UGANDA AND THE WAGANDA. 157 the necks being then stopped up. They are used for the same purpose as the bells, and generally form part of the stock-in-trade of the medicine-men, who employ them in their incantations. The "Waganda have a considerable variety of tunes, and those to which they dance are quite distinct in style from the songs. It need hardly be said that they have no written music, all tunes being played by ear.

The tools- used by the natives of Uganda are comparatively few and simple. The hoe, nkurabe, which is the universal implement for tilling the ground, is heart-shaped, with a long tang or projection, from the broad end, which is firmly tied to a hook-shaped wooden handle about three feet long. They have two forms of axe, the one a rude wedge-shaped piece of iron, which is inserted in a heavy wooden handle, and is used for felling trees and splitting up firewood ; the other is a much more elegant instrument, with a broad thin blade almost crescent-shaped, and is fastened like a knife in the end of a long well-balanced handle of wood.

The knives are always curved, the blade being about nine inches long, and very thin. The iron, which is all obtained from native ore, is hard, of fairly good quality, and takes a tolerably keen edge. The flat part of the blades, both of the knives and axes, is covered with a thin film of black oxide of iron (except just along the cutting edge), which prevents them from rusting. They are also sometimes painted with