118 TRADE AND COMMERCE.

trast to the elegantly draped Waganda. Unyoro, on the other hand, draws a large part of its ivory from the western Lango districts, where Kabréga’s uncle, Naika, rules, and also from the southern frontier lands, and from Lair, which still acknowledges Kabréga’s supremacy. Owing to imprudent measures on the part of the Egyptian Government, all this ivory, instead of following its natural outlet to the north, is still sent to the south. The value of the ivory imported annually into Unyoro and Uganda can only be approximately estimated; at all events, the complete extinction of this trade in Uganda from want of ivory is not very far distant, and this holds true to a less extent in regard to the Unyoro trade.

Among the now neglected products which are likely in the future to have a great commercial value, coffee stands first. The coffee-tree, which apparently only differs from that in Yemen by its somewhat larger leaves and more diminutive growth, thrives almost everywhere in Southern Uganda and Unyoro, and seems to be indigenous. Its name, mwdni, which is the same in Kiganda and Kinyoro, differs very little from the names used for coffee in other parts of Africa—mbuini (KKisuaheli), mbuna (Abyssinian), bwnn (Arabic). ‘Till now coffee can hardly be said to have been cultivated, for all that the natives do is to keep the ground around the invariably small trees free from weeds, otherwise leaving the plant to develop naturally. The fruit, too, receives no particular attention ; the pods are gathered when still green, are usually dipped in hot water, and then laid out on mats to dry in the sun. Of course the two berries contained in the pod remain green and undeveloped, but that does not signify, as a decoction is never made from the berries. The dry pods are stored, and generally consumed without further preparation, but sometimes they are very slightly roasted with a small piece of butter. Just as coffee is offered to guests throughout the Hast, so in Uganda and Unyoro politeness requires that strangers should be offered — a few of these pods to chew, and they are handed round in elegant baskets of open wickerwork. The berries are rather hard for the teeth of a European, and the shell has a strong aromatic taste—in Yemen a very delicious drink is made from it. ‘The natives maintain that chewing coffee-berries