76 
EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
VI 
bodily punishments were inflicted on frivolous pretexts. 
Cunningham refers to a poor wretch he had seen, 
whose ears had been cut off because his goat, in passing 
along a path, nibbled a blade of grass on the King’s : 
land. The present Katikiro or Prime Minister of 
Uganda wrote an account of the Kings (Bakabaka) of 
Uganda; he states that at frequent intervals Mutesa 
proclaimed sacrifices, and the royal harem was rifled for 
victims, who were duly slaughtered, with many others. [ 
When Mutesa died the whole country mourned for him, J 
a King whose conduct was so atrocious as to excite ,i,| 
horror in a country like Africa where “Eye for eye,|B; 
tooth for . tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot”! ^ 
does not excite astonishment. For instance, whenyi 
Livingstone visited the native ruler of Lunda in^^^ 
1867, he found the court of the palace decorated ^ 
with men’s skulls, and a great portion of the people ’ 
had cropped ears and lopped-off arms, which served to I 
remind the subjects of these mutilations that the ruler ; 
had been obliged to give expression to his disapproval j 
of their conduct. (Erode.) j 
The Uganda Cathedral 1 
It has been mentioned that the most conspicuous 1 
edifice in Kampala, the Cathedral on the summit of i 
Namirembe hill, was struck by lightning and reduced j 
to ashes a few months after our visit. Probably no | 
other place of Christian worship in the world was like i 
unto it. This cathedral rested on a foundation of burnt : 
bricks, but those used in the construction of the walls ■ 
were sun-dried. The wooden roof was supported by two 
rows of octagonal columns built of unburnt bricks, and 
thatched with dried grass. The beams which supported 
the roof were overlaid with polished stalks of elephant 
grass which caused the interior of the cathedral to be 
filled with a pale yellow light, producing an unusual i 
and pleasant impression. 
