152 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



thread is hitched into a tiny notch on the upper rim of the 

 spinner ; and the terminal end, thus secured, passes upwards 

 on to the loose cotton-fibres which are yet to be spun. When 

 about a foot of thread has been spun, it is liberated from the 

 notch and wound up on the body of the spinner. The terminal 

 end of the thread is then replaced in the notch. The spinning 

 may thus be discontinued at a moment's notice, or it mav be 

 continued as long as the supply of cotton-wool holds out. 



Wherever a Soudanese settlement is formed, within a short 

 time cotton-plants will be found growing wild in the fields or in 

 the neighbourhood, owing to scattered seeds. Cotton thrives in 

 the Uganda Protectorate. When the Uganda railway is com- 

 pleted, provided the transport rates on raw cotton from Uganda 

 to the coast are made so as to encourage enterprise in the direc- 

 tion of cotton production, the cotton-planter may probably find 

 it worth his while to direct his attention to the capabilities of 

 Uganda. 



Until I saw lofty cotton-trees, with tall straight stems, at 

 Parumbira, a place on the north-east end of Lake Nyassa, I 

 was unaware that cotton-trees and cotton-plants are two dif- 

 ferent things. The cotton-tree has no value whatever, whereas 

 without the cotton-plant the human race would suffer. The 

 reason is obvious : the tree requires years to become a fruit- 

 bearing tree ; the cotton-plant is a shrub, which in favour- 

 able localities grows up in a few months and then flourishes 

 like a weed. I collected from the fallen pods at the foot of 

 the cotton-trees at Parumbira, with the assistance of a few 

 natives and on payment of a few strings of beads, sufficient 

 cotton-wool to make myself a mattrass and two pillows. The 

 pillows served me through the whole of my overland journey 

 from Lake Nyassa to Kilwa. 



A large cotton-shrub covered with ripe cotton gleams as if 

 covered with snow-flakes. As the green pods ripen, they split 

 into three and gape. As the peel dries up, three flufty snow- 

 white masses of cotton-wool like silk- cocoons protrude and 

 invite the passer-by to gather them. A number of seeds are 

 wrapped up inside each cocoon. 



Soudanese settlements are everywhere laid out on the same 

 general lines, and the one at Kibero may serve as an illustra- 

 tion. From a distance the settlement looks like a square en- 

 closure. On drawing nearer to it, one sees that this enclosure 



