The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-26

Copyright 1908. by Frank G. Carpenter )
 MENGO. ]" HERE are two great monuments
 here at Mengo which mark the changes now going fin Uganda. One is the tomb of the tyrant Mutesa, who was ruling these millions of semi civilized natives when our Stanley came. It is guarded by score or more of his bald-headed widows, who are fated to watch his coffin to the day of their death. The other is the mighty thatched cathedral of Namirembe, put up by the natives that forms the cen ter of the modern Christian movement that has converted this nation. It is the largest church on the African con tinent, and thousands of negroes are worshiping in 1t.
 The Tomb of King Mutesa.
 But come with he first to take a look at the tomb. It lies here a few miles from the Victoria Nyanza on a great hill opposite Kampala, and is like other tomb upon earth. I have vis- ited the graves of the Pharaohs. The greatest of them were caged up in the Pyramids, and it is only within recent years that they have been brought
 
 in caves dug out of the mountains far up the Nile valley; but for ages they were covered by sand and rock. have wandered among the tombs of the Ming Emperors near Ranking, and below the Great Wall in central and north China
 They are guarded by giants, ele- plants. camels and lions cut out of stone. have also seen the Tai Mahal at Agra, India, that structure of mar ble whose dome floats like vast bubble in the blue sky. It is the most beautiful monument ever erected and was put up by Mohammedan sultan out of his love for his wife. Among the other great tombs of the world are the enormous structure in Java known as the Boro Boedoer near which stands the famed stone goddess of the beautiful hips the wonderfully decor ated temples at Tokfo, Japan, In which lie the Shoguns, and the Holy des Invalides in Paris, where Napoleon Bonaparte rests in a sarcophagus of reddish brown granite guarded by the IF apostles whose figures look down from the dome overhead
 This tomb of Mutesa is like none of these, and yet in many respects it is more alive and more wonderful It consists of hut shaped like a hay stack and as big al the main tent of a circus. It is as high as a four-story house and fully 100 feet In circumfrence It is great tent of thatch sewed to a Framework of reeds and upheld bv hundreds of poles. The reads are tied up in bundles, and are woven in and out as intricately as the finest of basket work. In some places they look like mosaics. They were origi- nally white, but the smoke which arises from the perpetual fires within has turned them black as the skins of Mutesa's widows, for whom the tomb forms a home.
 The floor of the tomb Is covered with grass cut for the purpose and spread thickly over it. The poles which support the rof are so arranged that there is a wide pathway through the center, and right in the middle. under the tip of the cone, lies the coffin. It Is guarded by spears fixed upright on each side of it. There are shields of copper and brass in front, and at the back are huge curtains of bark cloth, the same material which , forms the clothing of the kings widows
 Phographng the Queen.
 Accompanied by my guide and a single native soldier, I made my way into the tomb. At first it seemed as dark as night, but as my eyes grew used to the gloom I could see about me. Squatted around the coffin and seated here and there on the grass in different parts of the hut were women of various ages ranging from 35 | upward. All had blankets of bark cloth | wrapped about their bodies. covering their