Page:Two kings of Uganda.djvu/106

shoulder, but girded as a sign of mourning, with withered plantain fibre, an emblem of decay and death. The women also wore the bark-cloth wrapped round them, under their arms so as to cover the bosom. A casual observer would not notice the way in which the different sexes wore this costume; hence perhaps arose the scornful saying, among the surrounding nations, that the Baganda were all women, and their inveterate habit of keeping dogs, doubtless gave rise to the still more insulting taunt, that they were the offspring of these domestic pets.

The women in mourning wore girdles of tattered green plantain leaves, perhaps an emblem of the life shattered by death, as the leaf is broken by the storm, though black people are not poetical. The struggle to obtain necessary food leaves little room for romance; and no doubt the genial current of many a noble soul is frozen at its source, which, under happier conditions, might have become a life-giving stream. Though the king was dead and buried, the scene was not yet wholly ended. His old palace, Nabulagala, now became the "Kasubi," a kind of pale unreal image of the new king's glory and grandeur. Here at Kasubi, were old deposed chiefs, possessing the simulacra of empty titles, but without any position or influence. Their master was now a dead king, before whose tomb they did homage, yet from whom they could expect but little favour. One of the deposed chiefs was now keeper of the grave, another the spirit's "musenero," chief