Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/124

 which according to one interpretation means "he who makes all tremble." A small army of executioners, their heads bound with cords, always awaited his orders, accompanying him in all his expeditions. But he was not absolute master in state affairs, his power being controlled by three icakimgu, or hereditary vassals. The katekiro, or chief functionary, a sort of " mayor of the palace " and governor of U-Du, is nominated by the king, and may be chosen even amongst the peasantry. He takes his place with the sovereign and the three wakungu in the privy council, and in the king's absence presides over the luchiko or governing body, composed of all the grandees of the country, vassals and feudatories, wakungu and wakongoli. The head cook and other palace dignitaries have also a voice in the council. At the death of the king the right of nomination belongs to the three wakungu, who select one of his children, imprison his brothers during their minority, and then burn them, reserving two or three to continue the race, should the new king die without issue. If the three great chiefs disagree as to the choice of the sovereign, the question is decided by war, the conqueror enthroning his choice. For their battles the wakungu have no lack of men, all able-bodied persons, from five hundred thousand to six hundred thousand altogether, being trained in the use of arras and obliged to obey the first summons of their chiefs. The royal guard is partly composed of peoples of Eastern Sudan and Dongola, deserters from the Egyptian army. The fleet consists of several hundred canoes.

The capital changes according to the king's caprice. In 1862, at the time of Speke and Grant's visit, the royal residence was at lianda, which, for a country of large trade, would appear to be most favourably situated on the crest of the portage between the great gulf of Mwaru-Luajerri, the Murchison Bay of the English, and the river Katawana-Luajerri, which joins the Nile at Lake Ibrahim. A few scattered hamlets in the midst of ruins, which must soon disappear, are now all that remains of Banda. Rubaga is the most important present capital, lying about seven miles towards the north-west, on a hill encircled by rivulets which form the headstream of the M'werango river, flowing through the Kafu to the Nile. On the simimit of the hill, visible from afar, with its lofty gables and flagstaff, stands the king's palace, surrounded with gardens, above which appear the conic roofs of the huts inhabited by his wives and officers. Northwards another hill bears a second royal residence, surrounded by the village of Nabulagala, Stanley's Ullagala. This is the main depot of the Arab merchants, and here begins the caravan route towards M'ruli, the principal market-town of the Somerset Nile. The two most frequented ports of U-Ganda on the shores of the great lake are U-Savara, on the banks of Murchison Bay, and M'tebbi, on the gulf limited south by the Sesse Archipelago.

East of Nyanza the most powerful state is that of Kavirondo, which is said to exercise a sort of suzerainty over all the riverain peoples between the islands of