instance of such brutality Manila had ever witnessed in
any country.
In the province of Unyanyembd, if a twin or twins die,
they are thrown into water for the same reason as in
Ngurii• but as their numbers increase the size of the
family, their birth is hailed with delight. Still there is a
source of fear there in connection with twins, as I have
seen myself; for when one dies, the mother ties a little
gourd to her neck as a proxy, and puts into it a trifle
of everything which she gives the living child, lest the
jealousy of the dead spirit should torment her. Further,
on the death of the child, she smears herself with butter
and ashes, and runs frantically about, tearing her hair
and bewailing piteously; whilst the men of the place use
towards her the foulest language, apparently as if in
abuse of her person, but in reality to frighten away the
demons who have robbed her nest.
22c?.— sent Frij to Kamrasi to find out what he was
doing with the Waganda and my deserters, as I wished
to speak with their two head representatives. I also
wanted some men to seek for and fetch Bombay, as I
said I believed him to be tied by the leg behind one of
the visible hills in Kidi. The reply was, 102 Waganda,
with one of my men only, had been stationed at the
village my men deserted from since the date (13th) we
heard of them last. They had no cows for me, but each
of the Waganda bore a log of firewood, which Mtdsa had
ordered them to carry until they either returned with me
or brought back a box of gunpowder, in default of which
they were to be all burnt in a heap with the logs they
carried. Kamrasi, still acting on his passive policy, would
not admit them here, hut wished them to return with a
message, to the effect that Mtesa had no right to hold
me as his guest now I had once gone into another’s hands.
We were all three kings to do with our subjects as we
liked, and for this reason the deserters ought to be sent
on here • but if I wished to speak to the Waganda, he
would call their officer. There was no fear, he said, about
Bombay; he was on his way; but the men who were
escorting him were spinning out the time, stopping at
every place, and feasting every day. To-morrow, he added,
some more Gani people would arrive here, when we should
know more about it. I still advised Kamrasi to give the
road to Mtdsa, provided he gave up plundering the Wan-
yoro of women and cattle; but if my counsel was listened
to, I could get no acknowledgment that it was so.
23c? and 24th.—I sent to inquire what news there was
of Bombay’s coming, and what measures Kamrasi had
taken to call the Waganda’s chief officer and my deserters
here; as also to beg he would send us specimens of all
the various tribes that visit him,J in order that we miOght
draw them. He sent four loads of dried fish, with a
request for my book of birds again, as it contains a portrait
of king Mtdsa, and proposed seeing us at the newly-
constructed Kafii palace to-morrow, when all requests
would be attended to. In the meanwhile, we were told
that Bombay had been seen on his way returning from
Gani; and the Waganda had all run away frightened,
because they were told the Kidi and Chopi visitors, who
had been calling on Kamrasi lately, were merely the
nucleus of an army forming to drive them away, and to
subdue Uganda. Mtesa was undergoing the coronation
formalities, and for this reason had sent the deserters to
Kari’s hill, giving them cows and a garden to live on, as
no visitors can remain near the court whilst the solemnities
of the coronation were going on. The thirty-odd brothers
will be burnt to death, saving two or three, of which one
will be sent into this country—as was the case with one
of the late king Sunna’s brothers, who is still in Unyoro
—and the others will remain in the court with Mtesa as
playfellows until the king dies, when, like Sunna’s two
brothers still living in Uganda, one at N’yama Goma and