Page:Two kings of Uganda.djvu/68
during the return journey to the mainland. One rather amusing incident occurred before I took my departure from the island. I was lying under a tree, lazily watching the blue waters of the Nyanza rippling in the sunlight while waiting for the canoe which was to take me back to Kageye. A few yards from me a woman was busily employed hoeing a plot of ground, when presently up came an inquisitive fellow. Perhaps he was merely of an inquiring and observant nature; but he suddenly was attracted by the extraordinary sight of a white man lying under a tree, clothed from head to foot in garments such as he had never before even imagined. He hurried across the cultivated ground in order to make a closer inspection of such a curious phenomenon. But the unwritten law that trespassers will be prosecuted was put into swift and unexpected execution by the dusky daughter of Eve whose garden he was desecrating. Raising her hoe, she struck the unhappy intruder a heavy blow, which she repeated as quickly as she was able. At first he was utterly taken by surprise; but as soon as he recovered himself, he promptly repaid the attention with interest. After a short scrimmage they parted in hot anger; he, objurgating and spitting on the ground, made off to his own village, while she hastened to her home, which lay in the opposite direction, to gather her faction. Very soon I saw issuing from each village, an angry and excited crowd. I quite expected that it would end in a pitched battle, but more peaceable counsels prevailed and the