138 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

was away, having gone to lodge a complaint against the agent before Gessi Pasha, Such abuses are frequent, and it is difficult, if not impossible, for the sufferers to obtain any redress. There are numbers of slaves at lyack, and one evening we heard the women who were grinding corn in the next house, singing a song, of which the following is a rough translation : Work hard, grind hard, for the Gallabah are strong ; And if we don't work, we shall be beaten with sticks, If they have no sticks, they will shoot us with a gun ; Work hard, grind hard.

The group of women which forms the picture opposite is of great interest, for M. Buchta has been able to show in one photograph all the different processes in the preparation of food. A woman in the centre of the picture can be seen plucking the ears from the dhurra stalks ; the one on the extreme left is bruising them in a wooden mortar, to separate the grain from the husks ; the second woman from the right is winnowing the chaff from the grain ; the one on the right is grinding it between two stones into meal ; and the other remaining figure is engaged in stirring the porridge in a pot, placed on three stones, which constitute the fireplace. It is a striking picture of the every-day life of the natives, and will enable my readers to realise in some degree the ordinary employments of the women, and the primitive