'PARK-LIKE' COUNTRY iii 



drums may be called music. There was a rumour, 

 whilst we were at Muhokya, that the Commissioner 

 of Uganda was going to pass through the place, and 

 the people were required to build a rest-house for 

 his caravan. Sometimes there were as many as a 

 hundred men ' at work ' on the building. Their 

 ' work ' consisted chiefly in sitting on the ground 

 and eating bananas to the tune of an everlasting 

 drum, which continued night and day. The house 

 had been in the hands of the builders for six wrecks 

 when we left the place, and was then about half 

 finished. 



The natives divert the waters from the stream in 

 numerous small irrigation channels, and raise very 

 fine crops of bananas and mealies on the rich 

 alluvial soil. There are many square miles of land 

 of a similar character to that near Muhokya, and if 

 it were possible to conduct some of the waters of the 

 Nyamwamba and other streams further north over 

 the plain, it would become one of the richest districts 

 in Uganda. This country has that curious park-like 

 appearance which is characteristic of so many parts 

 of Africa, notably about Lake Albert, Lake Albert 

 Edward, Tanganyika, and parts of Nyassaland. 

 Mr. J. E. S. Moore's theory* that it denotes a 

 country, which is in a stage of transition between 

 being submerged under water and being clothed 

 with forest, seems to be the correct explanation. 

 From our camp near Muhokya, which stood on 

 * ' To the Mountains of the Moon,' chap, xxiii. 



