304 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
seem to be born with an uncontrollable love of gaining 
wealth by robbery, violence, and murder, in which they 
resemble — except that they have the lawless instinct to 
a greater degree than most— nearly all African tribes. 
Owing, however, to their terror of punishment, the 
stranger is permitted to wander in almost certain safety 
throughout Uganda, and is hospitably treated as the 
“ Emperor's guest ” (Mgeni). One has only to hear the 
word “ Nganya ” (spoil) given by a person in authority 
to be surprised at the greed there and then exhibited. 
The adage has long been accepted for true, “ Like 
father like son,” and equally true would be the saying 
“Like king like people.” The conduct of the chiefs 
proves that in Uganda at least it is true, for, like the 
Emperor, they adopt a despotic style, and require to 
be served by their inferiors with abject servility and 
promptitude. Like him, also, the chiefs are fond of 
pomp and display, and, as far as their rank and means 
permit, they exhibit this vanity to the utmost. 
Thus, the monarch has always about two score of 
drummers, a score of lifers, half a score of native guitar- 
players, several mountebanks, clowns, dwarfs, and al- 
binoes, a multitude of errand-boys, pages, messengers, 
courtiers, claimants, besides a large number of body- 
guards and two standard-bearers, either following or 
preceding him wherever he goes, to declare his state 
and quality. The chiefs, therefore, have also their 
followers, standard-bearers, and pages, and so on down 
to the peasant or cowherd, who makes an infantile slave 
trot after him to carry his shield and spears. 
In person the Waganda are tall and slender. I have 
seen hundreds of them above 6 feet 2 inches in height, 
while I saw one who measured 6 feet 6 inches. Of 
course the native Waganda must be distinguished from 
strangers and slaves and their descendants imported 
from conquered lands, and generally they differ from 
these by their more pleasing looks and more agreeable 
features. This last, however, may be attributed to a 
general love of cleanliness, neatness, and modesty, which 
pervades all, from the highest to the lowest. A naked 
