H4 TEADE AND COMMEKCE. 



about five months by land, opportunities for the sale of ivory 

 and slaves afforded by this route, the settlement of Arabs in 

 the country itself, with agents in Karagwa and Unyamwezi, 

 and subsequently on the lake, influenced, of course, the markets 

 of the country. Quantities of goods, chiefly manufactured 

 articles, woven materials of all kinds, clothes, weapons, ammu- 

 nition, copper, and brass were brought from Zanzibar, and 

 found ready customers among a people who have a passion for 

 dress and finery as well as for arms. At the same time the 

 need of a currency was created, and the cowrie- shell, named 

 in Kisuaheli kauri or hete, in Kiganda and Kinyoro simhi, 

 was chosen to meet the need. 



These shells had long before penetrated into the interior of 

 the continent from the east coast, and passing from tribe to 

 tribe, had been employed in various kinds of worked and orna- 

 mental articles. Girdles and head-dresses made of them were 

 valued objects. They are still found among the eastern tribes of 

 the Latiika, Shiili, Lango, and Wasoga, all of whom slice off the 

 rounded backs of the shells, and fix them on leather or felt, 

 with the cut side outwards, or place the whole shell in the 

 plaits of their high coiffures. But the introduction of cowries 

 as coin among the Negroes was reserved for the Arabs, and the 

 Waganda were very soon taught this use of them. From that 

 time till the present day cowrie money has been current, and 

 both in Uganda and Unyoro even small purchases can be made 

 with them. After the backs have been ground off, the shells 

 are threaded in hundreds on a string of bast ; five such strings 

 are equivalent to a Maria Theresa thaler, a standard of value 

 fixed 'by the Arabs themselves, but often subject to slight 

 variations. This coinage answers very well, for large or 

 rather costly articles, and the price is constant ; thus, a fat goat 

 costs 1200 to 1500 cowries, a sheep 1000 to 1200, a packet 

 of salt from Unyoro, containing about 4 lbs., 1 000, a packet 

 of eleusine corn, also from Unyoro (scarcely any corn is grown 

 in Uganda), about 400 to 600, an ox 6000 to 7000. The 

 strings are divided into halves of fifty each for objects of 

 smaller value, these again into five parts of ten each, and then 

 comes the smallest division of five pieces. Dried fish cost from 

 10 to 20, according to their size, a bunch of ordinary bananas 



