192 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



would have imperilled a stranger's life. Suna's domestic 

 policy reminds the English reader of the African pecu- 

 liarities which form the groundwork of " Rasselas." 

 His sons, numbering more than one hundred, were 

 removed from the palace in early youth to separate 

 dungeons, and so secured with iron collars and fetters 

 fastened to both ends of a long wooden bar that the 

 wretches could never sit, and without aid could neither 

 rise nor lie. The heir-elective was dragged from his 

 chains to fill a throne, and the cadets will linger 

 through their dreadful lives, unless w r anted as sovereigns, 

 until death release them. Suna kept his female children 

 under the most rigid surveillance within the palace : he 

 had, however, a favourite daughter named Nasuru, 

 whose society was so necessary to him that he allowed 

 her to appear with him in public. 



The principal officers under the despot of Uganda 

 are, first, the Kimara Vyona (literally the " finisher of 

 all things") : to him, the chief civilian of the land, the 

 city is committed ; he also directs the kabaka or village 

 headmen. The second is the Sakibobo or commander- 

 in-chief, who has power over the Sawaganzi, the life- 

 guards and slaves, the warriors and builders of the 

 palace. Justice is administered in the capital by the 

 sultan, who, though severe, is never accused of per- 

 verting the law, which here would signify the ancient 

 custom of the country. A Mhozi — Arabised to Hoz, 

 and compared with the Kazi of el Islam — dispenses in 

 each town criminal and civil rights. The only punish- 

 ments appear to be death and mulcts. Capital offenders 

 are beheaded or burned ; in some cases they are flayed 

 alive ; the operation commences with the face, and the 

 skin, which is always much torn by the knife, is stuffed 

 as in the old torturing days of Asia. When a criminal 



