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MAN AND BEAST IN
EASTERN ETHIOPIA
MACMILLAN AND CO., LimITED
LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO
ATLANTA . SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltp.
TORONTO
MAN AND BEAST IN
EASTERN ETHIOPIA
From Observations made in British East Africa, Uganda,
and the Sudan
BY
J. BLAND-SUTTON, F.R.C.S.Enc.
With Two Hundred and Four Engravings on Wood
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON
IQII
RicHaRp CLay AND Sons, LIMITED,
BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, 8.E.
AND AT BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION .
I.—MOMBASA
I].—THE UGANDA RAILWAY .
III.--THE VICTORIA NYANZA
IV.—ARCHIPELAGOES AND ISLANDS OF THE LAKE
V.—UGANDA .
VI.—KAMPALA
VII.—DRUMS
VIII.—Masal .
IX.—WA-KIKUYU
X.—ORNAMENTS FOR EARS AND LIPS
X1.--NDOROBO
XII.—KAVIRONDOS .
XIII.—ETHIOPIAN FASHIONS IN HAIR-DRESSING
XIV.—ON SAFARI
XV.—AN UNCAGED ZOO
XVI.—THE LION .
XVII.—THE CROCODILE
XVIII.—THE CRATERS OF THE RIFT VALLEY
XIX.—THE RIFT VALLEY AND ITS LAKES
XX.—THORNS .
XXI.—HORNS
XXII.—ANTELOPES
XXIII.—GAZELLES AND COBS
PAGE
vi CONTENTS
XXIV.—GNUS AND DUIKERS .......
XXV.—PESTS: JIGGERS, TICKS, AND MOSQUITOES . .
XXVI.—FLIES AND SLEEPING SICKNESS .
XXVII.—TERMITES (WHITE ANTS) . .
SOC VIE SBMA Sais uve see msene terme ste ieee ciarcmtsiinies Fon comeo ores
POC CRESMS) tse) Ge eee gees
DEX XS — TALL seureassarc len cmc ent ins aeie
OXEX IL VORV esis eee eos ers aes ee ate cakes ie
XXXITL—HIPPOPOLTAMUS». 3 wees es ee
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Porter with an elephant’s tusk
An Arab doorway, Mombasa . .
Papaw tree .
Baobab tree
Castor Oil plant
Gecko
Thomson’s Gazelle
Parasitic Ficus
Water-carrier . a
Nandi woman and baby
Iron twisted by an elephant
Bagrus docmac .
Screaming Sea-Eagle
Speke’s Antelope
Mud-fish . a:
Head of Mud-fish .
Mud-fish in its Cocoon .
Papyrus raft
Victoria Nyanza (map)
Fetish Hut .
Uganda boat . :
Sesse boat on the lake .
Hippopotamus harpoons .
Hippopotamus and calf
Banana
Banana leaves
Boy collecting termites
Scaly anteater
Spirit-shelter
vill LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Ant-hill
Chameleons emigre
Mutesa’s tomb and Vineet Ss grave
The Thatched Cathedral and drummery .
Interior of the Uganda Cathedral .
St. Paul’s Cathedral, Uganda .
Hannington’s Raven
Uganda drum é ;
Women drummers at ee fone
Sesse Guitar bor tivte
Ashantee fetish ature, pe rebr nee he ten C3
Church drums
Niam-Niam war drum .
Masai warrior .
Masai arm-clamp
Masai woman . :
Masai bleeding an ox
Masai Bull
Honey barrel
Gallipot as an ear-ornament
Honey barrel in a tree .
Woman carrying wood .
Kikuyu woman pounding grain .
Kikuyu woman with many ear-rings .
Ear ornament . :
The Spotted Hyzena .
Skull of hyaena
External ear, or pinna
Ear of a Masai
Stone ball for the ear
Ear stone 272 s¢/u
Masai ear-ring
Ear with reeds in it
Ear with wooden plug arene
Woman with a labret and ear plugs . .
Murle woman with labret
A pelélé ie Ba
Ndorobo elephant spear
Ndorobo with ear buckets
PAGE
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Ndorobo fire-making
Colobus Monkey ‘
Kavirondo woman with tassel .
Kavirondo’s tail .
Kavirondo matron
Ja-luo girl : aes
Kavirondo women with ‘fan oes j
Stone wall of a Kavirondo village
Interior of a Kavirondo village
Unmarried Kissii girl
Kavirondo milkmaid
Kavirondo charms nD
Doorway in the wall of a ies
Kikuyu man with a paunch cap .
Masai mode of hair-dressing
Nandi dandy
Suk with chignon .
Shilluk dandy
Dodinga head-dress .
Mashukulumbi chignon
Ja-luo hair fashion
Ja-luo ear-rings
Head of Reed-buck
The Flamingo
Head of Wart-Hog
The Impalla
The Serval Cat : :
The Silent Lake with Ibis sa Pasian:
Serval Kitten . ?
Aard-vark or Antbear
Defassa Waterbuck .
Grant’s Zebra . a Hn ee
Donkey with cross stripes on the legs
Oxpeckers
Coney
Honey-guide
Organ Shrike . :
Speke’s Black metal- toned Whistler :
Prickle on the lion’s tail
x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Crocodile . :
Head of young Cncaie :
Teeth of a Crocodile . .
Skull of Crocodile .
Monitor
Plover
Buff-backed sds,
Danger at the Pool
Giant Lobelias
Lobelia ground .
Giant Groundsel
Lobelia ground on Ruwenzori
Flower column of a Giant Lobelia .
Ambatch Canoe .
The bow-string hemp
Sisal Plant .
Acacia thorns . See
Leaf of a willow with stipules .
Candelabra euphorbia .
Kigelia tree oar
Antelope’s skull and Hate core
Skull of Roan Antelope
Skull of Hartebeest :
Skull of Bubaline Antelope .
Tail of African Elephant .
Head of Chameleon with three horns
Bushbuck
Bongo .
Kudu
Elands .
Oryx . : ;
Horn sheath of ‘nda
Grant’s Gazelle .
Gerenuk
Steinboks
Head of Dik-dik
Karamojo necklace
Oribi
Waterbuck .
N
ie)
N NN
to
N
WO N =
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Horns of Mrs. Gray’s Waterbuck
Gnu .
Heads of @nus
Hartebeest on ant-hill .
Duiker .
Wild Dog
Sand Flea
ick 2
Mosquito .
Tsetse Flies
Fossil tsetse-fly .
Trypanosomes
Tsetse-fly
Termites .
Queen F
Ant-hill of unusual cae ;
Aard-Wolf
Skull of Aard-Wolf
Open-bill .
Shell of Ampullaria
Hornbills . ;
Head of Ground Hornbill
Whale-headed Stork .
Darter =. i
Marabou Stork
Head of Skimmer .
Skimmer .
Hammerhead .
Secretary Bird
African Hoopoe
European Hoopoe
Great Crested Touraco
Head of Crowned Crane .
Crowned Crane .
Helmet Shrike
Weaver Finch
Weaver Finch ences.
Mouse Bird .
Shrike .
Go Ww OF W W Ww
=, 10. O/C) O60" 10)
0 MMW n AO
ie) bom
°
iS)
ao
xil LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Sunbirds .
Tecoma flowers . Pain ee
Crested Bustard and Bee-eater .
Coucal . ee
Racket-winged Nightjar .
Pennant-winged Nightjar
Long-tailed African Dove :
Buff-backed Heron on an elephant
Musket ball surrounded by secondary dentine
Elephant trap . :
Spear in an elephant’s tusk .
Spiral tusks : :
Ivory panel. B.C. 850-700 .
Fetish tusk-trumpet
Elephant’s tusk in transverse section
Musket ball in the pulp chamber of a tusk .
Hippopotamus ‘
Skull of hippopotamus .
