S6 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



Waganda women. The true banana is called "memvu," and 

 is eaten ripe, as fruit. There is another sort of banana called 

 "gonjia" by the Swahilies. It is twice the length of the ordi- 

 nary banana, and is used when ripe. It is somewhat reddish 

 inside, and is rather coarse when eaten raw ; it is therefore 

 usually served either plain-boiled, or else roasted in hot ashes ; 

 it has a sweet agreeable flavour, and is a favourite dish. 



The bark-cloth tree is of national importance, as it supplies 

 the material out of which native cloth is manufactured. More 

 and more of the population are, however, adopting cotton cloth, 

 hence the manufacture of bark-cloth is diminishing every year. 

 The tree grows to a stately height, with a straight stem and a 

 mass of waving branches. The small green leaves give a re- 

 freshing shade and are pleasant to the eye. The finest trees I 

 I saw in the province of Singo, where a good deal of the 

 bark-cloth is manufactured. The bark is removed by two 

 circular cuts round the stem of the tree and a vertical cut 

 joining these two. The denuded surface is then carefully 

 covered up, by wrapping dry banana-leaves round the stem. 

 Unless this is done, a lot of rootlets grow from the upper 

 circular cut ; and whatever bark is ultimately grown is warped 

 and useless. It takes a year or two for the tree to renovate 

 the bark over the exposed surface ; it is then stripped ofif 

 again. The tree is very hardy, and almost any branch, cut 

 off and planted, will spread and grow up into a tree. It 

 is therefore most useful for producing a living stockade or 

 fence. 



If the piece of bark does not produce a cloth of the length 

 required for the market, one or more strips are sewn together ; 

 and this is sometimes done so skilfully, that it is not easy to 

 detect the portion added, unless the cloth is inspected very 

 closely. In the same way, holes or rents are skilfully patched. 

 The colour is usually a red-brow^n. Some bark-cloths have 

 a geometrical pattern, but black-patterned bark-cloth w^ent 

 out of fashion before King Mtesa's days. It is now prepared 

 principally to serve as an article of decoration. 



The manufacture of bark-cloth is extremely simple. The 

 bark is slightly moistened, placed over a smooth wooden log 

 which serves as an anvil, and is then hammered and flattened 

 out by means of a w^ooden mallet. The head of the mallet 

 resembles a small solid wheel, and is ribbed horizontally along 



