THE KINGDOM OF UGANDA 



119 



wings and straddling across the branch as if to exliiliit their lovely 

 colours, chasing one another with loud hoots and mocking cries. The 

 coloured illustration should give some idea of the crimson pinions, violet- 

 blue body, crimson cre.-t, and yellow beak of these birds, which are such 

 an everyday sight in and around Entebbe. 



The most disagreeable feature, perhaps, of the whole of the Uganda 

 Protectorate, and especially of the Kingdom of Uganda, is the frequent 

 and very dangerous thunderstorms. Hitherto in these descriptions I have 

 had difficulty in restraining language within the limits of reasoned 

 enthusiasm when describing the scenery and colour. The reverse of this 

 ])leasing aspect of the Uganda Protectorate is the almost constant presence 



9fci. A PATH 1\ THK li( >TAM('A I. (JAIihKNS, KNIEHIIK 



of mosquitoes (though these can be to a great extent banished by clearing 

 away the bush), the danger of severe attacks of malarial fever, and, lastly, 

 the thunderstorms. \A'hen you are travelling through the wilderness, the 

 thunderstorm presents to you four possible ways of dying : — one : you may 

 quite possibly be struck and killed by lightning, or if not killed, severely 

 paralysed; two: the lightning may set fire to your house or tent; three: 

 the appalling wind which precedes the crash of the storm will almost 

 certainly level your tent with the ground, and may very probably bring 

 down your temporary house in ruins — in either case you may be struck 

 and killed by the ridge-pole of the tent or the beams of the roof of your 

 house; four: you may escape death by lightning or by the downfall of 

 your dwelling, but you are left without a roof over your head, exposed to 

 the full force of the tropical rain, with perhaps nothing on but night 