Circular tusk of hippopotamus
Thorn in the foot
MAN AND BEAST IN EASTERN
ETHIOPIA
INTRODUCTION
A stupy of the distribution of animal life over the
globe, especially in regard to birds, has taught zoologists
that the division of the Earth into hemispheres “and
continents is not convenient for their purpose.
In 1857, Sclater suggested a division of the world
from an ornithological “point of view into six regions ;
Africa, a part of heal and Madagascar Consenune the
important Ethiopian Region. The q revival of the name
Ethiopia is a happy event. The ancient Greeks called
a large tract of north-eastern Africa Ethiopia; to them
it was a land of magic and mystery. To Europeans
in the twentieth century large tracts of the African
continent remain mysterious. From a zoological stand-
point the Ethiopian Region is one of the most remarkable
on the globe. Those “parts of it known as the British
East nee Protectorate and the Uganda Protectorate
(thanks to the Uganda Railway) have been rendered
accessible to all men and women interested in the native
races of these two countries, as well as the mammalian
and avian forms which have lived there almost undis-
turbed by man from remote periods. I say undisturbed
by man, because it will be obvious to those who visit
the great meridional trench known as the Rift Valley
that the district has been the seat of volcanic disturb-
ance on a stupendous scale within a comparatively
recent period. In the immediate vicinity of the valley
1 B
2 EASTERN ETHIOPIA
there are many extinct volcanoes, and the craters of
some contain forests in which mighty beasts, such as
lions, elephants, and elands, roam. Dotted along the
trench are numerous lakes, the resort of immense
numbers of birds, including some of the strangest
forms living on the earth to-day, and also the
biggest.
The lion dominates the “rolling seas of grass” ; the
rhinoceros shows resentment to trespassers among the
bushes and scrub; elephants use the dense forests as
retreats; and crocodiles lie in wait in nearly all the
lakes and rivers, ready to drown any unwary man,
beast, or bird that comes within reach of their dangerous,
trap-like jaws or treacherous tails.
Anxious to see something of Eastern Ethiopia I
made a journey, accompanied by my friend and
colleague Dr. Comyns Berkeley, to the Victoria
Nyanza. We started from Mombasa, and in due course
reached the lake and visited its northern shore. On
the return journey we went “On Safari” in the Rift
Valley. Whilst writing this book I realised that some
subjects discussed in it could be made clearer by a visit
to that part of the Nile which courses through the torrid
Sudan, especially the Sudd region around Lake No.
With this object I made a boat journey up the White
Nile and the Bahr-el-Gebel as high as Rejaf. This
journey was full of interest, for the Nile Valley is a
convenient highway for European birds seeking com-
fortable winter quarters in the forest and lake regions
of the Rift Valley. In this book I describe my im-
pressions in a series of essays. Seven of these deal
with Mombasa, the Uganda Railway, the Victoria
Nyanza, and Uganda; seven with the natives we met
during our visit, such as the Masai, Wa-Kikuyu,
Ndoroho, and Kavirondo, including an account of their
curious ear ornaments and modes of hair-dressing. A
description of the natural features of the Rift Valley
occupies ten essays, under the titles of Crater, Lakes,
INTRODUCTION 3
Lions, Crocodiles, Thorns, Horns, Antelopes, etc. Some
of the extraordinary birds are described under the titles
ot Beaks, Crests, Tails, and Wings.
British East Africa is a “land of unsettled problems,”
and Uganda abounds in ticks, jiggers, tsetse-flies,
and gnats—a dreadful set of pests for man and beast.
These scourges are here considered, as well as one of
the greatest curses of Africa—ivory.
A large tusk is a load for a porter.
MOMBASA—THE GATE BY WHICH COMMERCE AND
CHRISTIANITY ENTERED EAST AFRICA
Ir is undeniable that after spending fifteen days on
the high seas the eyes and the mind grow weary of the
apparently interminable watery part of the world
surrounding the ship. Watch the excitement among
the passengers when the news “land in sight” travels
round the decks, saloons, and smoking-room. I am
convinced that the majority of passengers soon grow
weary of the sea, even when the weather is uniformly
fair and sunny: some of them become quarrelsome ;
many pass sleepless nights, especially in tropical and
subtropical regions, and few really enjoy themselves.
When the weather is bad and the ship “ pitches” or
‘‘yolls,” and more especially when the decks are awash,
the lot of the passenger is often very uncomfortable, and
those who are not sea-sick are honestly “ sick of the sea.”
Under such conditions, instead of being elated with the
interminable procession of roaring waves, they will, with
honest old Gonzalo, freely give “a thousand furlongs of
the sea for an acre of barren ground ; long heath, brown
furze, anything.”
We had spent seven days in an uncomfortable ship ;
its deck was hampered with mules from Somaliland and
ae pilgrims. It is true we saw on the way the mighty
Cape Guardafui, which lacks a lighthouse, much to the
advantage of the natives living along the coast, who,
like the Cornish wreckers of olden “days, thrive on
4
r MOMBASA 5
stranded ships. But this merely increased our delight
when the ship entered the narrow old harbour of
Mombasa at daybreak.
The white people in Mombasa are mainly English
ns
Many of the houses are well constructed and bear unmis-
takable.evidence of an Arab origin ; there are several
interesting old doors and doorways.
6 EASTERN ETHIOPIA I
officials, traders, and agents. During the construction of
the Uvanda Railway, it was necessary to import twenty
thousand men from India, chiefly Punjabis. On the
completion of the railway the Indians settled in the
country and became store-keepers, clerks, cooks, engine
drivers, stokers, carpenters, artisans, station-masters,
telegraphists, and moneylenders. In consequence
Indians abound throughout the inhabited parts of the
British East Africa Protectorate. They are shrewd,
enterprising, and thrifty. This wholesale introduction of
Indians explains the nature of the currency, for rupees,
annas, with cents to replace pice, constitute the mechan-
ism of exchange.
The black (native) population consists of Swahilis and
Arabs. The native quarter is situated on the part of
the town facing the harbour. The houses are built of
wattle and dah and thatched with dry grass. This part
of the town is traversed by narrow streets such as pre-
vailin the native quarters of towns in Eastern countries.
Many of the houses, especially those occupied by the
Indians, are well constructed and bear unmistakable
evidence of an Arab origin ; there are several interesting
old doors and doorways. The native town has a
commodious fish market and an interesting vegetable
market. Each is worth an occasional visit, for curious
fishes and fruits may often be seen there.
Many towns and islands which present an artistic and
alluring prospect from the sea are woefully disappoint-
ing on landing. This is not the case with Mombasa.
We landed on the second day of the New Year and
found Vasco da Gama Street adorned with the flamboy-
ant gold mohur in full flower. The brilliant purple
bougainvillea erew around and covered the walls of
houses, hid the clumsy wooden pillars of the verandahs,
entwined itself along rudely arranged trellis-work,
adorned the gardens of the Law Court, and decorated
the weird and massive trunks of the mighty leafless
baobabs. Kew men have their names so exquisitely
1 MOMBASA 7
preserved as is the case with the great French circum-
navigator Bougainville, who rieipeubnnat this beautiful
plant into the Eastern hemisphere from South America.
—
7 AR
The Papaw tree (Carica papaya) with its curious fruit
sessile on the upper part of the stem. The tree
attains a height of 5 metres (20 feet).
An excellent road traverses the island from the old
port to Kilindini. It is bordered by huge mango trees
8 EASTERN ETHIOPIA I
rich in foliage and fertile with fruit. Alternating with
the mango ee are groups of cocoa-nut palms with their
fruit ripening in the sun, and the Papaw tree (Carica
papaya) with its curious fruit sessile on the upper part
of the stem. The male flowers are borne on a separate
tree from that which bears the fruit. The papaya fruit
when ripe is edible, but does not deserve the epithet
“ delicious” so thoroughly merited by the fruit of the
mango. The fruit of the papaw is considered to aid
digestion, and it has heen proved that the milky sap
(latex) which exudes from its stem and leaves contains
a ferment (papayotin) resembling pepsin: it is also
averred that if meat be wrapped in its leaves two hours
before being cooked it becomes tender.
