pur to the Ingezi Kagera side, showing by actual navigation
the connection of these highland lakes with the rivers which drain the
various spurs of the Mountains of the Moon. Rumanika also told me that
in Ruenda there existed pigmies who lived in trees, but occasionally came
down at night, and listening at the hut doors of the men, would wait
till they heard the name of one of its inmates, when they would call him
out, and firing an arrow into his heart, disappear again in the same way
as they came. After a long and amusing conversation, I was introduced to
his sister-in-law, a wonder of obesity, unable to stand, except on all
fours. Meanwhile, the daughter, a lass of sixteen, sat before us sucking
at a milk-pot, on which her father kept her at work by holding a rod in
his hand, as fattening is the first duty of fashionable female life.

During my stay I had traced Rumanika's descent from King David, whose
hair was as straight as my own, and he found in these theological
disclosures the greatest delight. He wished to know what difference
existed between the Arabs and ourselves, to which Baraka replied, as the
best means of making him understand, that whilst the Arabs had only one
book, we had two, to which I added, "Yes, that is true in a sense, but
the real merits lie in the fact that we have got the better book, as may
be inferred by the obvious fact that we are more prosperous and superior
in all things."

One day, we heard the familiar sound of the Uganda drum. Maula, a royal
officer, with an escort of smartly-dressed men and women and boys, had
brought a welcome from the king. One thing only now embarrassed
me--Grant was worse, without hope of recovery for some months. This
large body of Waganda could not be kept waiting. To get on as fast as
possible was the only chance of ever bringing the journey to a
successful issue. So, unable to help myself, with great remorse at
another separation, on the following day I consigned my companion, with
several Wanguana, to the care of my friend Rumanika. When all was
completed, I set out on the march, perfectly sure in my mind that before
very long I should settle the great Nile problem for ever, and with
this consciousness, only hoping that Grant would be able to join me
before I should have to return again, for it was never supposed for a
moment that it was possible I ever could get north from Uganda.

_III.--A Distinguished Guest at the Court of Uganda_

As it was my l