DISCOVERY OF THE VICTORIA N'YANZA. 93 



tic manner; stabbing with their spears, protecting with 

 their shields, poising with bows and arrows pointed, 

 and, mingling with the Belooches, rushed about strik- 

 ing at and avoiding their guns and sabres. But all 

 was so similar to the Senagongo display that it does 

 not require a further description. The number of 

 Kurua's forces disappointed me, I fear the intelli- 

 gence of the coming parade did not reach far. The 

 dresses they wore did credit to their nation some 

 were decked with cock-tail plumes, others wore bunches 

 of my guinea-fowl's feathers in their hair, whilst the 

 chiefs and swells were attired in long red baize 

 mantles, consisting of a strip of cloth four feet by 

 twenty inches, at one end of which they cut a slit to 

 admit the head, and allowed the remainder to hang 

 like a tail behind the back. Their spears and bows 

 are of a very ordinary kind, and the shield is con- 

 structed something like the Kaffir's, from a long strip 

 of bull's hide, which they painted over with ochreish 

 earth. The fight over, all hands rushed to the big 

 drums in the cow-yard, and began beating them as 

 though they deserved a drubbing : this " sweet music " 

 set everybody on wires in a moment, and dancing 

 never ceased till the sun went down, and the cows 

 usurped the revelling place. Kurua now gave me a 

 good milch cow and calf, and promised two more of 

 the same stamp. Those which were brought by the 

 common people were mere weeds, and dry withal ; 

 they would not bring any good ones, I think, from 