The baobab, or monkey bread tree, abounds on the
island and adjacent coast land. This, the biggest tree in
the world, was named Adansonia digitata after Adanson,
the celebrated botanist. I measured the circumference
of the trunk of some of these trees, and found several
in which it exceeded sixty feet. Examples have been
recorded with a girth of one hundred and twelve feet.
These trees only bear leaves during the rainy season,
and the bare branches with the pendulous fruit look
very weird, and as they stretch heavenward recall
strongly the human beings transformed into trees
as represented in Gustav Doré’s illustration of Dante’s
seventh circle of the Inferno. There is good excuse for
the opinion held by some of the native tribes that these
fantastic trees are inhabited by ghosts. The baobab is
useful to the natives, for they ‘eat the fruit, and the
outer shell forms an excellent calabash which is in
great demand for making water buckets, but its wood is
heht, soft, and useless. The most nonhern baobab grows
in the Palace garden, Khartoum: it was planted by
Schweinfurth.
It is worth while when the tide is out to walk down
to the shore of the old harbour; this is quite a simple
matter, for a pathway leads to the shore by the side of
I MOMBASA 9
the old fort built by the Portuguese and now used as a
jail. It has been already mentioned that Mombasa is a
coral island, and has, like the adjacent coast, a fringing
reef. When the tide is out, it is easy to walk heres tha
reef which is then covered by a few inches of water :
The Baobab or Monkey Bread Tree.
even at high tide the water is only a few feet in depth,
but in the comparatively narrow interval between the
reef fringing the land and that surrounding the island,
the water suddenly attains a depth of sixteen fathoms.
This makes it necessary for navigators to exercise
10 EASTERN ETHIOPIA I
extreme care in entering the harbour. The dangers
encountered by a ship threading its way along this
narrow channel were well illustrated at the time of my
visit, for a steamship was lying high upon the reef
immediately under the lighthouse, and as all efforts to
remove the ship into deep water had proved unavailing,
the vessel was being dismantled.
The Castor-oil Plant (Ricinus communis) is sure to attract attention.
It is instructive, also amusing, when the tide is low to
walk over the reef among the half-exposed rocks and
examine the marine life occupying the pools or lurking
under the movable pieces of rock. Such pools and
recesses are occupied by hundreds of crabs; as they
I MOMBASA II
scuttle away sideways and with astonishing quickness
it requires some alertness on the part of the collector to
catch them.
The parts of the islands immediately bordering the
sea are thick with vegetation, and the castor-oil plant
(Ricinus communis) is sure to attract attention. Another
common plant is the Cape gooseberry. The wealth and
beauty of the butterflies flitting among the plants soon
impress the visitor with the fact that he is in a tropical
region. The birds, too, are interesting, especially the
weaver finches, some of which build their nests in the
branches of the bougainvilleas that grow in the gardens
bordering the roadway ; even in those which overhang
it. The comparative security of birds is shown by the
freedom in which they build in the haunts of men.
The verandah of the Court of Justice is adorned by the
nests of swallows.
Every part of this fertile island teems with life,
animal and vegetable. My visits to the club used
to interest me, for pretty weaver finches flit through
the branches of the trees in the club gardens, lizards ran
along the railings, and in the silence of the library it was
amusing to watch geckoes dart across the ceiling catch-
ing flies.
In the short evening hour the European population
takes the air. The chief mode of locomotion is the
jinricksha, but there is a narrow trolley-way running
across the island to Kilindini with lateral branches to
official residences. The small cars which run on these
lines are pushed by native boys. These cars and
jinrickshas are very useful, especially as there are
no horses.
There is a cosmic phenomenon of some interest which
can be seen and studied in the Indian Ocean and
throughout the East far better than in England,
namely the zodiacal light. Shortly before the dawn,
a lenticular patch of soft white light, with its base on
the eastern horizon and its apex pointing to the zenith,
12 EASTERN ETHIOPIA I
is seen exactly over the spot where the sun is about to
appear. The extent and intensity of the luminous
mT
: ,
\ ; i i i
ing :
ii
:
ee pee |
mr Se eh lie lig
In the silence of the library it was amusing to watch a gecko dart
across the ceiling catching flies. The inset shows the lamella which
enable it to climb easily and quickly smooth vertical surfaces.
area vary greatly, and the variations depend very
much on the condition of the atmosphere. In the
evening, about an hour after sunset, a similar luminous
cone appears in the sky at the place where the sun has
just quitted the horizon,
I MOMBASA 13
The zodiacal light is visible in Northern latitudes in
the morning during the months of September and
October, and in the evening during February and
March. For many years | have watched for this cone
of light in England and never felt satisfied that |
had seen it. In 1903, when I was watching from the
deck of a ship in the Indian Ocean in order to see the
planet Mercury rise shortly before the dawn, the eastern
sky was illuminated by a large triangular area of soft
white light, so bright that I hastily looked at my
watch fearing lest I had come on deck too late, and
had missed my opportunity of seeing Mercury. To my
great astonishment this beautiful luminous area con-
tracted, shortened, and faded away ; the darkness again
iieearmne profound until the true dawn. Then, realising
that I had seen the ‘‘ false dawn,” the lines te Onae:
quatrain came instinctively to my lips :—
Before the phantom of False morning died,
Methought a voice within the tavern cried
““When all the Temple is prepared within,
Why nods the drowsy Worshipper outside.”
I have often watched on deck in the early morning
when crossing the Indian Ocean, but have never seen
the light so intense as on this occasion. A captain
who had spent many years in traversing this ocean
told me that one morning when lying outside an Indian
harbour, with a difficult entry, waiting for the dawn,
the ‘ false dawn” was so bright that fie mistook it fon
the real dawn, and, having weighed anchor, proceeded
to steam into the harbour, but the light faded and he
had to await the real dawn.
The “false dawn” or dawn’s ‘left hand,” as it 1s
sometimes called in the poetical imagery of the Kast, is
of some concern to the muezzin who wakes the ‘“‘ drowsy
worshipper” by shouting from the minaret. The
Mahomedan day begins with the real dawn, an
14 EASTERN ETHIOPIA I
important moment in connection with the fasting
during Ramadan.
The zodiacal light is often brilliant in the evening,
especially 1 in the neighbourhood of the equator, and it
persists longer than the morning form. When the
moon shines in the early morning it is difficult to dis-
tinguish the false dawn with certainty; when Venus is
a morning or an evening star, her rays are sufficient to
obseure the zodiacal light. The brilliancy of those
stars which lie in the luminous triangle is in no way
diminished.
In Mombasa the stars sometimes shine with extra-
ordinary brilliancy, and it is-an impressive sight to see
Orion glittering in the zenith, with Sirius, Fomalhaut,
and the Southern Cross, in the east, and the Great Bull
“low on the Western Main.”
Among other natural phenomena of the tropics which
appeal to those visiting these regions for the first time,
mention may be made of the great width and vividness
of the rainbow; the rapidity with which the sun appears
to rise above or slip below the rim of the horizon at
sunrise and sunset, and the briefness of the twilight. It
is true that in order to appreciate the cosmic as well as
the biologic aspects of countries on, or near, the equator
“they must be seen with northern eyes.”
I]
THE UGANDA RAILWAY
U. R. These are the initials of one of the most
romantic railways in the world. It starts from
Mombasa and follows in the main the old caravan
route to Kavirondo. After many difthculties encountered
in its construction and a great expenditure of money,
the first locomotive ran into Kisumu (Port Florence), on
the Victoria Nyanza, in December, 1901. The distance
from the sea-coast to the terminus at the lake is 580
miles. From Port Florence steamers convey passengers
and goods across the lake to the towns on the northern
shore : the chief of these being Entebbe, Kampala, and
Jinja. The distance from Port Florence to Entebbe
is 175 miles. The country traversed by the rail-
way is very interesting. After leaving Mombasa and
crossing the bridge over the Makupa creek the line
ascends a steep grade which affords an excellent
view of the island and glimpses of the sea: it passes
through groves of cocoa-nut palms, orange and pome-
granate trees, and banana plantations. Later the
railway traverses the Taru desert, which is covered
with scrub and small trees, the timber of which is
large enough to be used as fuel for the engines. Wood
is used almost exclusively for the engines, and the heaps
of coal so common around big stations and junctions in
Europe are here replaced by long stacks of logs, each log
measuring six feet in length. In some parts of the
journey the logs are obtained from the tall juniper
trees, and they are as fragrant as cedar-wood.
