CHAPTER XIII. 



ON THE SHORES OF LAKE ALBERT. 



T 



LUR CHILDREN. 



HERE are two Government stations on 

 Lake Albert, almost opposite to each 

 other, — Kibero on the east shore, 

 Mahaji on the west. The former is 

 inhabited by Wanyoro, the latter by the Lur. 

 These are two distinct races, differing in language, 

 dress, and mode of life. The native village at 

 Kibero is a thriving place, and it possesses a 

 paying industry ; but Major Thruston, who saw 

 it in King Kabarega's days and before it fell into 

 British hands, told me that formerly it was three 

 times the size it is now. It has therefore not yet 

 recovered from the effects of the war waged against King 

 Kabarega. A few of the men wear bark-cloth, but the 

 majority are dressed in cowhides thrown like a cloak about the 

 body. The women have short petticoats of bark-cloth reaching 

 from the waist to below the knees. The covering of boys is 

 usually a mantle of goat-skin, but girls up to puberty go un- 

 covered. Babies are carried on the back in a sort of leathern 

 sling supported by the mother's shoulders and waist. This leaves 

 the legs, arms, and head of the baby free. Almost every family 

 owns a few goats or sheep. The boys work as goatherds or 

 shepherds, but the girls help their mothers in the great local salt- 

 industry. 



There seems to be an inexhaustible wealth of salt here. Some 

 day European appliances and European enterprise may turn this 

 industry into a most valuable and paying concern. In King 

 Kabarega's reign one of the chiefs secured for himself and his 

 followers the monopoly of the manufacture, and paid for the 

 concession a tribute or rent of one thousand loads of salt 



