20 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

credit, as tliey have been the instruments of teaching many of the chiefs to read and write Arabic, so that reports are constantly being sent to Mtesa by the different commanders of his troops. He is continually at war, and in order to see by a glance the number of soldiers available, he has a large board, similar to those used by the Arabs to write their prayers upon. Eows of ten holes run parallel on this board, in each of which is a white peg. At the end of each row is a large hole, in which is placed a black peg, and for each ten rows there is placed a still larger hole to the left, in which is a red peg.

Each white peg represents ten, each black one a hundred, and each red one a thousand warriors. When the king wishes to send out an expedition, he calls for this board, takes out the requisite number of pegs, and hands them to a chief, whose duty it is to supply the soldiers. At the close of a campaign the dead are reckoned up and deducted from the sum total before the pegs are replaced. I was never allowed to examine the board closely, the only times on which I saw it were when I surprised them at a council of war. On such occasions it was either taken away or covered with a cloth. But Mtesa himself explained its meaning to me.

Mtesa may honestly pride himself on being one of the Great Powers of Central Africa; but, never having been brought into contact with civilised nations, he cannot measure himself by our standards, and so