BARK CLOTH. 119 



appeases hunger; it might, therefore, perhaps be worth while 

 to ascertain the proportion of cafeine in these unripe beans. 

 The custom also prevails of perfuming the mouth with coffee- 

 pods after free indulgence in mwinge. Coffee is in great 

 request as an article of barter between the Bantu tribes, other 

 tribes not having yet used it for this purpose ; the price has, 

 nevertheless, remained fairly reasonable, and the exportation of 

 coffee would certainly be profitable. 



At the present time bark cloth is a still more important 

 article of barter than coffee among the equatorial tribes. It 

 is obtained from the bark stripped off several kinds of Euros- 

 tigma,* and constitutes the ordinary clothing in Uganda, and 

 that of the better classes in Karagwa, Ruhanda, Unyoro, and . 

 Usoga. Hence it is that the production has its principal seat 

 in Uganda. The price varies considerably, according to the 

 colour and quality of the pieces, and when the material has a 

 pattern on it it is regarded as a fancy article without fixed 

 price. The price of the cloth depends upon whether the tree 

 from which the pieces were taken was stripped for the first 

 time or had previously undergone the process (for strong trees 

 may be peeled three times), whether the material is fine or 

 coarse in texture, more or less durable, and soft or hard in 

 consistency. The cloth is of a light or dark leather-colour, 

 according to the length of time employed in the maceration 

 of the bark ; the tint of a perfectly fresh piece is sometimes 

 that of a wheaten roll. Besides this, all undyed bark cloths 

 become darker in wear by a process of oxidation. Of coloured 

 cloths, some are dark grey, and generally worn by Wichwezi 

 sorceresses ; others dark red, and worn as a great luxury by 

 wives of very well-to-do people ; others again have very neat 

 and regular stripes and spots of black on their leather-yellow 

 ground, and resemble coarse printed calico in pattern and 

 general appearance. This last kind was formerly worn only 

 by royal personages, but in Uganda, where materials from 

 Zanzibar have superseded bark cloths for royalty, this custom 

 has been given up, though it is still observed in Unyoro and 

 Ruhanda. As a rule, pieces of this kind (intone) are not to 

 be bought, and to obtain them the ruler or great chiefs must 

 * Ficus glumosa, Del. ; F. fessoglcnsis, Ky., &c. — G. S. 



