed of hornblende, as waving lines ran
through it.
In our short experience we did not observe much
disease amongst the people, and the country, where it
sloped down to the Nile with an eastern exposure,
appeared very healthy. Wens on the forehead and
behind the ear were noticed upon some men; and a
woman, whose hand had been cut off, probably for some
misdemeanour when in Uganda, was the only maimed
person we saw. She appeared to be an old vixen.
Exposure in an open canoe during the heat of the
day is very trying, and told on both of us, causing
sick headaches. There was nothing, when the river
was broad, to rest the eye upon but its glassy surface,
consequently we were glad to come upon cataracts and
proceed by land. On the eighth and ninth days from
the time we embarked, both of us had attacks of fever,
sickness, and dysentery.
After a severe day of illness during the march,
I arrived in camp exhausted, at dusk of the 19th
November, and found Speke also unwell, but with