124 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



which dehmit it exists from Lugard's day, the other three I 

 made. When the arrangements for holding on it the first sports 

 were nearly complete, the Acting Commissioner was taken 

 seriously ill and had to be invalided to the coast. I was ordered 

 to accompany him, and my administrative duties at Kampala 

 ended. 



The recreation ground, however, still exists; and the last 

 time I arrived at Kampala a vigorous game of football was 

 going on, white men and niggers taking part in it. I have 

 always understood football to be a game for the younger 

 generation. Cricket we know can be played up to mature 

 age, as proved by the present cricket-king in England. It 

 was, therefore, highly interesting and amusing to watch the 

 Namirembe Archdeacon footing it with the youngest. While 

 the Acting Commissioner, the Judge, and myself, were looking 

 on and watching the game with interest, one of the younger 

 officials got a bad kick and sprawled on the ground. Fortu- 

 nately no bones were broken. He was carried by sympathising 

 friends to his house, and for a while he had to give up football 

 and also Government duty. A few days later, 1 had to attend 

 another who had ricked his knee at football ; he too went off 

 Government duty for some days. But these little mishaps did 

 not deter the Namirembe Venerable ! 



To the right of the recreation ground, and separated from it 

 by one of the roads which I constructed in 1894, lies the native 

 market with its half-dozen huts. 



Another market, known as the Soudanese market, is just at 

 the foot of Kampala hill. The white flour offered for sale in 

 baskets or open grass-platters looks very tempting, but when 

 used for baking produces a dark-brown crumbly bread. This 

 white flour is not wheat-flour, but either mohindi (maize), or 

 matama (Kaff re-corn), or mohogo (casava), or disi (banana). 

 Banana-flour is made by peeling green plantains, cutting them 

 lengthways down the middle, drying them in the sun, and 

 then pounding them into flour. There does not seem to be 

 very much nourishment in it. 



The police force at Kampala originated in 1894 during 

 my short tenure of administrative duty. A trivial incident, a 

 Soudanese soldier arresting a Wahima herdsman for causing 

 disturbance in the native market, drew attention to the fact of 

 there being no special department of pohce. I submitted to 



