154 AN EXCURSION TO LUR.

character of the country. Where the rock has been long exposed to the sun and rain, it has assumed a colour varying between chocolate-brown and black. After a short rest we started on our way back, and reached the station towards noon (aneroid, 27.62 in., temp. 86.9° Fahr).

Meanwhile some of the neighbouring chiefs had arrived at the station to pay me a visit, all of them dressed, like Kabréga’s men, in soft cow-hides, but not carrying large sticks, as do the Wanyoro. ‘Their powerful figures were of medium height and very black, some of them with artistic coiffures, others shorn quite smooth; they were ornamented with brass and a few copper rings, and they made a good impression by their modest behaviour. They too call their whole country “ Luri.” The names Toru (south-east corner of the lake) and Usdngara are well known to them, and the names given above for the districts of the surrounding country were fully confirmed by their statements. Between this country and Unyoro there was formerly, it is said, constant communication, and a very active traffic was carried on; even now the chiefs here acknowledge the supremacy of Kabréga, the ruler of Unyéro. Communication is accomplished by means of boats, which coast along to the north, enter the river, and cross over it to get along the other coast to Magungo and Kibiro, where salt and iron are bartered for Colobus skins. The people who now inhabit Londu, in Unyéro, told me, when I visited them, that their fathers and forefathers came from the western side of the lake. They are said to have been carried off from a district, A-Londu, to the south and west, and to have been settled as slaves by Kamrasi, Kabréga’s father, in their present home, to which they afterwards gave the name of their own country. They practise circumcision, which is very unusual among our tribes.

It was scarcely possible to make thorough inquiries about the manners and customs of the Negroes here, owing to the short space of time at my command and my other numerous duties. Just as in Unyoéro and Shul, the four lower incisors are extracted, or rather pushed out, at the age of puberty. Tattooing with scars, which are produced by burning razorcuts or with acid, is common, especially on the temples— where, also, in Unyéro scars are made by cauterisation—and