The Baganda 



coating of bark matures rapidly. This covering of 

 leaves prevents any interference with the growth or 

 the health of the tree. The natives strip it in the 

 piece, and after soaking it in water, hammer it out 

 with mallets until it becomes quite thin and pliable. 

 In the picture the natives are seen hard at work 

 hammering out the bark. A pattern is sometimes 

 formed by ridges cut in the mallet heads. Some 

 of the natives affect a keen dislike to becoming 

 sunburnt; so they carry about parasols, which often 

 have a drawing of Edward Rex in white on the 

 outside and are sold by all the traders. 



The Baganda are physically a very fine race ; 

 they are also most intelligent ; eager to learn and 

 quick to acquire knowledge. Their love of books 

 and written matter is so keen, that a servant is 

 constantly worrying his master for " baruas " (or 

 letters) on any subject, from an order on the local 

 trader for trivial necessities to a written character, 

 and appears pleased even if the latter may not be 

 favourable to him. 



With the Baganda wrestling obtains largely — 

 indeed, it is their chief sport. The illustration shows 

 some Baganda wrestling near Kampala. On certain 

 days crowds of these fellows meet to watch a series 

 of contests. 



They are childishly fond of counting. Notwith- 

 standing the fact that they can tell at a glance the 

 number of coins you hand them in payment or 

 change, seeing that for rapid mental calculation they 

 easily outvie any European, they will take the 



17 2 



