36 MRULI TO RUBAGA IN UGANDA.

my life seen anything equal to it. To-day I obtained as booty a huge antelope. The animal, which outwardly resembles the hump-backed bullock (Antilope oreas), is found everywhere in small herds. A magnificent black mane, with a rich bushy growth of hair on the forehead and under the neck, a wellmarked hump, and majestic horns, which, in the case of my specimen rise straight up after one and a half turns, distinguish this animal. Its fur is short, crisp, and buff coloured ; its back is marked by a black longitudinal stripe, from which twelve white stripes pass round towards the belly, running parallel to each other and of about a finger’s-breadth. My specimen, a full grown male, provided meat for the whole of our caravan.

The marches from here to Mtésa’s residence have one feature in common, they are all quite short; and it is impossible, even by prayers or threats, to urge the people to make longer marches. If a village les in the way a halt is certain to be made in order to drink and to rest, and, if a day’s march lasts longer than two hours one may think oneself fortunate. The stores of beer at last appeared to be exhausted in Mréko’s hut, and so he decided to make a start. A short march led to Khor Ergugu, an enormous morass, the waters of which form the chief supply of Khor Kafu. Neither waterchannel nor current was to be seen; grasses, mud, and water, reaching breast-high, filled a gully running between two rows of hills from the south-east to the north-west, which took us fifty minutes of laborious wading to pass through. Then came plantations, sometimes close together, sometimes lying lke islands in the middle of high grass. Kangani’s territory, Beramese, here abuts on Mréko’s district. After we had passed through another bog we stopped for the night at a small village called Kapéki.

In the house which was assigned me there hung huge baskets used for storing corn and in the preparation of mwénge, and gourds and small baskets were lying all about. Before the door were hung an immense number of curiously shaped stones, small gourds, eggs, and half-charred pieces of human skulls as amulets. The skulls, when thrown in pieces on to the fields, are believed to increase the fertility of the soil.