bearers transferred his litter from their heads to their shoulders, and rattled along with him, always keeping his head foremost, at the rate of about six miles an hour. They appear on the whole to have been very careful, as any man who stumbled was reproached by his comrades; but they often set him down and left him for long periods whenever plantains and plantain-wine were abundant, and once that they might bowl rocks down. a precipice. Each man carried on the march a small bundle on his head, with pipes and flutes stuck in it, and at his back a spear and shield, the latter serving as an umbrella when rain fell. Those who had dogs dragged them along by a string. After a march they always put on their robes, and when they approached dwellings they shouted and sang as if they were carrying a dead lion. They made wild work with the plantains and other property of the inhabitants everywhere, living at free quarters, and eating the dinners ready cooked for other people. Their leader was one Maribu, who had a pleasant little wife, very attentive to Grant's wants. The worst part of the journey had been the crossing of the horrible rushdrains, which, in the still inflamed condition of Grant's leg, gave him excruciating pain.

Notwithstanding his invalid state, Grant was able to make some observations on natural history. The flora along this track was not very remarkable for its variety. The most graceful tree was the wild date-palm, growing on the low hills in clumps of three or four. Its crested plumes waved in the breeze, giving almost animal life to the silent scene. Bird's nests or clusters of India-red fruit hung from the branches. There was a new sort of acacia whose pods were broad and numerous, with fruit so abundant that it almost hid the leaves. Not many large trees were seen, their growth having been probably stunted by

256

USES OF THE PLANTAIN.

the lichens and parasites which covered them. One flattopped acacia was matted over with bushes of them as if they had been planted on the tops of the branches. The trunks were observed to bear most moss on the northeast side, denoting that that exposure was the dampest. The coffee-shrub was found useful as a screen from the sun. The growth of each year was marked by the knots on its branches. Two kinds of fruit were observed-one like the Indian loquot, with several stones, growing on a tree with dark foliage and dense branches, the other an underground scarlet fruit, growing in sets of five or six clustered together like bananas, and of the same size. After they were peeled, the pulp with its numerous black seeds had the refreshing taste of a lime. The Waganda carried them strung as necklaces. The stalk of this plant (an amomum) grows four feet high from a creeping knotted root, and the scarlet fruit, when ripe, peers from the ground, forcing up the soil like a mole. The green plantain is prepared by boiling, when the peel comes off, and it is eaten like mashed potatoes. It was much improved by being boiled with meat, and improved the meat also. The fruit furnished food as well as wine, its leaf tablecloths and plates, and its watery fibre napkins to cleanse the hands. Thread, wrappers, and strips like ribbons were taken from the trunk, and the leaves were also made into screen-fences. The plantain-orchards were seen to the greatest perfection in Uhia. The tree sometimes contained two hundred large fruit, bending the stems, which had to be supported by a forked stick or ropes. The tree is cut down when the fruit is ripe, to permit the growth of the young shoot which comes from the parent root. The orchards are of bare-poled single trees, which is a better arrangement for fruit than if they grew in clusters; and should the leaf-stalk droop

GRANT'S INTRODUCTION TO MTÉSA.

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from the trunk, it is bandaged up to prevent the rain from beating into the heart of the tree.

At Katonga Bay Grant observed the Trapa natans, whose roots the Waganda eat. Its leaves looked very beautiful in the water by the side of those of the lily of the Nile. He noticed, as well as Speke, the gigantic trees in some of the dells with their deep-green foliage. Their trunks and branches were covered with parasitical plants, making a shelter for the buffalo and elephant, who, unconscious of a stage erected overhead to catch them, came there to escape the heat. He brought home some seeds of a strange-looking tree of the plantain kind, seen growing wild outside a cultivation. They were pronounced to belong to the Ensete of Bruce, discovered by him in Abyssinia. It had a general resemblance to the plantain, but a very stout stem and general low appearance, its shape being that of big drums placed one on the other, with gigantic single leaves growing from the sides. In 3° N. lat. this plant was again met with, growing on rocky heights. Of all the people that Grant passed he was most pleased with those of Uhia, who were exceedingly neat and clean in all their habits, and wore becoming mantles of cowskin or barkcloth, often of a salmon colour, which contrasted well with their dark skins.

On the 28th of May the royal pages came to say that the king would receive Grant, and that he might sit on a stool in the presence. Accordingly, his present of a gun and ammunition having been graciously received, he dressed himself in his best suit-namely, white trousers, blue flannel coat, shepherd's plaid shirt, a helmet and a red turban round it. Mtésa appeared and took his seat on a bench of grass with a dog behind him; the Kamraviona sat at his feet, and several women were on his left.

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