THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 255 



TORTURES INFLICTED BY SLAVE-HUNTERS. 



AFTER the departure of the king, Baker engaged several of 

 the chiefs in conversation, that he might learn more of the prac- 

 tices of the slave-hunters, and general difficulties with which the 

 Government had to contend. Several of these assured him that 

 Abou Saood's people had been in the habit of torturing people 

 to extract from them the secret of the spot in which their corn 

 was concealed. Throughout Unyoro there were no granaries 

 exposed, as the country had been ravaged by civil war ; thus all 

 corn was buried in deep holes specially arranged for that purpose. 

 When the slave-hunters sought for corn, they were in the habit 

 of catching the villagers and holding them down on the mouth 

 of a large earthen water-jar filled with glowing embers until they 

 were nearly roasted. If this torture did not extract the secret, 

 they generally cut the sufferer's throat to terrify his companions, 

 who would then divulge the position of the hidden stores to 

 avoid a similar fate. It is difficult to conceive the brutality of 

 these brigands, who, thus relieved from the fear of a govern- 

 ment, exhibit their unbridled passions by every horrible crime. 



A ROYAL FUNERAL. 



AMONG other singular things, the chiefs gave Baker a graphic 

 account of the royal funeral that had taken place when Kamrasi 

 was interred. 



When a king of Unyoro dies, the body is exposed upon a 

 frame-work of green wood, like a gigantic gridiron, over a slow 

 fire. It is thus gradually dried, until it resembles an over-roasted 

 hare. Thus mummified, it is wrapped in new bark-cloth, and 

 the body lies in state within a large house built specially for its 

 reception. The sons fight for the throne. The civil war may 

 last for years, but during this period of. anarchy the late king's 

 body lies still unburied. At length, when, victory has decided in 

 favor of one of his sons, the conqueror visits the hut in which 

 his father's body lies in state. He approaches the corpse, and 

 standing by its side sticks the but-end of his spear in the ground, 

 and leaves it thus fixed near the right hand of the dead king. 

 This is symbolical of victory. 



