of Edinburgh, Session 1885 — 86 . 
731 
manufacture of bead ornaments ; necklaces, bracelets, anklets, 
stomachers, and rings for the waists are made. Red, blue, white, 
black, and green beads are all in vogue. The patterns show a 
great amount of good taste, and none of the gaudy contrasts so 
usual amongst African tribes are to be seen. The hair from the 
giraffe’s tail is used for stringing the beads. The beadwork is 
often arranged over pads made of grass tightly covered with banana 
fibre. Some of the little grass caps before referred to are orna- 
mented with beadwork patterns, the beads being sewn on to them 
with hairs, and thorns being employed as needles. 
String . — String and rope of various sizes and of various materials 
are manufactured. They are both spun and plaited. String is made 
from banana fibre, the fibre of a species of aloe, the sinews of animals, 
their intestines, and more rarely from wool. The long fibres are 
usually twisted on the thigh with the hand, which is generally wetted. 
In plaiting, 3, 6, and 9-ply are employed. The ropes are generally 
plaited, and they are made either of string or of hide. Weaving is 
unknown in Uganda. 
Boat-Building and Navigation . — The Waganda are extremely 
good boat-builders, and various sizes of boats are made, from small 
fishing canoes capable of holding two or three men up to the large 
war canoes containing sixty men. The canoes are made in the 
following manner : — The straight trunk of a tree of the required 
length is taken, and the bottom of the vessel is constructed from 
it by cutting away the superfluous wood with an axe. It is care- 
fully hollowed out down the middle, tapered off at both ends, and 
at the bow a horn is formed, which projects some 3 or 4 feet above 
the cutwater when the canoe is finished. Along both edges of this 
bottom log small holes are bored with a red-hot iron at a distance 
of 2 or 3 inches apart. Two long planks, hewn with an axe out of 
the solid trunk of a tree, are then taken, and a number of holes 
having been bored, to correspond with those in the bottom log, 
they are tied together with the root of fibres of various plants, 
•curved boards being added at either end where the canoe narrows. 
These hoards are curved by being placed with the ends resting on 
two logs of wood, heavy weights being placed between them. The 
planks are sloped outwards at an angle of about 60 degrees, giving 
additional breadth to the canoe. 
