The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-03

syndicate which has concession of 150 square miles of forests in this region. It has been plating out it's estate and is endeavorng to establish good labor con- ditions. The chief trouble here in pros ecuting any large enterprise is the lack of available worSmen. The natives will labor for a few days or weeks and then lay off until they have eaten what they have earned. At present the current wages are $1 month, but the lumber syndicate now needs 5000 men and it has offered the enormous sum of four rupees or $l.33 a month for new hands. This increase is just about a cent and a half a day or rise from 1-3 to IF cents. As a result laborers are coming in from other parts of the protectorate and there is loud outcry that this rise will ruin the country. At present much of the lumber is sawed by hand but modern machinery will soon be brought in.
 Among the Basogas.
 The natives of this district, which in- cludes the source of the Nile, are known as the Basogas. They are not so civilized as the Baganda, but in many respects look and dress not unlike them. They wear bark cloth blankets, the materials for which they raise in their gardens. The men tie the blankets over their shoulders and the women wrap them around the body under the arms, leaving their necks and shoulders bare They sometimes have a sash of bark about the waist and when working a girl often al- lows her blanket to fall down to this sash leaving the upper par of her body nude. At such times it is possible to see the skin decorations which the women here affect as a mark of beauty. They scar themselves below the bosom, malS- ing four long scratches which stand up like ridges. Some of the women have strings of beads and shells about their waists, and not a few have bracelets and anklets
 The chief business here is agriculture, although some of the people have cattle, sheep and goats l see peanuts, Indian corn, beans, bananas and sweet potatoes in the market, and am told that the chief crop grown is bananas, and that this fruit constitutes the principal article of food. It is an odd thing that the women here are not allowed to eat chickens after they are married. Why this is I do not know. It is somewhat like the custom which prevails among the British East African, tribes, where the married women dare not to drink milk. l suppose the men want to monopolize both.
 The Town of Jnga.
 The day may come when there will be
 
 a great city here and when railroads and steampoats will make this point one of the chief centers of trade of these high lands of Africa. At present the popula- ton consists of a few hundred black natives dressed in bark cloth and cot ton. They live in matched huts scattered along the wide streets laid out by the English. There are some Hindoo trad CTS and considerable market. The gov ernnlent offices and stores are incosed in a large rectangular stockade. There arc no hotels nor other places to stop at, and I shall be on the steamer during ny sllopt stay came here from En- tebbe. Tho boats make a regular call on their way to Port Florence. and the falls of the Nile are thus easily accessible. The country about, however, is eonsid cred unheaFheni and l fear to spend much time close to the lake on account of the tsetse fly, whose sting gives one the sleeping sickness, which has killed a