15
16 EASTERN ETHIOPIA 1
About 280 miles from Mombasa the railways enters
the Athi plain, and around Simba station lions are
plentiful. The rhinoceros and giraffe are occasionally
seen in this section of the line. The amount of game
on the plain varies with the condition of the grass:
when favourable hundreds of zebra, herds of hartebeest
(kongoni) and wildebeest (gnu) will be seen. Ostriches
are often “on view” walking one behind the other,
apparently as self-conscious as bridesmaids walking up
the aisle of a church in the wake of the bride at a
fashionable wedding. These birds mingle with zebras
on the grazing grounds.
Scattered about in small herds, often in close proximity to the line,
this pretty gazelle will be recognised. It was discovered by
Joseph Thomson in his journey through Masailand to the
Victoria Nyanza (1883).
Il THE UGANDA RAILWAY 17
Scattered about in small herds, often in close
proximity to the line, the pretty Thomson's gazelles
will be recognised. These antelopes as well as Grant’s
gazelles mix with the herds of hartebeest and
zebra.
In the distance a number of vultures are sometimes
seen flying around and forming a vortex. This indi-
cates In many instances that a lion is busy feeding,
and these birds are waiting to play the part of
scavengers when the beast has finished his meal and
retired from the carcase. After crossing the Athi
river the line runs to Nairobi, 327 miles from
Mombasa.
NatrRosi
This town is situated on the river of the same name,
and occupies a place where formerly lions roamed and
roared. In 1909 a lion walked up the principal street
at eight o’clock in the evening, and a man ona bicycle
ran into him, fortunately without harm.
Nairobi is the capital of the Ukamba Province. The
Governor of the British East Africa Protectorate resides
here, and the Commissioner of the Province. The
chief oftice of the Uganda Railway is in this town:
the locomotive and carriage workshops occupy an
extensive area near the station. The railway works are
worth a visit: natives may be seen working steam-
hammers and riveting boilers who a year previously
were running about the country naked.
The town consists of Government offices, hotels,
shops, banks and houses, many of which are built
mainly of corrugated iron; hence it has been facetiously
named Tinville. There are some substantial stone and
brick buildings, notably the Post Office, Treasury, the
Roman Catholic Church and its schools. There is also
an excellent hospital, and a hospitable club. Efforts
are also being made to establish a comprehensive local
museum for the purpose of illustrating the Ethnology,
C
18 EASTERN ETHIOPIA I
Zoology, Botany, Geology, and the native arts of the
British East Africa and Uganda Protectorates.
Nairobi is a centre for settlers. It is situated in the
midst of a fertile country from which supplies of fresh
fruit and vegetables are readily obtained. There is a
local market for meat, fruit, and vegetables.
The surrounding country contains wild animals in
profusion, and an ‘official who lives on the outskirts of
the town informed me that his wife found snakes in the
garden, that he had shot a kongoni (hartebeest) in
the same garden, and sometimes ‘amused himself by
shooting a ‘zebra from the verandah.
That portion of the town lying along the river was
formerly a papyrus swamp, and this beautiful rush still
grows along its margins, but the land adjacent to the
river is nowa fertile oarden where mealies, cabbages,
French beans, bananas, and pomegranates flourish.
Castor-oil plants, coffee trees, and Cape gooseberries
erow wild. Land has risen in value and Nairobi is
destined to become a big and prosperous town. The
streets are lighted with electricity and electric trams
will replace the jinrickshas which are now the common
vehicle for the conveyance of passengers to and from
the station.
We spent delightful days in Nairobi, making the
acquaintance of many of the officials, all willing to
relate their experiences and help us to obtain some
knowledge on matters connected with the country, the
natives, the animals, the birds, and the pests. In the
woods there is a Jcus which, when fully grown, may
measure six or even eight feet around the base of the
trunk and attain a height of fifty or sixty feet ; it throws
out large branches with heavy foliage. When the head
of the tree is carefully examined, the trunk of a dead
tree will be seen projecting among the branches.
The natural history of the tree is this :—The outside
tree is parasitic in the beginning and, like an outrunner
of ivy, climbs up a well-erown tree; as the parasite
I THE UGANDA RAILWAY 1g
grows and climbs its stalks coalesce around the trunk
of its host ; in the course of a few years these originally
A tall tree in the deadly embrace of a
parasitic Ficus.
independent stalks of the parasite will so fuse together
that the exterior of the trunk appears perfectly uniform.
C2
20 EASTERN ETHIOPIA II
T examined several of these trees in various stages of
growth and satisfied myself on these points. In some
instances, the implicated tree seems as if surrounded by
boa constrictors ; before its life is completely destroyed,
the branches and leaves of the original tree may he seen
mingling with those of the destroying parasite.
The most complete specimen I was able to examine
stands in the grounds of the French Mission about
three miles from Nairobi. The figs on these trees,
though tasteless, are eaten by Masai children, pigeons,
hornbills and starlings (Hinde). The Masai display
reverence for this tree and occasionally propitiate it by
killing a goat beneath it.
From the Sports Ground the snowy summit of Kili-
manjaro is usually visible in the afternoon; and about
four o’clock the beautiful snow-clad majestic peak of
Kenia (17,000 feet), glorified with the colours of sunset,
appears unveiled above the clouds.
After leaving Nairobi the railway climbs the slope to
Kikuyu station (340 miles from Mombasa), passing
through forests which shelter elephants to Escarpment
station, and here reaches the edge of the famous Rift
Valley at an elevation of 7,830 feet above sea-level.
The train descends the ravine to Kitjabe, which marks
the limit of the Ukamba Province. Kitjabe means
“windy,” and the place is well described by Sir Charles
Eliot as ‘‘a dusty gusty station.”
The view of the Rift Valley from the escarpment is
inexpressibly grand, with the great mass of Longonot
rising from the floor of the valley. The descent to Kitjabe
station is fascinating. The line passes across numerous
viaducts built at a great height above ravines. The
station is half-way down the descent to the valley, and
at this point the view is magnificent. Above we see
the well-wooded hills; below, the slope to Lake
Naivasha, and beyond is the Mau Escarpment on the
opposite side of the valley. In the descent from the
Kikuyu escarpment to the floor of the valley the line
II THE UGANDA RAILWAY 21
descends 1,400 feet, then passes alone the valley to
Naivasha station (390 miles) within sight of the lake.
Along this beautiful valley game of all kinds is plentiful ;
antelope, zebra, ostrich, and birds of large size or beautiful
plumage can be seen from the train, This part of the
line is wonderful, not only from the variety and
abundance of birds and animals which inhabit or visit
it, but also from the weird scenery caused by the
changing colour along the escarpment and around the
two extinct olennoes Longonot and Suswa. The large
herds of cattle, the flocks of sheep, and of goats
belonging to the pastoral Masai are additional features
of interest in this extraordinary and fertile valley.
The Rift Valley in the neighbourhood of Lake
Naivasha is 6,300 feet above the level of the sea; its
floor is clothed with grass and clover, with here and
there a collection of small trees. The turf is much like
what we are accustomed to see in England ; indeed,
when covered with herds of cattle and flocks of sheep it
resembles an English park, except that the cattle are
humped and a few Thomson’s gazelles may be seen
running among the cattle.
