THE WAGANDA 



113 



figured among prize-cattle at an English cattle-show. A pecu- 

 liarity was the enormous length and width of the horns. 

 Cattle-farming in Uganda, whether for meat extract, horn, 

 bone-ash, or leather, should hold out lucrative prospects to 

 European intelligence and enterprise. 



The calves were not allowed to accompany the herds when 

 they went out grazing, but were looked after by the boys and 

 kept near the village. Wherever it was difficult for the herd to 

 get to the water, the streamlet running perhaps in a steep ravine, 

 the herdsmen had erected clay troughs and filled these with 

 water by means of their milking pails. At other spots there 

 weregreen- 

 wood fires 

 burning 

 feebly and 

 slowly, but 

 emitting 

 dense vol- 

 umes of 

 smoke. The 

 cattle knew 

 what this 

 was meant 

 for. They 

 hustled 

 each other 

 to get into 

 the stream 



of the smoke, where it rolled slowly and heavily over the 

 plain, in order to escape the persecution of the innumerable 

 swarms of flies and stinging insects. 



There are several species of these flies ; they also attacked 

 the natives. I saw one of the little girls slap her thigh, and, 

 where a fly had just stung her, a big drop of blood oozed 

 out ; these troublesome flies can therefore give a very nasty 

 prick, but the child did not seem to mind the pain. I was 

 not stung on this occasion, but some of my caravan were, 

 and they certainly did not bear the infliction with the same 

 equanimity. Sometimes on the march, especially in showery 

 weather, the flies become a great nuisance. I have killed 

 them, almost as soon as they had settled on my neck or 



H 



WAHIMA HERDSMEN. 



