BARK CLOTH. 119 appeases hunger; it might, therefore, perhaps be worth while to ascertain the proportion of cafeine in these unripe beans. The custom also prevails of perfuming the mouth with coffeepods after free indulgence in mwénge. Coffee is in great request as an article of barter between the Bantu tribes, other tribes not having yet used it for this purpose; the price has, nevertheless, remained fairly reasonable, and the exportation of coffee would certainly be profitable.

At the present time bark cloth is a still more important article of barter than coffee among the equatorial tribes. It is obtained from the bark stripped off several kinds of Eurostigma,* and constitutes the ordinary clothing in Uganda, and that of the better classes in Karagwa, Ruhanda, Unyoro, and.

Uséga. Hence it is that the production has its principal seat in Uganda. ‘The price varies considerably, according to the colour and quality of the pieces, and when the material has a pattern on it it is regarded as a fancy article without fixed price. The price of the cloth depends upon whether the tree from which the pieces were taken was stripped for the first time or had previously undergone the process (for strong trees may be peeled three times), whether the material is fine or coarse in texture, more or less durable, and soft or hard in consistency. ‘The cloth is of a light or dark leather-colour, according to the length of time employed in the maceration of the bark; the tint of a perfectly fresh piece is sometimes that of a wheaten roll. Besides this, all undyed bark cloths become darker in wear by a process of oxidation. Of coloured cloths, some are dark grey, and generally worn by Wichwézi sorceresses ; others dark red, and worn as a great luxury by wives of very well-to-do people; others again have very neat and regular stripes and spots of black on their leather-yellow eround, and resemble coarse printed calico in pattern and general appearance. This last kind was formerly worn only by royal personages, but in Uganda, where materials from Zanzibar have superseded bark cloths for royalty, this custom has been given up, though it is still observed in Unyéro and Ruhanda. As a rule, pieces of this kind (mténe) are not to be bought, and to obtain them the ruler or great chiefs must * Ficus glumosa, Del.; F. fessoglensis, Ky., &.—G. 8.