The third section of the railway ends at Nakuru,
which is a town lying under the extinct sales
Menengai, and is approximately the centre of the Rift
Valley. This town is the starting point of excursions
to Lake Baringo.
After leaving Nakuru the train climbs the Mau
Escarpment (460 miles), where it attains an altitude of
8,300 feet. Here it leaves the Rift Valley and traverses
the fertile land and the forests of large trees in the
Kisumu Province. The line then descends through the
Nyando Valley to Muhoroni, where the country feces
comparatively flat. The most conspicuous features in
this part of the route are the enormous number of
acacia trees, whose stems ancl branches resemble inverted
umbrellas, the kigelia or sausage-tree, and huge can-
delabra euphorbias.
22; EASTERN ETHIOPIA II
From Muhoroni the railway runs under the Nandi
Escarpment and reaches Port Florence, its terminus
at Kavirondo Bay, Victoria Nyanza, where a comfortable
steam boat conveys passengers to Uganda.
Whilst waiting for the steamer to start we spent
an interesting hour watching the fishermen on the
lake shore, as well as amusing ourselves with the
crowned cranes, which could hey approached as easily
as the fowls in a barn-yard.
Throughout the greater part of a railway journey
from the coast to the Victoria Nyanza the country
presents a panorama of absorbing interest. The
variations in the physical conditions of the provinces
traversed by the railway are remarkable. After
leaving Mombasa with its heat, humidity, and
fertility, the line slowly climbs a long extensive slope
covered with scrub, and unsuitable for cultivation.
Scrub is a term in constant use in relation to land in
East Africa ; it may be described as coarse grass, with
stunted, thorny bushes growing among it, with trees
here and there. An extensive tract covered in this
way is known as the Nyika (wilderness or desert).
From the moment the train leaves the Salisbury
Bridge attention is sure to be arrested by the brick-red
earth. This is especially noticeable in the railway
cuttings. A large part of the Protectorate is covered
with a sheet of lava, which is gradually undergoing
disintegration and fornmis a very fertile soil.
It is curious to see the huge ant-hills arising by
the side of the railway, many of them ten feet high and
as red as any chimney pot in rural England. Some of
them present several openings and look like a cluster
of chimney pots. Occasionally a tree will be found
growing in the midst of an ant-hill, and here and there
ant nests will be seen in trees.
Around Nairobi, and especially in the Kikuyu
country, honey-barrels hang in the trees, and they
form curious objects as seen from the train.
II THE UGANDA RAILWAY 23
The temperature throughout the journey varies
within very wide limits. If is a curious and pleasant
experience to pass from the moist and sticky heat of
the coast to the dry and agreeable air of the Ukamba
Province, but it is a surprise to wake up in the early
morning on the Athi Plain, in the Kikuyu forest, or at
the Mau Escarpment shivering with cold and to find the
temperature at, or very little above, the freezing
point.
The alterations in the physical and atmospheric
conditions in the countries traversed by the railway is
attended with corresponding changes in the characters
of the trees, shrubs, bushes, and plants. As we leave
the coast, the tropical vegetation is gradually replaced
by the prickly acacia and the euphorbia. Around
Nairobi the landscape is beautified with the calodendron,
hibiscus, salvia, ficus, and wild coffee. The Kikuyu
forests abound in junipers, wild olives, brambles, violets,
clover, and bracken. Higher still comes the scrub, the
prickly bush, and the acacia. In the rains these trees
are covered with leaves, and are further beautified by
the convolvulus and other creepers which invade them
and burst into flower.
The tribes of men living in the districts traversed by
the railway are sure to interest travellers. The chief
of these are Wa-Kikuyu, Masai, Kavirondo, and Nandi.
In a railway journey through 580 miles of country it
is probable that examples of all these races will be
seen. Many come down to watch the train from sheer
curiosity. Others walk along the footway by the side
of the line or will be seen engaged j in work, or herding
cattle. Many are as interested in the white passenger
as the latter is curious about them. Some of the
natives come to barter or to sell curiosities and
especially spears.
Among the various contrivances which civilisation
has introduced into East Africa, there is probably none
which the natives find more wel than the kerosene
24 EASTERN ETHIOPIA ll
can; it is greatly appreciated by them and has replaced
gourds in their domestic economy.
The kerosene can is used as a bucket for drawing
water from a well, or as a pail for its conveyance.
When such a can is
divided and a_ hole
made in the end of
either half it becomes
a useful funnel. On
visiting a village it is
common to see these
cans used as sauce-
pans, baking - tins,
ovens, and _ parrot
cages ; receptacles for
pombe (beer); useful
boxes for clothes or
books, and travelling
trunks; one can well-
packed is a sufficient,
as well as a convenient
load for a porter to
carry on his head, and
two of them are easily
adjusted as panniers
for donkeys.
The European sett-
lers use the kerosene
can as tubs for shrubs
and as flower pots;
the edges of the cans
when used for flowers
The kerosene can has largely replaced gourds are cut into trianoular
for the conveyance of water in British 2)
Wash Africa: patterns, much in the
same way as the Masai
herdsmen clip the ears of their cattle. When the kerosene
can is useless as a vessel for holding liquids, it is hammered
out and the square sheets are useful for roofing huts.
rt THE UGANDA RAILWAY 25
Travelling along the Uganda Railway from Mombasa
to its lake terminus at Port Florence, the tourist will
see zebras, hartebeests (kongoni), wildebeests (gnus),
Thomson's gazelles, Grant’s gazelles, wart-hogs, and
{Photograph by F. L. Henderson.
The Simple Life. Nandi woman and baby.
buckbuck. With good luck he may see elands, oiratte,
and the rhinoceros, and, if he be exceptionally ine ky, a
lion in the early morning, and a hywna in the late
afternoon.
26 EASTERN ETHIOPIA u
Of birds the following will interest him : ostriches,
bustards, eagles, hawks, and vultures ; shrikes sit on the
telegraph wires. Among others he will recognise the
glossy starling, drongo, weaver birds, chats, ie crowned
erane, hornbill, ea coly, eallews (ie. eater, stork,
oxpecker, and the secretary bird.
The Uganda Railway is unique of its kind, for it is
probably the only railroad in the world where monkeys
swing on the telegraph wires ; giraffes break the wire
atthe. their long necks in crossing the track, and the
rhinoceros tilts at telegraph poles in true quixotic
style. As a rule, the laugh is with the animal. On
rare occasions a lion promenades the platform and
interferes with business.
A T-iron (eight feet long, eight
inches wide, and a quarter
inch thick), used as a pedestal
for a telegraph post. It was
twisted by an elephant.
III
THE VICTORIA NYANZA, THE GREATEST LAKE IN AFRICA
AN extraordinary fascination surrounds the history
of the Victoria Nyanza. It is remarkable that a lake
with a shore-line of 3,200 miles and an area of 25,000
square miles lying in the midst of a thickly populated
region of East Africa should have remained undis-
covered to the modern civilised world until Speke
discovered it in 1858. Now the lake is daily traversed
by steamers with regular ports of call, engaged in
conveying passengers, tourists, and cargo as safely as
on Lake Michigan.
Port Florence (Kisumu) is on the shore of Kavirondo
Gulf, a nearly land-locked inlet about thirty miles long,
and varying in width from two to three miles. This
gulf is on the north-eastern shore of the lake, and the
channel by which it communicates with the main water
is almost blocked with islands. Anyone visiting the
lake will appreciate the dithculties experienced by
the early explorers in deciding between islands and
prominent headlands, unless the parts were carefully
explored: this in many instances was difficult on
account of the hostility of the inhabitants.
