120 TRADE AND COMMERCE.

be applied to, who are quite willing to supply them in return for adequate presents. The red cloths, for the most part very fine and of a pleasing dark shade, are called sdngo, and are exchanged for two or three cows a-piece, or their equivalent in cloths. Lastly, the common undyed cloths, called mbugu, are considerably cheaper, and can be purchased in the markets for 300 to 400 cowries. As already mentioned, the preparation of this material is best understood in Uganda, and the finer kinds are exported from that country to Karagwa, Ruhanda, Unyoéro, and the southern highlands, as well as to Uséga and Uamara. The Liri chiefs also, dwelling on the western shore of the Albert Lake, like to wrap themselves in the flexible cloths of Uganda and Unyoro, so as to contrast with their subjects, who are either nude or clothed only in skins. They are undoubtedly superior to rokko, the cloth prepared in the Nyam-Nyam countries and in Monbuttu from the bark of the Hurostigma; all pieces of rokko are coarse and ragged compared with the pliant mbugu, a great deal probably depending on the preparation.

The Wanyoro share with the people of Karagwa their fondness for dressed skins and hides. I do not include among these leopard skins, which are only worn by members of royal families, and a few privileged individuals as a mark of royal favour; nor do I mean the various monkey and cat skins, all of which are employed only as ornaments. Only cow-hides, goat and more rarely sheep skins, and the skins of large antelopes come under the head of clothing properly so called. All these are prepared for use by being stretched out and scraped. If the cow-hides are intended for men’s clothes, the hair is left on, the skin being softened, and, as far as possible, the most handsomely marked specimens being selected. Those for women, on the other hand, have the hair taken off the entire surface except round the edge, where a border of two fingers’ breadth is left. As long as these hides are new and clean, they look very nice, though not nearly so becoming as the more flexible bark cloths, which drape gracefully. The Waganda seem to have noticed this, for they are in the habit of elegantly sewing together several goat-skins previously scraped almost as thin as paper, thus forming large pieces,