Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXIV AT THE FOUNTAINS OF THE NILE Y Baganda boys started bright and early one morning from the Kyetume Hospital for a trip of sixty-five miles with me to Jinja, at the Fountains of the Nile. It was not without a thrill of enthusiasm that I started on this little journey towards the source of that historic and alluring river which has touched the imagination of many men -- from Herodotus to Chinese Gordon. I took four Baganda boys along with me -- two to pull and two to push the little Pullman car. The road lay through the forest lands, papyrus swamps and grfien meadows of Uganda. The boys kept singing the entire day. They seemed to have only one song of about two thousand verses. Later I heard some of the verses translated and I give a few lines "White man is the iron; Baganda is the wood. What is the use of iron without wood? What is the use of an axe without a haft? White man pays rupees; Baganda brings him to his home." Often we stopped at the Rest Houses and I was delighted at the soft tones of the language as I heard the people chaffering with my boys. My bronzed Baganda steeds were high mettled young fellows, and many a fight they had along the highway. They would rush through a village shouting and singing; some little urchin would come out and poke fun at them, and then I would hear a good slap, as one of my boys would strike the cheeky offender on the face with his open hand. There were native shops beside the road at which my boys bought pembe, a delicious banana wine. I bought them about two gallons of this pembe in the heat of the day. We rested from twelve until two. We drank up all the pembe and the boys after that seemed to have more spirit than any native Africans I have ever seen. Thenceforth their love and...
