river, is always on the look-out for Kamrasi’s allies, with
a view to kill them. Magamba also, on being questioned,
told us about Ururi, a province of Unyoro, under the
jurisdiction of Kimbziri, a noted governor, who covers his
children with bead ornaments, and throws them into the
N yanza, to prove their identity as his own true offspring;
for should they sink, it stands to reason some other person
must be their father; but should they float, then he
recovers them. One of Kamrasi’s cousins, Kaoroti, with
his chief officer, called on us, presenting five fowls as an
honoranum. He had little to say, but begged for medicine,
and when given some in a liquid state, said his sub would
like some also; then Kidgwiga’s wife, who was left behind,
must have some; and as pills were given for her, the two
men must have dry medicine too, to take home with them.
Group o f Elidi Men on a V is it to Kin g te am ra si.
Severe drain as this was on the medicine-chest, Magamba
and his wife must have both wet and dry ; and even others
put in a claim, but were told they were too healthy to
require physicking. Many Kidi men, dressed as in the
woodcut, crossed the river to visit Kamrasi ; they could
not, however, pass us without satisfying their curiosity
with a look. Usually these men despise clothes, and
never deign to put any covering on except out of respect,
when visiting Kamrasi. Their “ sou’-wester ’’-shaped wigs
are made of other men’s hair, as the negro hair will not
grow long enough. A message came from Ukéro, the
governor-general of Chopi, to request we would not go
down the river in boats to-morrow, lest the Chopi ferrymen
at the falls should take fright at our strange appearance,
paddle precipitately across the river, hide their
boats, and be seen no more.
We started, leaving all the traps and men to follow,
ToWirg over the an(^ ma<^e this place in a stride, as a whisper
Kartima Fails, warned me that Kamrasi’s officers, who are
’ T_ * * l as thick as thieves about here, had made up
their minds to keep us each one day at his abode, and
show us “ hospitality.” Such was the case, for they all
tried their powers of persuasion, which failing, they took
the alternative of making my men all drunk, and sending
to camp sundry pots of pombé. The ground On the line
of march was highly cultivated, and intersected by a deep
ravine of running water, whose sundry branches made the
surface very irregular. The sand-paper tree, whose leaves
resemble a cat’s tongue in roughness, and which is used in
Uganda for polishing their clubs and Spear-handleS, was
conspicuous ; but at thé end of the journey only was
there anything of much interest to be seen. There sud-
denly, in a deep ravine one hundred yards below us, the
formerly placid river, up which vessels of moderate size
might steam two or three abreast, was now changed into
a turbulent torrent. Beyond lay the land of Kidi, a
forest of mimosa trees, rising gently away from the Water
•in soft clouds of green. This, the governor of the place,