28 FROM MRULI TO RUBAGA.

3. From Mrv.i to RupAca IN UGANDA.

(Letter to Dr. A. Petermann, from Uganda, December 18, 1877.)

WAGANDA PORTERS—THROUGH SWAMP AND MUD—IN MREKO’S VILLAGE— UGANDA TOBACCO — DANCERS AND SINGERS — PATHOLOGICAL — THE BIRD WORLD—WAHUMA TYPES—COLOCASIA—BANANAS—AN UNEX-PECTED ATTACK—THE LEGEND OF MOUNT SEMPA—COUNTRY LAID WASTE—NUDITY OF YOUNG GIRLS—-LETTERS FROM MTESA—OUR LAST MARCH AND ARRIVAL.

I was compelled to wait in Mrili for a whole month, until the guides and porters who had been requested from the ruler of Uganda at last made their appearance. They informed me that the country lay under water far and near, and that all former roads were completely inundated and closed to us. We were therefore obliged to find a new road, an announcement which naturally highly gratified me. So the people, who had brought a large number of cows, tobacco, and coffee-berries to barter, were granted a day’s rest; and not till the 20th of November did we begin our march through level alluvial land covered with grass of medium height, in the midst of which a tall Doleb palm, visible from a long distance, stands out as a landmark. Khor Kafu, which runs to the right in numerous windings, approaches the road above this palm-tree. The road skirts it for a short distance, and then turns away to the east.

Hvery now and then on either bank are patches of pure white sand and very open mimosze woods, between which the blue masses of Jebel Kaduku and Jebel Kistga become visible in the west. Not far from here, to the right hand of the road, is the spot where, three years ago, Linant was obliged to fight Kabréga’s people for the passage over the Khor Kafu. In all the hollows of the ground are water and black mud. Open woods with low trees border the road. I observed Mimosae with white thorns, species of Ficus, Combrete, now and then a vitex, and solitary Doléb palms. The last only attain a height of thirty or forty feet, and are not to