BANTU NEGROES 



657 



of peasants or as by-ways, but as a rule the Muganda prefers to make 

 roads as broad as those in vogue in civilised countries at the present day. 

 The public ways are kept fairly free from the growth of vegetation, but 

 no attempt is made, of course, to metal their surface, and consequently the 

 heavy rains cut deeply into their clay soil, so that the roads in their 

 present condition are quite unsuited to wheeled traffic. 



The Uganda road is like the old Roman road. It aims, or attempts to 

 aim, straight at its destination, perfectly regardless of ups and downs. 

 The natives never dream of negotiating a hill by taking the road round it 

 by a gentle gradient. On the contrary, it always seems to the wearied 

 traveller that the person who laid out the road looked round the horizon 

 for the highest point and made straight for it by the steepest ascent. As 

 as matter of fact, the roads are carried with tolerable correctness from 

 point to point along the shortest route. It is when the Baganda come 



367. A HOUSE AMi COURTYARD, UGANDA. 



to one of their many thousand marshes that they show both perseverance 

 and skill. It has been already remarked in Chapter III. that Uganda 

 is a sort of " switchback-railway country," with loftv hills and broad 



