518 APPENDIX.

heads, which give to the bark a ribbed appearance like corduroy, and under their blows it quickly thins out like gold under the gold-beater’s hammer. When the bark has been beaten out to the requisite thinness, it is hung up to dry, and afterwards any holes which may have been produced in the beating are neatly patched with the trimmings from the edges. The thread used for this purpose is made from the bark, or from the fibres of the plantain, and a long thorn is used for a needle; the sewing is remarkably neat. The mbugu, when new, is of a yellow-brown tint, resembling freshly tanned leather ; some of the finer sorts, however, are of a dull brick-red colour. They vary very much in quality, some of the better kinds being beautifully soft, and these are procured chiefly from the Sesse group of islands. The principal fault of this cloth is that it soon decays if it gets wet. Sometimes the mbugu is dyed, generally black, or various patterns in black, red, and blue are printed on it. The tree from which the bark is removed is not killed by the operation ; the wound is covered with banana leaves, which are bound closely round it, and in process of time new bark grows. A considerable number of people are employed in this manufacture ; the women strip the bark from the trees and do any repairing to the cloth that is necessary, but men beat out the bark and make the cloth.—R. W. F.

BEVERAGES.— Brewing is extensively carried on in Uganda, as the Waganda have an inveterate objection to drinking water, and many of them boast that from early childhood water has never passed their lips. Almost every one knows how to manufacture some kind of drink, and men and women, boys and girls, alike engage in this occupation. Two kinds of wine and two kinds of beer are manufactured :—Mubisi, called sandi in Unyéro, is fresh banana wine, which is a perfectly teetotal drink ; mwénge, an intoxicating banana wine ; mlamba, a non-intoxicating beer made of banana juice, with a small quantity of boiled millet seed ; and malwa, which has a greater quantity of millet seed added, and is very inebriating.

The Arabs have introduced the manufacture of spirits from mwenge, and distil a liquor from it which contains a very high percentage of alcohol.

The mubist is made as follows:—A large hole is dug in the ground ; it is lined with banana leaves, filled with green bananas, and covered over until the fruit is quite ripe. The bananas are then peeled, and mashed with fine dried grass in a large wooden boat-shaped trough, having a funnel end; a little water is added ; the whole is mixed up either by the hand or with short wooden