BANTU NEGROES 



659 



days by the necessity of cutting a road through the marsh and then 

 filling it in with a sufficient amount of piled-up stalks and branches to 

 enable my caravan to traverse it without becoming hopelessly stuck in 

 the bog. 



The Uganda canoe, like the Uganda house and road, is a thing peculiar 

 to Uganda. The germ of the idea possibly may be seen in the tub-like 

 vessels which ply on all parts of the Albert Edward, and which, like the 

 canoes of the Baganda, are made of boards sewn together with thongs. 

 The foundations of the boat consist of a keel made from the long, slender 

 stem of a tree, which may be as much as fifty feet long. The keel is 

 straightened and slightly warped, so that it j^resents a convex aspect to 

 the water. This long tree-trunk is a semi-circular hollow, the interior 

 having been burnt out with fire, aided by the chipping of axes, and it is 

 of sufficient girth to form by its breadth the bottom of the canoe. The 

 prow end of the keel projects for a considerable distance out of the water, 

 sloping upwards, as the Baganda generally load more heavily the after 

 part of the canoe. Along the rim of the hollow keel the first long plank 

 of the canoe side is fixed at an angle of perhaps twenty degrees. Its 



369. AN UGAKllA CANOE 



