306 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

which are long and heavy, and they often carry a two-edged sword in additioQ ; while the weapon of the people in the villages is the lance, one heing always carried, and frequently two or three. Guns are rarely seen except among the negroes in the south of the province.

Men, women, and children, and even cattle, wear numerous charms ; and the fakirs drive a good trade in writing out small prayers from the Koran, which are made up into neat leather packets and then hung round the neck. Some of the charms are said to protect the fortunate owner from gunshots ; and on one occasion a man, who had a charm suspended round his neck, was giving me a long account of his escapes from hullets, owing to this marvellous talisman. At this I quietly drew my revolver, and having cocked it, levelled it at his head, whereupon he turned and ran away with loud cries for mercy.

After a time, seeing that I did not intend to shoot him, he returned ; I chaffed him a good deal, and told him that he did not seem to place much confidence in his wonderful charm. " Oh," rejlied he, '' it only protects from Arab guns, not from European bullets ! " The principal occupation of the people is agriculture, though, as appears above, a certain amount of manufacture occupies a small portion of their time. The cultivation is of the rudest type, and only affords employment during the rainy season, during