178 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

species of fig Ficus India which grows abundantly throughout Uganda. When at its full size, it is about sixty feet high, and four or five feet in girth, but it is from the younger trees that the bark is usually taken. Two incisions are made round the trunk, and a third vertically joining the other two. The cylinder of bark is then stripped off, the outer surface is carefully removed, and the bark is laid on a smooth square block of wood, and rapidly beaten with heavy wooden mallets. These mallets have circular grooved heads, which give to the bark a ribbed appearance like corduroy, and under their blows the bark quickly extends, like gold under the gold-beater's hammer, becoming, of course, at the same time thinner. When it has been beaten out to the requisite thinness, which is generally a day's work, the bark is hung up to dry, and afterwards any holes which may have been produced in the beating are neatly patched with the trimmings from the edges. These mbugu, when new, are of a yellowbrown tint, closely resembling freshly tanned leather ; some of the finer sorts, however, are of a dull brickred colour. They vary much in quality, some of the better kinds being beautifully soft, and these are procured chiefly from the Sesse group of islands. The principal fault of this cloth is that it soon decays if it gets wet, but owing to the extreme abundance of it in the country, this is of small consequence. When old and worn, it makes excellent