The Nile leaves the lake at Napoleon Gulf on the
northern shore. As the steamer enters this gulf and
approaches the landing stage at Jinja there is nothing
to lead one to suspect that the falls are so near. A
prominent bluff pushes into the lake between the landing
stage and the falls; in order to see the latter it is
necessary to leave the steamer and walk over a low
on
28 EASTERN ETHIOPIA ul
grass-covered hill, when suddenly the Ripon Falls, or
cascades of Jinja, come into view. The river at its
origin divides Uganda on the west from Busoga on its
east bank. Speke on his second journey (18638) saw the
falls from the Uganda side ; tourists are conducted to
them by a well-kept pathway on the east side. As we
traversed the footway, humped cattle grazed amidst a
flock of buff-backed herons, busy picking ticks from the
hacks of oxen. On reaching the falls we found the
rushing water carrying over large fish ; the natives
were busy securing some of them with spears. The
ferry, as in Speke’s time, runs across the gulf above the
Bayrus docmac. The rushing deep green waters carry large fish over
the falls; the natives who haunt the coves with their spear-
like harpoons secure some of them.
falls, but the crocodile and hippopotamus have retreated
to the deep and silent pools a mile or so below, where
the shores, thickly covered with trees, reeds, and rushes,
are rendered dangerous by the dreaded tsetse-fly.
The rocks and trees in the river immediately below
the falls are crowded with herons, cormorants, and
egrets. One of the most conspicuous birds around the
lake and head-waters of the Nile is the Vociferous Sea-
Eagle. This, the handsomest of all the sea-eagles with
its white head, neck, breast and tail, but chestnut belly,
looks superb perched alone on the top of a high tree and
sometimes on a telegraph post for hours, occasionally
III THE VICTORIA NYANZA 29
uttering loud, piercing: screams. It takes little notice of
man. I once shot a hbee-eater perched on the lower
branches of a tree, when a sea-eagle in the tree-top took
no notice of the noise. :
In the cool of the afternoon we lingered, charmed
and fascinated by this delightful spot. When the light
began to fade we stepped into a native “ dug-out,” above
The Screaming Sea-Eagle (/Haliaétus vocifer) lives
around the ‘‘ birthplace of the Nile.”
the falls and sitting on its sides allowed ourselves to be
paddled to the steamer lying in the lake.
Frogs are very numerous in the lake, especially near
the landing stages, and after nightfall keep up a
continuous croaking and din, like the sound of machinery
in a large factory.
30 EASTERN ETHIOPIA 1
There are certain phenomena connected with the lake
which are worth consideration. The water of the main
lake is deep blue, sweet, and good to drink, but in the
bays it is dark and muddy: it varies greatly in depth,
being only a few feet in the shallow bays and 280 feet
in aie main lake. The depth of the water also varies
according to the wetness of the seasons, but independ-
ently of these changes it is asserted that the surtace of
the lake has been slowly sinking since 1878, as deter-
mined by markings on the cliff limiting the south shore.
Many bold headlands round the coast were formerly
islands, and many islands are separated from the main-
land by narrow and often shallow channels. In the
morning there is usually a land breeze from the south-
east, and towards evening from the lake to the land.
This action of the wind causes the level of the lake at
Port Florence to be twelve inches higher in the after-
noon than in the morning (Whitehouse).
The movements of the curious papyrus islands are
associated with these breezes. Many of the bays and
creeks are filled with the beautiful papyrus rush, and
the Victoria Nyanza, like other large bodies of water, is
occasionally subject to violent storms which lead to the
formation of huge waves. These disturbances lead to
the detachment of large masses of papyrus rush from the
banks, and the morning land-breeze drives them into the
lake, and the evening breeze brings them back to the
shore. Papyrus islands are usually seen in a voyage
on the lake; they form pretty objects floating about
in an irresponsible manner. It is common to see
a cormorant resting on such a floating island, and
occasionally a crocodile. A papyrus island the size of
Trafalgar Square is sometimes occupied by a flock of
egrets, and has density enough, in virtue of the long
submerged roots of the rushes, to support a hippo-
potamus. Captain Gray informed me that on one
occasion, as his steamer entered Kavirondo Gulf, he
found the water so crowded with these floating islands
Ill THE VICTORIA NYANZA 31
that he had to steer the vessel with great care, and with
some difficulty among them.
These rush islands are pretty objects, and serve to
variegate the surface of the lake. The shallow parts of
the bays are also occupied by that troublesome plant
Pistia stratiotes, which is one of the constituents of the
sudd. The important elements of the sudd are papyrus
rushes, reeds, feathery grass and occasionally ambatch.
These are woven together by creeping plants of the
convolvulus order. Near the level of the water the
stems of the reeds and rushes are cemented together by
aquatic plants of which Pistia is the most conspicuous :
it is like a lettuce and has thick, pleated, succulent
leaves. The plant throws out rhizomes along the surface
of the water which in their turn bud, and the buds also
throw out rhizomes. On the Jake, and the upper reaches
of the White Nile, Pistia is a common object quietly
floating down-stream.
The Victoria Nyanza may be regarded as a huge
reservoir with one outlet, the Ripon Falls. Its chief
affluent on the west is the Kagera river, and the Nzoia
on the east.
This enormous lake is visited by electrical storms of
extraordinary violence. I had heard a great deal about
these electric displays, and had the good fortune to
witness one from the deck of a steamer. The night was
very dark, and the sky became illuminated by almost
persistent streams of yellow and blue electric light.
The effect could only be described as horrible. When
the steamer occupied the vortex of the storm, it
seemed as if the lightning hissed as it rushed into the
water of the lake. Whilst these streams of electric
fluid were coursing downwards from the sky, the clouds
were suffused by broad cascades and streams of lght-
ning resembling the aurora borealis. The instantaneous
crashes of thunder following on the electric discharges
resembled the detonations of huge shells or 100-ton
guns. These storms are very common, and destroy the
32 EASTERN ETHIOPIA II
lives of men and beasts as well as property. The boat
from which we witnessed this terrible display had
piece of the mainmast detached by lightning in a
previous voyage. Some of the American passengers
appropriated the fragments with the intention of
having them made into paper-knives as souvenirs of
the storm.
A Government official who knows the lake and its
vicinity well explains the frequency and the intensity
of these electrical storms by the fact that the hills,
especially on the north-eastern shores of the lake,
contain ironstone in large quantity, and especially on
the Nandi escarpment. Standing on the hills above the
escarpment the storms seem to be beneath the feet of
the observer, and the currents of lightning appear to
strike the face of the cliffs.
The destructive force of such storms may be
appreciated when one learns that thirty-two head of
cattle were killed by one of these terrible flaming electric
swords. These storms are accompanied by extremely
heavy rain—more correctly, falling sheets of water.
In the rainy season waterspouts occur, so that a
voyage on the Victoria Nyanza may be as much marred
by wind, storms, and rain as a voyage on the ocean.
There is another curious and also unpleasant occurrence
occasionally encountered on this wonderful lake, namely
mosquito clouds. One morning whilst crossing the
lake in the neighbourhood of the Buvuma archipelago |
noticed in several directions an appearance like clouds
of smoke, and at first thought that these smoke clouds
came from fires on the islands. On watching them
closely and remembering that the surface of the lake is
nearly four thousand feet above sea-level I thought
they might be clouds. Then the columns assumed
fantastic shapes and began to gyrate over the lake,
condensing and attenuating. Then one large cloud, in
the form of a hollow cylinder, approached, encompassed
the steamer, and enveloped it in millions of gnats.
I THE VICTORIA NYANZA 33
These winged clouds are known to entomologists as
“dancing-swarms.” On any warm summer evening
in England dancing-swarms of gnats may be seen over
pools, ponds, or water-butts containing stagnant water.
The eges of the mosquito are hatched in warm water, and
the larval and pupal stages are passed in this medium.
When the pupz are ready to hatch they rise to the
surface, emerge from the pupa-cases, dry their wines and
fly away. In order to produce such enormous clouds
of gnats the water of the lake must contain myriads of
larvee. The natives around the lake catch these gnats
by means of grease and make them up into an oily kind
of cake and eat them. Among the natives living around
Lake Nyasa this preparation is known as ‘* Kungu
cake.” Kungu means ‘“‘ mist,” which the dense flights
of these midges resemble.
