154 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

include almost every kind of fire-arm, from the primitive matchlock up to modern breach-loading and repeating rifles. The commonest kinds are flintlocks and smooth-bore percussion guns, which are mostly cheap and inferior weapons manufactured in Belgium, and their bursting causes numerous accidents. Owing, however, to the scarcity of ammunition, they are not much used in war, though some of the Waganda are excellent marksmen.

Mtesa has also four small cannon, such as are used on board ships for signalling ; of these he is very proud, and thinks they are capable of performing wonders if used in the field.

These weapons are all imported from Zanzibar, as the Egyptian government absolutely forbids trade in arms and ammunition with negro tribes.

The Waganda, in common with many negro tribes, are a decidedly musical race, and have a tolerable variety of musical instruments. The most important of these is the nanga or harp. It consists of a stout hemispherical framework of wood, over which the skin of some animal is tightly fastened to form a sounding-box, the skin of a large species of waterlizard ( Varanus niloticus ?) being the one usually employed. From six to eight strings, made of the twisted intestines of the goat or sheep, are secured to a rib which runs along the centre of this box, and are then stretched to pegs inserted in holes bored in a curved bow which rises from the box. By these