28 FROM MRULI TO RUBAGA. 



3. From Mruli to Rubaga in Uganda. 

 {Letter to Dr. A. Petermann, from Uganda, December 18, 1877.) 



WAGANDA PORTERS — THROUGH SWAMP AND MUD — IN MREKO'S VILLAGE — 

 UGANDA TOBACCO — DANCERS AND SINGERS — PATHOLOGICAL — THE 

 BIRD WORLD — WAHUMA TYPES — COLOCASLE — BANANAS — AN UNEX- 

 PECTED ATTACK — THE LEGEND OF MOUNT SEMPA — COUNTRY LAID 

 WASTE — NUDITY OF YOUNG GIRLS — LETTERS FROM MTESA — OUR LAST 

 MARCH AND ARRIVAL. 



I WAS compelled to wait in Mruli for a whole month, until 

 the guides and porters who had been requested from the 

 ruler of Uganda at last made their appearance. They in- 

 formed me that the country lay under water far and near, and 

 that all former roads were completely inundated and closed 

 to us. We were therefore obliged to find a new road, an 

 announcement which naturally highly gratified me. So the 

 people, who had brought a large number of cows, tobacco, and 

 coffee-berries to barter, were granted a day's rest ; and not till 

 the 2 oth of November did we begin our march through level 

 alluvial land covered with grass of medium height, in the 

 midst of which a tall Doleb palm, visible from a long distance, 

 stands out as a landmark. Khor Kafu, which runs to the 

 right in numerous windings, approaches the road above this 

 palm-tree. The road skirts it for a short distance, and then 

 turns away to the east. 



Every now and then on either bank are patches of pure 

 white sand and very open mimosas woods, between which 

 the blue masses of Jebel Kaduku and Jebel Kisuga become 

 visible in the west. Not far from here, to the right hand of 

 the road, is the spot where, three years ago, Linant was obliged 

 to fight Kabrega's people for the passage over the Khor Kafu. 

 In all the hollows of the ground are water and black mud. 

 Open woods with low trees border the road. I observed 

 Mimosae with white thorns, species of Ficus, Combretaa, now 

 and then a vitex, and solitary Doleb palms. The last 

 only attain a height of thirty or forty feet, and are not to 



