108 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

cassava and sugarcane ; and later on, when the rains began, I cleared a piece of swamp at the bottom of my garden, and sowed it with rice, which throve astonishingly. Near the house I sowed a few flower seeds, and when the plants came into blossom, they made the place look quite bright. These flowers were a great puzzle to the natives ; when they began to blossom, they were much struck by them, and wanted to know what they were. "Were they food?" "No." "Were they medicine?" "No." "What were they, then?" " Oh, only to look at." But that they would not believe; that a man should be such a fool as to take the trouble of cultivating plants only to look at was more than they could credit, and so at last some one who had seen me out sketching with my colour-box came to the sagacious- conclusion that they must be " paint." Meantime I was busy working at Kiganda and forming a vocabulary by the help of Mufta (the young negro left here in 1875 by Stanley), and of Simbuzi, the chief already mentioned, and who used to come and see me nearly every day. I was constantly up at the palace, and had frequent interviews with Mtesa, generally at his luchiko, a council which was held almost daily, and which was attended by the principal chiefs of the country. Frequent opportunities presented themselves for religious / discussions, in which Mtesa showed an immense