560 
PROCEEDINGS OE SECTION E. 
already beginning — but still the reed and grass houses are exceedingly 
comfortable, clean, neat, and cool ; stability is obtained by palm-tree 
stems sunk in pits four or five feet deep, at spaces six to uiue feet broad. 
Some houses are as much as 30 feet high. The large church on Mengo is 
40 feet, but for the very high ones forest trees have to be found. The 
upper ends of these posts have a notch cut upon them, and in these 
notches rest cross-beams covered with reeds and papyrus fibre (a 
beautiful white) ; a scaffolding is made, reaching to within about four 
to six feet of the roof. The roof is then built before the walls; reeds 
arc broken over the roof-tree, and secured on each side, inside and out, 
by other reeds, covered with p apyrus fibre laid on crosswise and bound 
on with twisted cord; and gradually the roof is completed to the 
outside walls. When thatched, which is the next process, no grass 
can be seen from the inside at all. The thatch is bound on in small 
handfuls, and at the top is secured outside by poles tied on lengthwise. 
When the thatching is finished, the thatch is neatly cut all round 
the house, so as to have a finished appearance. Then come the walls. 
First, reeds are put on crosswise at distances of eight or nine inches, 
and then grass is tied on to them, and other reeds hold it in its place ; 
this is done on both sides of the poles ol: the wall. The final process 
is to sew oil reeds lengthwise with bark. The appearance, when 
finished, can he exceedingly neat. The Baganda then, after levelling 
the floor, lay down a fine grass. We get our houses beaten, and do not 
have the grass; and during these days of jiggers frequently lay down 
cowdung, which kills the jiggers. 
The national dress is the bark cloth, of which I enclose a little 
piece. It is the beaten-out hark of a kind of fig-tree ; a large cloth, 
the size of the largest blankets, is worth Is. 3d., and a fine one of a 
dark-red colour will fetch as much as 5s. The ribs on the cloth are 
made by the wooden mallet with which it is beaten In the houses it 
is used as curtains, and serves the purpose of blankets, and forms the 
clothing of nine-tenths of the people. 
Bhang (or Indian hemp) smoking is a great hindrance m many 
parts of the country to ihe spread of the Gospel. In the adjoining 
country of Busoga there is scarcely anyone who does not smoke this 
pernicious drug ; hut in the country of *Bunyoro no one smokes it. 
Hence the Banyo.ro are much more ready to receive the Gospel, hut 
the Basoga, although work has been carried on therefor some three years, 
seem to make no progress. In Bunyoro there is a wide open door. 
Why should not Australia take up Bunyoro as her portion of this 
country ? In B Uganda the habit of bhang-smoking is mainly confined 
to the elephant hunters, and many of the chiefs have not courage to 
oppose it for this reason, as their hunters would leave them. Ibis 
leads me to speak of the feudal system, which is perfectly exhibited 
iu B Uganda, just as, I suppose, it must have been seen in the old 
Britain. Hired labour is almost, and till lately totally, unknown. A 
man who attaches himself to any chief lias a garden and building site 
given him, in return for which he can be called upon to work for his 
chief — bring him food, beer, &c. If be thinks he is worked too hard, 
or does not get a sufficient return, he leaves. J ust tying up his belong- 
ings and shutting his house door, he is off to some other locality to 
Usually shown on maps as Unyoro. 
