STICK PARADE. 
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pletely changed, and he reminded one of a black 
Highland bull looking fiercely through his forelock. 
Both these executioners were really polite men, 
always frank when met at the palace — much more so 
than the kamaraviona (commander-in-chief), who was 
a proud, haughty young fellow. One day I had the 
curiosity to follow a poor woman who was led by a 
boy to be killed. She carried a small hoe, balanced 
upon her head. No one told me she was under sen- 
tence, but the cord on the wrist was sufficient ; and 
after travelling for half a mile, I followed her down to 
the executioner's gardens. Waiting outside for some 
time, not a sound was heard, nor a person seen. A 
lazy, yellow-beaked vulture, the cannibal of Uganda, 
sat perched on the stump of a broken tree ; others 
hovered high overhead, looking on the scene below. 
This circumstantial evidence was enough for me, and 
I returned. 
One of the sights at the capital of Uganda was to 
watch the crowds of men on the highroad leading to 
the palace ; all were under officers, perhaps a hundred 
in one party. If wood is carried into the palace up 
the hill, it must be done as neatly as a regiment per- 
forms a manoeuvre on parade, and with the same 
precision. After the logs are carried a certain distance, 
the men charge up hill, with walking-sticks at the 
" slope/' to the sound of the drum, shouting and chorus- 
sing. On reaching their officer, they drop on their 
knees to salute, by saying repeatedly in one voice the 
word " n'yans " (thanks). Then they go back, charg- 
ing down hill, stooping simultaneously to pick up the 
wood, till, step by step — it taking several hours — the 
neatly-cut logs are regularly stacked in the palace 
