mbugu

-- During the next two days, as my men had all worn out their clothes, I gave them each thirty necklaces of beads to purchase a suit of the bark cloth called mbugu, already described.

The Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke 1845

Hence I could not determine whether the word had been originally the name of the tree, of its bark, or of the article made from the bark, though I am inclined to think it is the bark, as there are many varieties of these trees, which, being besides being called mbugu, had their own particular names.] [Footnote 11: Rumanika's present.

The Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke 1845

Rumanika then gave him and Uledi, his selected companion, some sheets of mbugu, in order that they might disguise themselves as his officers whilst crossing the territories of the king of Uganda.

The Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke 1845

He, like the rest of the porters in the caravan, wore a shirt of fig-tree bark called mbugu.

The Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke 1845

I complied, spread my bedding, and ordered in my breakfast; but as the hut was full of men, I suspended a Scotch plain, and quite eclipsed her mbugu curtain.

The Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke 1845

I added my excuses for Kamrasi, and laid a complaint against Mtesa's officers for having defrauded us out of ten cows, five goats, six butter, and sixty mbugu.

The Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke 1845

Her majesty -- fat, fair, and forty-five -- was sitting, plainly garbed in mbugu, upon a carpet spread upon the ground within a curtain of mbugu, her elbow resting on a pillow of the same bark material; the only ornaments on her person being an abrus necklace, and a piece of mbugu tied round her head, whilst a folding looking-glass, much the worse for wear, stood open by her side.

The Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke 1845

Young virgins, the daughters of Wakungu, stark naked, and smeared with grease, but holding, for decency's sake, a small square of mbugu at the upper corners in both hands before them, are presented by their fathers in propitiation for some offence, and to fill the harem.

The Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke 1845

The cutlers show knives and forks made of iron inlaid with brass and copper; the furriers, most beautifully-sewn patchwork of antelopes 'skins; the habit-maker, sheets of mbugu barkcloth; the blacksmith, spears; the maker of shields, his productions; -- and so forth; but nothing is ever given without rubbing it down, then rubbing the face, and going through a long form of salutation for the gracious favour the king has shown in accepting it.

The Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke 1845

When the rain ceased, her majesty retired a second time to her toilet-hut, and changed her dress for a puce-coloured wrapper, when I, ashamed of having robbed her of so many sambo, asked her if she would allow me to present her with a little English "wool" to hang up instead of her mbugu curtain on cold days like this.

The Discovery of the Source of the Nile John Hanning Speke 1845