Soldiering and Sport in Uganda 



When eventually I sat down to dinner I found 

 a letter laid quietly on my plate in readiness for me. 

 Now a letter in these parts, being such an unusual 

 occurrence, is a thing to wonder at, and I upbraided 

 my boys for not having brought it immediately to 

 me. What could it be ? I hastily tore it open. 

 Great excitement ! The old boundary trouble 

 again between Uganda and the Congo State. My 

 instructions were very urgent, to carry rations over 

 a practically unknown country, across the equator 

 into the heart of deepest Africa, at lightning speed, 

 to a place that I had never heard of before, and 

 with a possible chance of a trouble, commonly 

 known in military parlance as a "scratch." I was 

 elated with a prospect which appeared so rosy ; and 

 I failed to include in my hasty summing up the 

 arduous trials and hardships which a campaign of 

 this nature must inevitably entail. The place to 

 which I was now ordered was situated on Lake 

 Kivu, in the Congo. The next morning I arose in 

 the dark and undertook a forced march of twenty- 

 five miles, which brought me into ]\Ibarara. 



Mbarara, on the river Ruwezi, is the capital of 

 Ankole. The natives are frightfully superstitious, 

 and resort to all sorts of practices to elude the Evil 

 One. One habit is to gather together under their 

 witch doctor and perform certain evolutions, which 

 are supposed to render the district untenable to the 

 imaginary evil spirit. Two illustrations are given 

 of natives performing these practices and evolutions 

 under the direction of a witch doctor. The women 



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