A HOMELY DINNER. 4S Although it was raining hard, and we were compelled to halt, difficulties were at first put in our way, but at last we were allowed to take possession of two houses; and when I gave permission for the ox we had brought with us to be killed, a lively trade ensued between my people, who offered meat in exchange for other things, and the inhabitants of the village, who brought for barter sweet potatoes, bananas, and especially cobs of maize in bundles. So our evening meal ' was arranged for very satisfactorily. Meat roasted in ashes, and maize cobs prepared in the same way instead of bread, are not at all to be despised. Just as we were so engaged, there suddenly appeared three of Mréko’s people, who had been sent after me to persuade me to wait. Hxceedingly comical was the description of these Matongali how Mréko had inquired after me all along the way, and had everywhere been told that we had passed long ago! and how at last he naively asked, how in the world I had found my way alone.

Crowds of people surrounded me at every step, and amongst them many women. Specially striking was a tall, red-brown girl of about eight years old, quite naked, unless one can give the name of clothing to a cord with three pieces of wood, of from one or two inches long, hanging in front. Her breasts were not yet developed. This was the first case that I saw in Uganda of a female being quite unclothed, but I was subsequently told that here, as in Unyéro, the girls usually go about nude until puberty. Boys of six to seven years old are very frequently seen in this state, but they always wear a small apron. Men and women cover themselves with large pieces of bark cloth tied in a knot over the shoulder; the women generally simply wrap themselves in it, making it fast just under the armpits. Both sexes, however, wear a kind of undergarment of the same material, reaching in the case of the | men from the hips to the knees, and in that of the women as far as the ankles. The upper-garment is frequently fastened on by a girdle of skin or dried banana leaves.

I noticed here for the first time an abundance of sugarcane of the blue-green variety.

My things had not yet arrived, so that this time I had to sleep on green banana leaves. If only it were not so terribly