70 Ka Han a Kapa. 



is then loosened at one end, seized by both hands and stripped off. This bast is care- 

 fully freed from an}^ of the bark still adhering to it and soaked in water, after which 

 it is folded into several la3'ers and beaten on the smoothest portion of the stripped log 

 until of a desired consistency when the soaking is renewed. 



Pictures are given of a 3-oung man performing these several operations, but 

 the}- are on so small a scale that the}- are of little value as explanatorj- of the process ; 

 they show, however, what he does not state, that the work is done not by women but 

 by men. The cloth is ver}- cheap, and soft enough to be comfortable for the scant 

 garments into which it is made, but is b}- no means so good or fine as the famous 

 cloth made at Uganda. 



And this brings us to look for the " famous cloth " ; perhaps no better authorit}- 

 on the Ugandan geography and natural history than Sir Harr}- Johnston''^ need be 

 sought, and although, unfortunatel}-, he tells us nothing of the manufacture, he gives us 

 glimpses of the use of the fast vanishing cloth. Speaking of Uganda generall}- he sa5's 

 (p. 104): "The peasants, of course, when the}' are hard at work in the fields or making 

 long journeys, will reduce their clothing to a tucked up bunch of bark-cloth covering 

 the middle of their bodies between the knees and the armpits; but even the poor 

 people, whenever they can, delight to cover themselves with loose sweeping garments 

 made, if thev are old-fashioned, out of the red-brown bark-cloth derived from a species 

 of fig-tree. Since the country was opened up to the trade of the outer world, first by 

 Arabs, and then by Europeans and Indians, it has been flooded with the white calico 

 of England, India and America. There is scarcely any Muganda now so poor but 

 that he can afford to wear a long trailing shirt of white cotton or linen, with long 

 sleeves, and in addition a kind of rope of twisted white calico (like a halo) fastened 

 round the head. Though it is considered the right thing in royal or aristocratic 

 circles for the princesses or wives of the chiefs to wear bark-cloth rather than calico. 

 Tlie 'royal' bark-cloth is often covered with striking and tasteful designs, roughly 

 stencilled on it with a black dye." 



Again, speaking of the Banyoro, he said (p. 581): "They are not a naked people^ 

 but wear much the same amount of clothing as is worn in Uganda, though the bark- 

 clotli manufactured is inferior in quality, and a much larger proportion of the people 

 wear skins. Both skins and bark-cloth, however, are rapidly being replaced by the 

 calico of India and America. It is, however, still the custom in Unyoro that a man 

 and woman of whatever rank must, for at least four days after the marriage ceremony, 

 wear native-made bark-cloths. In the north of Unyoro, however, especially amongst 

 the Bachiope (Japalua), absolute nudity is the characteristic of both sexes." 



^ Sir Harry Johuson, The Uganda Protectorate. London, 1902. 



