88 NORTH-EAST AFEICA. 



whicii according to one interpretation means " lie who makes all tremble." A small 

 army of executioners, their heads bound with cords, always awaited his orders, 

 accompanying him in all his expeditions. But he was not absolute master in state 

 affairs, his power being controlled by three wakungu, or hereditary vassals. The 

 katekiro, or chief functionary, a sort of " mayor of the palace " and governor of 

 TJ-Du, is nominated by the king, and may be chosen even amongst the peasantry. 

 He takes his place with the sovereign and the three wakungu in the privy council, 

 and in the king's absence presides over the luehiko or governing body, composed of 

 all the grandees of the country, vassals and feudatories, wakungu and wakongoli. 

 The head cook and other palace dignitaries have also a voice in the coimcil. At 

 the death of the king the right of nomination belongs to the three wakungu, who 

 select one of his children, imprison his brothers during their minority, and then 

 burn them, reserving two or three to continue the race, should the new king die 

 without issue. If the three great chiefs disagree as to the choice of the sovereign, 

 the question is decided by war, the conqueror enthroning his choice. For their 

 battles the wakungu have no lack of men, all able-bodied persons, from five 

 hundred thousand to six hundred thousand altogether, being trained in the use of 

 arms and obliged to obey the first summons of their chiefs. The royal guard is 

 partly composed of peoples of Eastern Sudan and Dongola, deserters from the 

 Egyptian army. The fleet consists of several hundred canoes. 



Topography of U-Gtanda. 



The capital changes according to the king's caprice. In 1862, at the time of 

 Speke and Grant's visit, the royal residence was at Banda, which, for a country of 

 large trade, would appear to be most favourably situated on the crest of the portage 

 between the great gulf of Mwaru-Luajerri, the Murchison Bay of the English, and 

 the river Katawana-Luajerri, which joins the Nile at Lake Ibrahim. A few 

 scattered hamlets in the midst of ruins, which must soon disappear, are now all that 

 remains of Banda. Rubaga is the most important present capital, lying about seven 

 miles towards the north-west, on a hill encircled by rivulets which form the head- 

 stream of the M'werango river, flowing through the Kafu to the Nile. On the 

 summit of the hill, visible from afar, with its lofty gables and flagstaff, stands the 

 king's palace, surrounded with gardens, above which appear the conic roofs of the 

 huts inhabited by his wives and oflicers. Northwards another hill bears a second 

 royal residence, surroimded by the village of Nabulagala, Stanley's Ullagala. This 

 is the main depot of the Arab merchants, and here begins the caravan route towards 

 M'ruli, the principal market-town of the Somerset Nile. The two most frequented 

 ports of U-Ganda on the shores of the great lake are U-Savara, on the banks of 

 Murchison Bay, and M'tebbi, on the gulf limited south by the Sesse Archipelago. 



The Kavirondo and Nanda Countries. 



East of Nyanza the most powerful state is that of Kavirondo, which is said to 

 exercise a sort of suzerainty over all the riverain peoples between the islands of 



