382 UGANDA [ch. xiii 



It was pleasant to stride along the road in the early 

 mornings, followed by the safari, and we saw many 

 a glorious sunrise. But as noon approached it grew 

 very hot under the glare of the brazen equatorial sun, 

 and we were always glad when we approached our new 

 camp, with its grass-strewn ground, its wickerwork 

 fence, and cool, open rest-house. The local sub-chief 

 and his elders were usually drawn up to receive me at 

 the gate, bowing, clapping their hands, and uttering 

 their long-drawn e-h-h-s ; and often banana saplings or 

 branches would be stuck in the ground to form avenues 

 of approach, and the fence and rest-house might be 

 decorated with flowers of many kinds. Sometimes we 

 were met with music, on instruments of one string, of 

 three strings, of ten strings — rudimentary fiddles and 

 harps ; and there was a much more complicated instru- 

 ment, big and cumbrous, made of bars of wood placed 

 on two banana-stems, the bars being struck with a 

 hammer, as if they were keys ; its tones were deep and 

 good. Along the road we did not see habitations or 

 people ; but continually there led away from it, twisting 

 through the tall grass and the bush jungles, native 

 paths, the earth beaten brown and hard by countless 

 bare feet ; and these, crossing and recrossing in a net- 

 work, led to plantation after plantation of bananas and 

 sweet potatoes, and clusters of thatched huts. 



In the afternoon, as the sun began to get well beyond 

 the meridian, we usually sallied forth to hunt, under the 

 guidance of some native who had come in to tell us 

 where he had seen game that morning. The jungle 

 was so thick in places and the grass was everywhere so 

 long, that without such guidance there was little 

 successful hunting to be done in only two or three 

 hours. We miglit come back with a buck, or with two 

 or three guinea-fowl, or with nothing. 



