THE U-NYOEO TEEEITORY. 91 



view of the Nanda range. The caravans, which travel slowly, scarcely making 

 more than eight or nine miles a day, take two whole months to perform the journey. 

 The missionaries of Islam, more fortmiate than those labouring in U-Ganda, claim 

 Kavirondo as their conquest ; at least the greater part of the people have submitted 

 to the rite of circumcision. 



The U-Nyoro Territory. 



North of tJ-Ganda most of the peninsular district lying between the Albert 

 Nyanza and the Somerset Nile belongs to the Wa-Nyoro people. Formerly all the 

 country stretching between the two Nilotic lakes constituted the vast kingdom of 

 Kitwara, governed by a dynasty of Wa-Huma conquerors. This empire has been 

 divided into many states, of which U-Ganda is the most powerful ; but the sovereign 

 of U-Nyoro would appear still to enjoy a sort of virtual sovereignty over his 

 neighbours, and always bears officially the title of King of Kitwara. Nevertheless 

 U-Nyoro cannot be compared to U-Ganda, either in the extent of its cultivated 

 territory, in the number of its people, or in political unity. In spite of the natural 

 frontier, indicated by the banks of the Nile and the lake, its limits are rendered 

 uncertain by the incursions of hostile tribes. Uninhabited borderlands separate 

 U-Nyoro from U-Ganda ; but here lies a region of great commercial importance, 

 belonging at once to two kingdoms as a place of transition, which caravans can 

 traverse only under escort, usually choosing the night for their march. This 

 debatable region is the zone of land comprised between the marshes of JErgugu and 

 the abrupt bend of the Nile at M'ruli. The Wa-Ganda are compelled to force their 

 way through it when proceeding from Rubaga to Sudan, and the Wa-Nyoro of the 

 west have no other way by which to visit their villages situated to the west of the 

 Nile. U-Nyoro is in a continual state of warfare, dividing it into petty states, 

 which increase or diminish in extent according to the vicissitudes of the battlefield. 

 It is the custom on the death of the sovereign for his nearest relations to dispute 

 the succession ; the corpse is not buried till after the victory of one of the competitors. 

 The latter, however, often hastens to celebrate his triumph prematurply, in which 

 case the war continues for generations between brothers and cousins. At present 

 U-Nyoro is divided between hostile kingdoms ; besides which Egyptian garrisons, 

 cut off from the centre of administration at Khartum, still occupy the line of 

 the Nile between the bend of Foweira and Lake Albert Nyanza. Nvmierous tribes 

 have also retained their independence, especially in the high south-western district 

 between the two great lakes. 



U-Nyoro presents on the whole the aspect of a plateau with a north-easterly 

 slope parallel to Lake Albert Nyanza. It enjoys a copious rainfall, and many 

 depressions in. the surface are occupied with swamps rendered dangerous to the 

 wayfarer by the holes caused by the heavy tramp of elephants. The lacustrine 

 basins are also strewn with gneiss and granite boulders, whose presence in these 

 alluvial tracts seems inexplicable. Except in the vicinity of the Nile, vegetation 

 appears to be on the whole less exuberant than in U-Ganda. Leguminous plants, 



