The King^s African Rifles 



nothing more than a seed of this Uganda elephant 

 grass. 



Well, so much for Hoima. I found the life very- 

 quiet after that of a gay garrison town in England. 

 I, however, busied myself with my soldiering, and 

 spent a good deal of time in learning the "ropes." 

 I found the class of native from which we recruited 

 to be Nilotic ; they called them Nubies. They 

 mostly came from Nimule and Gondokoro. Their 

 language was a sort of degenerate Arabic. What 

 religion did exist was Muhammadan; but I found 

 that they valued sleep, food, wives, and rupees far 

 more than the forming of ideas as to their future 

 state. The King's African Rifles recruit from the 

 Nubies, and consequently many families have 

 migrated from the Lower Nile into Uganda. They 

 drill well, and are excellent fighters ; a trifle too 

 excitable. They have a very good opinion of 

 themselves, and a correspondingly low one of other 

 natives. Look at the drummer boy in the illustra- 

 tion. Is he not superb in his good opinion of 

 himself, as he prides himself on being the regulator 

 of the march ? He stands every inch a soldier of 

 the King. He is a native of Central Africa. 

 They love a joke, and are very easily humoured 

 either one way or another. They make their 

 wives work hard, nevertheless the women are 

 very independent, and often give their husbands 

 no little trouble. It must not be overlooked that 

 these "tommies" are allowed as many wives as 

 they can pay for. The women are generally 



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