The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-10
Kampala, Uganda.

hampala, Uganda. NO you want cheap wife?
 You can get one here in Uganda A~ for 8 per"
 The actual price is S333, and there are thousands now on the market for just that much and no more. The rate has been fixed by the Lultko, or the native royal council, which governs this country under the king, and the man who bids higher will be fined At the same time the parents who demand more are liable to a fine equal to the price of their daughter. So you see every one has a fair show. I have met crowds of these $3 maidens since l came into Uganda, and I am told there are at least 100, 900 now ready for marriage. According to the new laws a girl should be at least F before she is welded and as there are 100000 souls in Uganda, a fresh crop comes on every year.
 How the Girls Look.
 Brt before l go further, let me tell you how these Uganda gI-ls look The coun- try swarms with them and 1 have taken snapshots of a dozen while walking over the hills. They represent girls of all ages from little tots of s, as naked as the day they were born, save for a cord about their waist as big as my thumb, to full grown, well developed madeps of 16 clad in bark garments of a brick-dust hue. All have beautiful forms. The average young woman is straighter than the Venus de Medici, and she carries herself like queen She is an African queen, however, and that allied to the best negro type. Take for instance one whom l sized up today. I never go travelling without a tapeline in my pocket, and I can give you her measurements. She was just feet l inch in height, 32 inches across the chest under the arms and 35 including the bark cloth which covered her bust. ] did not take the line around her waist, but it was longer by far than that of our average woman of the same age coming perhaps from the extraordinary amount of bananas upon which these peo- pie feed. This girl was of a rich mahog- any brown and her skin shone as though it were oiled. She was clad in bark cloth from arm pits to ankles and her garment consisted of a bark blanket, wrapped tightly about her body under the arms and tied by cord at the waist. This cord was of bark, and the extra folds of the blanket were gathered into it so that they fell over in front. The girls neck and shoulders were as smooth as though cut out by a sculptor, and she had beau tiful arms. She had 32 teeth and they were sound firm and as white as ivory
 l cannot describe her hair, for her scalp was shaved close to the skin and she had evidently just left the barber The shay ing made her little brown ears especially prominent. Other maidens whom l have seen have hair decidedly wooly, and I doubt not this girls is the same when grown out. Through my guide, Epifras, or sassafras, as l call him. I discovered her age. She is just r. and, I understand, she is about to be married
 Love in Uganda.
 The girl told us that her prospective husband was just 20. She simpered a lit- tie in talking of him and was evidently proud of the fact of her approaching we'd ding Sassafras says it is really a love match and that such matches are com mon in Uganda These people are most civilized of the natives of the central parts of this continent. They are polite and full of good nature. In many re- spects they remind me or the Japanese Girls and boys go around hand in hand and there seems to be considerable affec- ton between the young men and young women II used to be that d man could have as many wives as he.pleased King Mutesa had his hundreds, and until lately every chief had his harem. After the 1 country was converted to Christianity, i slavery was practically abolished, and ! row the rule of one wife prevails ex- | cept among the Mohammedan believers. | who are each allowed to have four. There l Africa, and the boys and girls plas to- 1 gether. If the two fall in love the irl l takes the young man and introduces hl'n