A description of the Kungu fly by the Rev.
A. KE. Eaton is given in the appendix to Elton’s
Journals (1879). It is identified as a gnat. He also
states that similar immense swarms of gnats have
appeared in England, and have been mistaken at a
distance for columns of smoke.
In Egypt dense flocks of pigeons in the distance
are often mistaken for clouds. This is also true of
locusts, dust, sand, and smoke.
A description of the Victoria Nyanza would be in-
complete without some consideration of a remarkable
animal, the Marsh-buck ; a bird, the Jacana, or Lily-
trotter ; the Mud or Lung fish (Lepidosiren), and the
most beautiful of all rushes, the Papyrus.
The first is the animal known as Speke’s antelope,
in honour of the distinguished traveller who discovered
it on his second journey to find the source of the Nile
(1863). The buck has horns spirally twisted, but they
are absent in the female. Its hoofs are greatly elongated
and adapted to enable the animal to walk on the sub-
merged reeds and mud of the swamps in which it lives.
The skin which covers the back of the pastern is hairless,
D
34 EASTERN ETHIOPIA II]
thick, and horny : thus further augmenting the support-
ing area of the foot. The marsh-buck spends most of
its time in the water, standing among reeds with all
but its head and horns submerged: it can take
tremendous leaps and move about at a great pace.
iON ay,
il il i i
Speke’s Antelope (Tvragclaphus speket).
The bird in the corner is a lily-trotter (Jacana) with elongated claws which
enable it to move quickly over the floating leaves of aquatic plants.
Speke’s original specimen was caught near the lake in
some high rushes. The only food it would take was
the tops of the papyrus rush : although it ate and drank
freely and lay down very quietly, it always charged
with ferocity any person who went near it. No other
I THE VICTORIA NYANZA 35
observer has seen evidence of ferocity in the marsh-
buck. I have often watched one of these animals in the
Zoological Gardens and never remember to have
seen an animal in confinement which appeared so
unhappy. This marsh-buck used to be fairly common
in the swamps around Uganda and on some of the
uninhabited islands of the Sesse Archipelago.
Selous, when hunting these marsh-buck on the Chobe
river, a tributary of the Zambesi river, described the
search for these retirme animals among such immense
beds of reeds and papyrus as tantamount to looking for
needles in a haystack. The natives obtain them in
the following way. When the animal is approached
it immerses the whole body, leaving only the nose and
tips of the horns above water, trusting to be unobserved,
but the natives paddle quite close and spear it.
The unusual development of the hoofs of Speke’s
antelope induce) me to mention a similar condition of the
toes found in a curious bird living on the lake and often
called the lily-trotter, from the dainty way in which it
walks over the broad leaves of aquatic plants searching
for insects.
This bird is known to ornithologists as the Jacana,
and it belongs to the same order as plovers, curlews,
and snipe. The lily-trotter has a body like the moor-
hen and legs like a coot, but the toes and claws are
enormously lengthened, and the bird spreads them out
spider-like as it walks over the water-plants. The
spread of the Jacana’s toes has a diameter of five
inches. All members of the family (Parridae) to which
the Jacana belongs frequent lakes and swamps whether
inland or near the coast. When danger threatens they
crouch or partially submerge themselves.
The Mud-fish.—This inhabitant of the lake is known
to the zoologist as the Lepidosiren (Protopterus
athiopicus) or lung fish. The natives of Uganda call
it mamba, and appreciate it as an article of diet.
This fish has a long cylindrical body like an eel, and
D 2
36 EASTERN ETHIOPIA I
sometimes attains a length of six feet: it is remarkable
in many points, and especially from the fact that it has
lungs as well as gills. In the dry season the marshes
in which this fish lives dry up, and to meet this change
the lepidosiren makes its way into the mud to the
depth of eighteen inches, and coils up at the bottom of
the burrow, where it makes a sort of cocoon, or capsule,
The mud- or lung-fish. In the
water it breathes by gills
and lungs. When curled
up in its cocoon of mud it
breathes by lungs.
of hardened mucus secreted by the glands of its skin.
Sequestered in this cocoon the fish breathes entirely by
its lungs for half the year; in this condition the earth
in which the fish is embedded may be dug up, and the
ball of earth with the fish in it may be transported
anywhere. When placed in warm water the lepidosiren
wakes up from the long sleep and resumes the double
method of breathing. In its ordinary surroundings the
I THE VICTORIA NYANZA uy)
fish remains in the cocoon until the rainy season floods
the marshes.
Lepidosiren is a very voracious fish: it eats frogs,
worms, insects, and
crustaceans, and also
exhibits cannibal in-
stinects by biting
and eating its fel-
lows. Indeed, Newton
Parker, who wrote an Lepidosiren is a voracious fish; it often
Es) aoe svek ; bites its companions and nips off the
admirable account of ends of their filamentous fins. When
the mud-fish, states the fins grow again they are sometimes
that it is difficult to HES
keep these fish alive in an aquarium for any length of
time owing to their habit of killing and eating one another
even when supplied with an abundance of food. The
bite from their scissor-like teeth causes terrible wounds.
Lepidosiren has two pairs of filamentous fins, and of
these the pectoral is longer than the pelvic pair, and
occasionally one of these fins is bifid. Some years ago
these animals were exhibited in a tank at the Zoological
Gardens, and I noticed that one of the fins was bifid.
The keeper told me that the deformity was due to its
companion biting off the free end of the fin, and as the
part grew again it became double. [ am satisfied that
this is a good explanation. It certainly accords with
what we know of the lizard’s tail. for when a lizard
loses its tail and regeneration occurs, the new portion is
often bifid and sometimes trifid at the tip. When the
ends of tails are bitten off, the parts are regenerated
but never attain their normal length. The fishermen
of the lake fear the bite of the mud-fish.
When this fish burrows into the mud, the mouth of
the flask-like cavity which surrounds it is closed by a
lid perforated by a small aperture. The margins of this
aperture are pushed inwards so as to form a funnel for
insertion between the lips of the fish. Boulanger, who
has written an interesting account of the mud-fish,
38 EASTERN ETHIOPIA I
states that it is possible to ascertain its condition,
when enveloped in the clod of earth, by passing a straw
(brin-de-pevlle) down the funnel to the mouth of the
fish ; if alive, it immediately utters a ery which is
Burrow.
Funnel.
Mouth.
Tail.
Cocoon.
Pectoral
dimb.
Earth.
Lepidosiren, the mud or lung fish, in its cocoon
embedded in mud. (After Newton Parker.)
produced by the expiration of air from its lungs.
When the clods are softened out care must be taken
that the water does not enter the funnel or the fish
would be suffocated.
ut THE VICTORIA NYANZA 39
In West Africa the negroes search diligently for the
fish in its encysted state, and they are particularly fond
of it and can keep it as a provision in the clod which
envelops it.
The Papyrus is a beautiful rush with a long green
stem sometimes twenty feet high, which is not com-
pletely circular. The stems are crowned with tufts
of delicate filaments, which were used by the ancient
Egyptians to make garlands for the shrines of the gods.
A Raft made of the dried Papyrus Stems. Used by
the Kavirondos on the Victoria Nyanza.
The leaves are apple-green. The pith used for making
writing material by the ancient Egyptians earned for
this plant the name of ‘ paper reed,” it occupies that
portion of the stem which les beneath the surface of
the water. The papyrus flourishes in the swamps of
Uganda, around the shallow margins of the Victoria
Nyanza and in the White Nile, but it is extinct in
Lower Egypt.
40 EASTERN ETHIOPIA Il
The thick stem of the papyrus is useful to the natives
for making rafts and canoes. The Kavirondo fisher-
men on the Victoria Nyanza use the stems for making
seines, and the leaves they weave into baskets.
The old Egyptians used the papyrus stems for making
rafts, and in the wall sculptures men are represented
constructing such rafts. It is probable that the little
ark of bulrushes daubed with “slime and with pitch,”
which sheltered the infant Moses in “ the flags by the
river's brink” (Ex. i. 3), was made of papyrus stalks.
