UGANDA AND THE WAGANDA. 181 turned and polished. The milk-bowls are made by the Wahuma out of a solid block of wood. They are pear-shaped, containing about a quart, and are very neatly formed and very true.

The work in which the Waganda most excel is the dressing of skins. The hides, after being dried in the sun, are stretched tightly in a frame, and the inner surface is carefully removed with a knife. Then they are rubbed over with a stone, which produces a fine grain, and butter or oil having been worked in, they are again exposed to the sun. This process makes the skins as soft and pliant as kid-leather, and preserves them perfectly. Sometimes the hair is also removed, but more commonly it is left on. Small skins of antelopes and other animals are often dressed in this way, and sewed together form robes which are highly prized by the Waganda.

Stout sandals, sometimes tastefully ornamented, are made of buffalo-hide. The Waganda also dye their mbugu in various patterns, the most common pattern being diamonds, which are printed or dyed in black. The black dye appears to be the soot of a sweet-scented wood. It is mixed with oil, and applied to the mbugu. They also obtain a yellowish orange dye from a tree called mulilila, resembling our lauristinus. It is a gum, and exudes from the bark in small drops or lumps.

A whole volume might be written on the customs of the Waganda, but the limits of this book will