THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
197 
ears to be cut off if the king would give her a slave. The slave 
was given, and the king cut off her ears as a matter of course, 
and the loss did not seem to trouble the woman. For the most 
part the people lived in huts on the land, but there were some 
strange exceptions. On one lake there were masses of floating 
vegetation, like that on the Mle which stopped Sir Samuel Baker 
on his second journey, and on this vegetation logs were laid, and 
huts built and inhabited. When it was wished to remove, the 
floating mass with the huts upon it was drawn to another part of 
the lake. On another lake there were two or three villages built 
on piles in the centre of the lake. Each hut was an independent 
habitation, but a number of them were always grouped together. 
When the king died all his wives but one were slaughtered, some 
being buried alive. Usually a stream was diverted, and a grave 
dug in its bed, and when king and wives had been buried, the 
water was restored to its usual course. But perhaps the most 
curious thing in connection with the Urnians was their method of 
signalling, so to speak, and communicating very rapidly, by means 
of drums. By certain beats on the drums messages could be 
sent immense distances in a comparatively short time, and answers 
speedily returned. This system of tattoo beating and drum com- 
munication was spoken of by some of the old travellers, and 
disbelieved; but Commander Cameron proves the truth of the 
story. The code of signals is carefully guarded, but while he was 
resident there he became sufficiently conversant with the taps 
given on the instrument to know when his own name or that of 
any other chief and many other matters were signalled. If he 
wished to visit a chief in a distant part of the country signals were 
given and passed along perhaps some hundreds of miles, and an 
answer was very quickly returned as to whether he should start or 
not. Expeditions were also regulated in their movements by the 
same means, and communications were made from head-quarters to 
all parts of the country. Commander Cameron also subsequently 
spoke of the people at Bibe, where the houses were well-built and 
square, and the interiors decorated with representations of pro- 
cessions and so on. The observer was careful however to explain 
that, although artistic to this extent, the dwellings were not by 
any means abodes of sweetness or light. He also met with a race 
apparently of white negroes, or rather white people with negroid 
features. These were found on a branch of the Tanginaki. Major 
