244 
BUDJA, A KING'S OFFICER. 
clean in his dress, and never sitting down unless a 
carpet of cowskin was laid for him by one of his 
attendant boys. Like all his race, he was impetuous ; 
if sent for, he would come leisurely with the haughty 
airs of M'tessa, sit for a moment, pretend to listen to 
what was said, and before any business about the 
march could be negotiated, would rise abruptly, mak- 
ing some silly excuse, that the cattle must be looked 
after, &c, and then disappear. He travelled with 
three wives — tall, fair women — and about twenty 
young lads, who anticipated his every wish. One 
amongst them always looked after the ladies, whether 
on the march or in camp ; another had both ears and 
fingers cut off for adultery. These men without ears 
had a very curious appearance — one old man in par- 
ticular, his head looking like a barber's block, with 
black holes bored in it ; not a fragment of the external 
ear was left. Whether the operation ultimately affected 
their hearing we could not ascertain, but apparently 
it did not ; they had the sharp look of pug dogs. 
As Budja and party will accompany me into Unyoro 
while Speke goes to look at the exit of the Mle from 
the lake, his name will appear often in this chapter. 
He was a great authority on the road, being the 
mediator between the kings of Uganda and Unyoro. 
On asking him what relation a certain man was to the 
queen-dowager of Uganda, he replied by placing his 
left hand on his own right shoulder, thereby signifying 
that they were full brother and sister. I had never 
before seen any race that adopted this mode of ex- 
pression, and it would imply that they, like ourselves, 
think the right hand of more importance than the left. 
Budja, however, could use either hand equally well. 
