210 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

expense. When a traveller reaches Uganda he must send word to the king of his arrival, and request permission to proceed to the capital; this is generally graciously accorded, and a chief, with a body of men to act as porters, is sent to escort the traveller and his goods. While on the journey this chief and his followers live on the people whose villages they pass through.

On arriving at the place where it is intended to spend the night, the party takes possession of the villagers' huts, eating their provisions and stealing their goats and fowls, and, as a rule, no resistance is offered to this abominable treatment. Occasionally, however, if the party is small and the village large, the people refuse the required accommodation, and a fight ensues.

On reaching the capital, the traveller will have a compound allotted to him, with huts for himself and servants, and there he is expected to live during his stay in the country ; and permission has never been accorded to any European to live in any other part of the country than the capital. At first, after the arrival of a traveller in Uganda, he will be liberally supplied with food, especially if Mtesa thinks he will get a good present ; but after a time it will rapidly diminish, and he will be obliged to purchase provisions.

The Arab and half-breed traders from Zanzibar live mostly in the villages near the town of Na-