158 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

We often went to the divan when the neighbouring chiefs came to pay their respects to the Pasha, or to lay complaints before him, as many of them had suffered the most atrocious ill-usage at the hands of the slave-dealers. On such occasions the Pasha sat under a tree outside his compound ; and sometimes six or seven parties of natives, headed by their chiefs, might be seen approaching from different parts of the town. When they reached the Pasha the chiefs sat down in a semicircle round him ; their immediate followers grouping themselves behind them, while in the background was a continually moving mass of negroes, who had assembled to watch the proceedings. First one chief rose and brought forward his complaint ; either against some absent person, or, it might be, against one of his fellow-chiefs, who, springing forward, would indignantly deny the accusation, while a third frequently got up and endeavoured to prove that both the previous speakers were in the wrong, and that he was the aggrieved person. It was a fine sight to watch them relate their wrongs : some were most eloquent, their action being perfect, and the play of their features and their graceful gestures were a never-failing source of interest to me. Some of the chiefs wore most beautiful leopard and tigercat skins, which were carefully prepared and very fine in quality, though they were not so soft as the skins tanned in Ucanda. Their bracelets, too?