CHAP. X.] 
THE BARK CLOTH OF TJNYORO. 
299 
beef—we gave them to understand that we required 
flour, beans, and sweet potatoes in exchange. 
The market soon went briskly, and whole rows of 
girls and women arrived, bringing baskets filled with 
the desired provisions. The women were neatly dressed 
in short petticoats with a double skirt—many exposed 
the bosom, while others wore a piece of bark cloth 
arranged as a plaid across the chest and shoulders. 
This cloth is the produce of a species of fig-tree, the 
bark of which is stripped off in large pieces and then 
soaked in water and beaten with a mallet: in appear¬ 
ance it much resembles corduroy, and is the colour of 
tanned leather; the finer qualities are peculiarly soft to 
the touch, as though of woven cotton. Every garden 
is full of this species of tree, as their cultivation is 
necessary for the supply of clothing; when a man 
takes a wife he plants a certain number of trees, that 
are to be the tailors of the expected family. 
The market being closed, the canoe was laden with 
provisions, and sent across to our hungry people on 
the other side the river. 
The difference between the Unyoro people and the 
tribes we had hitherto seen was most striking. On 
the north side of the river the natives were either 
stark naked, or wore a mere apology for clothing in 
the shape of a skin slung across their shoulders : the 
river appeared to be the limit of utter savagedom, and 
the people of Unyoro considered the indecency of naked¬ 
ness precisely in the same light as among Europeans. 
The northern district of Unyoro at Karuma is called 
Chopi, the language being the same as the Madi, 
and different to the southern and central portions of 
the kingdom. The people were distinct in their type, 
but they had the woolly hair of negroes, like all other 
tribes of the White Nile. 
By astronomical observation I determined the lati¬ 
tude of Atada at Karuma Falls, 2° 15'; and by Casella’s 
thermometer, the altitude of the river level above the 
sea 3,996 feet. 
