Soldiering and Sport in Uganda 



present of a large piece of meat, with which he 

 displayed almost childish pleasure. My orderlies 

 made sandals out of the hides, and my cook duti- 

 fully cut out the tongues for his master, so all went 

 merry as a marriage bell. 



Whilst I was refreshing myself with a cup of i '-J 

 tea, a travelling minstrel came into my camp 

 playing upon a most ingenious instrument of his 

 own make. He had stretched a fine piece of hide 

 across a piece of wood carved like a banjo, and 

 down its length he had made taut some fine fibres, 

 which he assured me he gathered in the "gubba." 

 By pressing his fingers on different parts of these 

 fibres, and drawing a bow-shaped piece of bark 

 across the lower parts, he produced a sound similar 

 to a bag-pipe. He only valued this musical instru- 

 ment at threepence, and grinned with joy when I 

 paid him double that sum. 



Towards evening it was so deliciously cool that 

 I took a stroll after some guinea fowl. It is on days 

 spent in this manner one becomes intoxicated with 

 la joie de vivre. The landscape, beautifully painted 

 by the sun's last rays, the air dreamy and soft, the 

 birds singing in the distance, to wander with one's 

 dog and gun through the cool banana shambas and 

 to knock over a couple of guinea fowl for one's 

 dinner, after having had an exciting and successful •-"; 

 buffalo shoot in the morning, what more would 

 you have ? 



The next day my *' safari" started for Mbali at 6 

 A.M., and did not get in till 8 p.m., as they had to 



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