32 FROM MKULI TO RUBAGA. 



Kattyang beans also are extensively cultivated here. From 

 this place we passed through a small swamp, up to our waists, 

 and reached Bzaggara, where we were to halt for a day's rest. 



The Uganda language possesses two words for tobacco — 

 taba and mttri ; but I cannot at present decide whether 

 mtiri means Nicotiana rustica and taba exclusively N. Toba- 

 cum or not. In Unyoro also we find two words for tobacco, 

 namely, taba and irkdbwe. 



I was favoured by a visit from a minstrel. He was decked 

 with the fleece of the long-haired Usoga goat, and disguised 

 by a long white pointed beard, which partially concealed his 

 mouth and only permitted him to mumble. After he had 

 seated himself in the middle of a circle of spectators he began 

 with supple fingers "to strike a chord" upon a seven-stringed 

 guitar. A short prelude developed into a recitative of simple 

 rhythm, praising the beads and the generosity of the white 

 stranger. As the song proceeded, the long beard commenced 

 regular up and down movements, and it was very droll 

 to see how the singer, bending his head to the right or to 

 the left upon his shoulder, made his beard dance in time to 

 the guitar. The chief effect, however, was when he bent back 

 his head upon his neck, so that the beard pointed directly up- 

 wards, in which position he gave forth a long gurgling r-r-r-r-r-r, 

 to which the beard vibrated, invariably provoking peals of long- 

 continued laughter. The bard was rewarded by some glass 

 beads, and by way of thanks he stretched himself flat upon the 

 ground, and placing his open hands together, made the vertical 

 movement of thanks, saying at the same time " Nyanzig" after 

 the Waganda fashion. 



The pleasures of the evening were indeed crowned by the 

 festivities of night, for at midnight a tremendous thunder- 

 storm broke over us, and as the rain came down in streaming 

 torrents, my tent was overthrown by oxen who were frightened 

 by the constant lightning. My people, as usual on such occa- 

 sions, were sleeping the sleep of the just, and so there was 

 nothing for it but, in the midst of heaven's floods, to put my 

 traps to rights myself as best I could. 



I had hardly returned from shooting guinea-fowl — an oc- 

 cupation always possible here — when a troop of my porters 



