196 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

bakiingu already mentioned ; and if they agree in requiring anything, no king would dare to oppose them, as they would undoubtedly depose him, and place another monarch on the throne. From this it will be seen that Mtesa is by no means the absolute monarch he has been represented by many travellers.

The katikiro, the three bakiingu, and one or two others, favourites of the king, form a sort of privy council, to which all matters of paramount importance are first referred. Sometimes during a general council these men are called aside by Mtesa to consult on important points ; they gather closely round the king, talking in whispers, while one of the harp-players, who are always in attendance at court, plays and sings to drown the sound of their conversation. All the chiefs are expected to be in attendance on the king for three months consecutively, and then are allowed to be nine months at their country establishments. However, most of the bakiingu, and some of the leading bantongoli live at the capital, unless absent at war.

The royal family of Uganda is of a different nationality to the Waganda, and belongs to the Wahuma tribe, to which reference has already been made. Mtesa, through the admixture of Negro blood, has lost the pure Mhuma features, but still retains enough of the peculiar characteristics of that tribe to stamp him as belonging to a distinct race from his subjects. He professes to trace back his descent,