82 A DESCRIPTION OF THE WANYORO.

The hide is tightly stretched on level ground by a large number of small pegs, and then scraped with knives until all bits of flesh are removed; then it is dried, and rendered pliant by rubbing in butter. very fall of rain makes the hide stiff again, and then fresh rubbings are necessary ; that this process is not exactly agreeable to the olfactory organs of the bystanders is evident. Every one wears hides and bark cloths; men prefer cow-hides, women goats’-hides, four of which sewn together make a dress. The manufacture of cloth from the bark of various kinds of fig-trees, which are planted in the banana groves, has been fully described by Baker, and likewise the mallet (nsdédmu), made most commonly from the wood of Dahibergia melanoxylon, which is used for beating it. This cloth is also made here; but the finer, handsomer pieces, those in particular with black patterns, which only Kabréga wears, come from Uganda, where the people excel in the manufacture of these goods. I saw an elderly woman, wearing a fantastic | head-dress of feathers and skins, sitting in an isolated hut; I was told that she was a very famous witch; she would not, however, enter into conversation, but went on patching up her torn dress perfectly unconcerned.

About midnight I was awakened by a great commotion, and saw two houses in the village in flames. Fortunately there was no wind blowing. Everything was damp from the daily rains, and therefore the men soon succeeded in subduing the fire. No excitement of any kind was perceptible, fires being of too frequent occurrence. As before stated, the floors of the houses are padded with a thick layer of hay, and the fireplace stands in the middle of the house. Very often, too, the master . of the house les down to sleep intoxicated, with his pipe alight, and so the mischief is done.

Until their marriage, the girls in the Unydro villages go about perfectly nude, even when they go out of the house. The married women are also naked in the house, but never in the presence of servants or of strangers. It constantly happens that young girls spend the night with their lovers, only returning to their father’s house in the morning, and this is not considered scandalous. If a man, however, is caught in ~ a girl’s hut, he is beaten until he pays a cow as ransom. If