Gourds with exceedingly strong shells not only grow wild, which if divided in halves afford bowls, but great and quaint varieties form natural bottles of all sizes, from the tiny vial to the demijohn containing five gallons.
The most savage tribes content themselves with the productions of nature, confining their manufacture to a coarse and half-baked jar for carrying water; but the semi-savage, like those of Unyoro, afford an example of the first step toward manufacturing art, by their COPYING FROM NATURE.

The utter savage makes use of nature--the gourd is his utensil; and the more advanced natives of Unyoro adopt it as the model for their pottery.

They make a fine quality of jet-black earthenware, producing excellent tobacco-pipes most finely worked in imitation of the small egg-shaped gourd.

Of the same earthenware they make extremely pretty bowls, and also bottles copied from the varieties of the bottle gourds; thus, in this humble art, we see the first effort of the human mind in manufactures, in taking nature for a model, precisely as the beautiful Corinthian capital originated in a design from a basket of flowers.
In two days reports were brought that Kamrasi had sent a large force, including several of Speke's deserters, to inspect me and see if I was really Speke's brother.

I received them standing, and after thorough inspection I was pronounced to be "Speke's own brother," and all were satisfied.