92 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



the man who had been ordered to construct it tried to evade 

 the hateful exaction. 



The system of paid labour came only gradually into force, 

 owing to the passive hostility of the chiefs who declined to 

 send labourers ; in other words, they prevented their peasants 

 from accepting the paid-labour offered by the Government. 

 In 1894 a few natives applied voluntarily for work, and when 

 they found that it paid them to work for the Government, 

 and that they were allowed to keep what they had earned, more 

 and more came forward ; and now, scores waiting for employ- 

 ment may be seen at Kampala every morning. 



One of the important duties of a peasant is to keep in 

 order the reed-fences which enclose dwellings and planta- 

 tions. These reed-fences, when new, look very elegant ; but 

 they are most fragile and do not last long. Hence it is a 

 never-ending labour to keep them in order. They are con- 

 structed of the stems of the elephant-grass, either in the shape 

 of interlacing trellis-work or as vertical rods bound together 

 by horizontal bundles. A reed-fence consists of a reed-screen 

 suported by poles which are cut from green straight branches, 

 and are driven into the ground at distances of ten feet from 

 each other. The poles frequently strike root and flourish into 

 trees, hence the pleasant leafy appearance of most of these 

 fences. 



Calling one day on the Kangao, one of the great Waganda 

 chiefs, I saw a good illustration of the two styles of reed- 

 fences side by side ; and in the centre of the enclosure sat a 

 prisoner "in the stocks," shredding with a knife strips of palm 

 leaves into narrower strips preparatory to mat-making. 



The punishment of being " in the stocks " consists in passing 

 the foot through a hole bored through some heavy log of 

 wood ; a wooden peg is then hammered through, to narrow 

 the aperture and to prevent the foot from being withdrawn. 

 A pad of banana leaves is placed between the log and the 

 ankle to prevent the cruel chafing which would otherwise 

 result ; and if the log is very heavy there is a rope attached 

 to one end to enable the prisoner to support some of the 

 weight with his hand. 



A peculiarity of Waganda dwellings is the number of outer 

 courts one has to pass through to arrive at the house itself. I 

 once counted twelve of these outer courts. With the wealthier 



