UGANDA, AND THE NYANZA LAKES 447 



trees, which never seem to carry many leaves at the same 

 time with their gaudy blossoms. At one place for miles 

 the open forest was composed of the pod-bearing, thick- 

 leafed trees on which we had found the elephants feeding; 

 their bark and manner of growth gave them somewhat 

 the look of jack-oaks; where they made up the forest, 

 growing well apart from one another, it reminded us of the 

 cross-timbers of Texas and Oklahoma. The grass was 

 everywhere three or four feet high; here and there were 

 patches of the cane-like elephant grass, fifteen feet high. 



It was pleasant to stride along the road in the early 

 mornings, followed by the safari, and we saw many a glo- 

 rious sunrise. But as noon approached it grew very hot, 

 under the glare of the brazen equatorial sun, and we were 

 always glad when we approached our new camp, with its 

 grass-strewn ground, its wicker-work fence, and cool, open 

 rest-house. The local sub-chief and his elders were usually 

 drawn up to receive me at the gate, bowing, clapping their 

 hands, and uttering their long-drawn e-h-h-s; and often 

 banana saplings or branches would be stuck in the ground 

 to form avenues of approach, and the fence and rest-house 

 might be decorated with flowers of many kinds. Some- 

 times we were met with music, on instruments of one 

 string, of three strings, of ten strings rudimentary fiddles 

 and harps; and there was a much more complicated in- 

 strument, big and cumbrous, made of bars of wood placed 

 on two banana stems, the bars being struck with a hammer, 

 as if they were keys; its tones were deep and good. Along 

 the road we did not see habitations or people; but con- 

 tinually there led away from it, twisting through the tall 

 grass and the bush jungles, native paths, the earth beaten 

 brown and hard by countless bare feet; and these, cross- 

 ing and recrossing in a net-work, led to plantation after 

 plantation of bananas and sweet-potatoes, and clusters of 

 thatched huts. 



In the afternoon, as the sun began to get well beyond 

 the meridian, we usually sallied forth to hunt, under the 



