112 TRADE AND COMMERCE.

has not rather given the first impetus is hard to decide. At any rate, we should not under-estimate the fact that the Bantu are distinguished for their active commercial spirit ; and whoever visits the markets of Werahanje in Karagwa, Rubaga in Uganda, and Mpara Nyamoéga in Unyoro will find convincing proofs of this fact. The collection at these centres of the most diverse products, and the concourse of types of nearly all the Eastern equatorial races, gives a vivid picture of the natural and industrial resources of these regions, and a clear insight into their commercial relations with one another. A few words on this subject may be of interest. An extensive square of irregular shape lies close behind Kabréga’s large zertba; it is surrounded by luxuriant green banana plantations and the high reed-fences of large groups of huts. Gigantic fig-trees, on the grey, curiously distorted boughs of which whole colonies of grotesque Platyceria have settled, afford shade and coolness when the midday sun is too scorching. Just now a lively, stirring scene is witnessed at this place. People stream thither from all directions ; some as sellers, laden with goods or driving before them cattle intended for sale; others as buyers, noisily bargaining with strings of cowries in their hands, or goods for purposes of exchange; the light-brown Wahuma herdsman, with his handsome clear-cut profile and his costume of skins, brings for sale fresh butter neatly wrapped in banana leaves; the deep-black Wichwézi pariah, decked in many-coloured tatters, hung all over with amulets and other curious ornaments, is begging, and extolling his art—he is the gipsy of the country; light-coloured Muscat Arabs, proudly conscious of their colour and superiority, with their hooked dagger, the shamba, stuck in the girdle, are not too proud to go marketing themselves, and are buying vegetables, fruits, and meat; their soft-soundine Kisuaheli differs so little from the Kinyoro that they soon make themselves understood ; restless, talkative Waganda, draped in neat tan-coloured bark cloth, have brought for barter the handsome soft mats of Uganda, together with bark cloths and thick copper wire; short sturdy men from Nkole are selling in bundles the excellent tobacco grown in their country ; the fair-skinned inhabitants of the hill-country