IV
THE ARCHIPELAGOKS AND ISLANDS OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA
THE Victoria Nyanza abounds in islands; some are
mere rocks sticking out of the water, and serve as
basking places for crocodiles ; others are of large size,
thickly wooded, presenting high hills and verdant dales.
Many of the islands have played an important part in
the political and religious history of Uganda. Readers
interested in the religious war which took place in
Mwanga’s reign should master the geography of the
Lake Islands." The most important are Ukerewe in the
south ; Buvuma, Bulinguge, and Kome in the north ;
and the Sesse Archipelago in the north-west angle of
the lake. Ukerewe, twenty-five miles long with a
maximum breadth of twelve miles, les within the
German sphere of interest, off the northern corner
of Speke Gulf. This island is fertile; the central
parts, rising to a height of 650 feet above the lake, are
covered by an impenetrable primeval forest capable of
supplying useful timber.
The Wa-Kerewe cultivate the soil and grow bananas,
maize, sweet potatoes, sorghum, tobacco, gourds, and
rice. Their domestic animals are humped oxen, goats,
and sheep. They fish with weir baskets, and hook and
line ; and catch the hippopotamus with the harpoon.
The islanders are very superstitious and believe in
evil spirits. “ At the door of the hut they often hang
a great iron bell, against which the head strikes in
1The spelling adopted is the same as that found on the map of the lake
constructed by Commander Whitehouse and issued by the War Office, 1910,
4)
42 EASTERN ETHIOPIA Iv
opening, and which indeed is placed there for the pur-
pose, for exil spirits are said to strike themselves against
32 33 34 35
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the bell when entering the hut and are thus scared
away.” (Kollmann.)
Smith and O'Neill, two of the early Christian
missionaries who went to Uganda (1877) in response to
IV ISLANDS OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA 43
Stanley’s appeal were shortly afterwards murdered on
this island.
Sesse was believed to be a single island until it
was captured from the Roman Catholics by Major
Williams (1892). After subduing Sesse Island this
enterprising ofticer cireumnavigated it, and found,
instead of a large triangular island, as represented in
maps, one large. and many small islands, some being
merely rocky islets. Their true configuration and dis-
tribution was ascertained by Macdonald (1893).
The natives of the Sesse Islands are known as
Basesse. Although these islands lie in the north-west
angle of the Victoria Nyanza and belong to Uganda,
the people inhabitine them are more allied to the
Basoga than to the Baganda.
The Basesse are not only excellent boat builders,
but they are skilful paddlers and experts in man-
ceuvring their boats on the lakes, either singly or
in fleets. During the contest between Christians and
Mahomedans, the Basesse declared for Mwanga against
the usurper Karema, and by placing their fleet of
boats at his service gave him the mastery of the
lake.
Mwanga had his headquarters at these islands after
his deposition in 1888. From Bulinguge (an island
about one mile square in Murchison Bay) he harassed,
with the help of the Christians, the Mahomedans during
1889 and could feed his force by means of the Sesse
fleet. There was a time when the ‘Admiral of the
Fleet” commanded a fleet of four hundred boats.
Mwanga and the Roman Catholics retreated to
Bulinguge after the battle of Mengo (1892). This
island, ite h the Roman Catholics regarded as impreg-
nable, was assaulted by the Protestants under Williams,
but the King escaped by means of boats to Sesse.
When the Protestant attack became successful the
fugitives attempted to escape from the southern shores
by. means of their boats. The panic-stricken crowd
44 EASTERN ETHIOPIA IV
tried to secure places in boats already overfull, and
hundreds of them were drowned.
On the island of Bubembe, in the Sesse group,
Mukasa, the great goddess of the Victoria Nyanza,
had her temple, and some of the islands in this
archipelago had less important gods. The priests
of Mukasa had great power. It was believed that
this goddess could prevent storms on the lake ; make
rain; draw a tooth; or kill kings. Cunningham
found, in a French record, that in the year 1879
Mukasa “tied up” the lake for three months and
would not allow anyone to touch its waters. At
length King Mutesa was obliged to send an offering of a
hundred clive es, a hundred women, a hundred cows, and
a hundred goats to the temple, and Mukasa untied
the lake.
Sacrifices of goats and cows were made to the goddess
at her temple on Bubembe. This island is about four
miles long and two wide ; it is fertile, well-wooded, and
picturesque. ‘The temple has practically disappeared.
This is not a matter for surprise, for such temples were
merely built of mud and wood and thatched with grass.
Mukasa may be regarded as the Neptune of the “lake,
and the priests eae a paddle as an emblem of their
office. This paddle they used as a walking-stick.
Kome is eleven miles long and eight broad. The chief
informed Cunningham of a curious custom which
prevails on this island. If within the first year of
married life a child is not born, the husband is under-
stood to be at fault and the wife may make overtures
to the husband’s brother. When the intrigue is
successful the husband is informed, and life assumes its
normal features. The natives of this island cultivate
bananas, beans, potatoes, coffee, Indian corn, and
tobaeco. The Sesse Archipelago forms a county of
Uganda, and is represented in the Native Parliament.
The Buvuma Group consists of seven islands near
the north-east corner of the lake, adjacent to the coast
IV ISLANDS OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA 45
of Busoga, near Napoleon Gulf. The three largest
islands in this group are Buvuma, Bugaya, and Busiri.
Buvuma, the largest of these islands, is of irregular
shape and seems to be made up of peninsulas. It has
an area of about 170 square miles and is larger than
the Isle of Wight. It contains high hills in its central
parts, some of which are 500 or 600 feet above the
level of the lake. The hillsides are covered with
forests, and there are grassy uplands which afford
excellent pasture for cattle. Until devastated by the
sleeping-sickness it contained a large population in
many villages which were surrounded by excellent
gardens and plantations. The natives, known as
Wavuma, are excellent agriculturists, growing millet,
maize, sweet potatoes, and bananas: the surplus erain
they stored in granaries which resemble miniature huts.
They are skilful fishermen and like the Basesse build
excellent boats and are extremely expert in their use,
take to the water from childhood and swim admirably.
They make their own cord and ropes from fibre obtained
from the aloe; and manufacture their own pottery.
The Wavuma do not differ much in appearance from
the Baganda, but for a century or more there existed
a feud between them and the natives of Uganda.
The Kings of Uganda have tried in vain to subdue the
Wayuma: as they refused to accept Christianity and
had been a thorn in the side of the Baganda, Mutesa
resolved to subjugate the islands in 1875. At this time
the relations between Uganda and Buvuma resembled
those which prevailed in the time of Queen Hlizabeth
between the Empire of Spain and England. At this
time H. M. Stanley was staying in Uganda and he has
described the fighting force with which Mutesa
attempted to conquer the Wavuma. It consisted of a
fleet of 230 war boats, and an army estimated at
150,000 fighting men. The Wavuma had a fleet equal
to the Baganda, but their warriors (slingers and spear-
men) amounted to a fifth of Mutesa’s force. The
46 EASTERN ETHIOPIA Iv
Uganda fleet was hopelessly beaten by the Wavuma,
and Mutesa’s warriors had no opportunity of landing
on the island.
For nearly twenty years after this great fight the
Wavuma not only raided the adjacent coast of Usoga
and carried off the Baganda women into captivity, but
they carried on an intermittent slave trade with the
Arabs in German territory, and blocked the short lake
route between Kavirondo and Uganda. This brought
them into conflict with the agents of the Imperial
British East Africa Company.
Captain Williams, the company’s agent in Uganda,
tried by peaceful negotiations to open the lake route,
but without success. This led to the expedition of
1893. Assisted by Majors Macdonald and Smith,
Williams raised a force consisting of 100 Soudanese,
2,000 Baganda guns, and 3,000 spearmen, supported
by two Maxims for the purpose of capturing Buvuma.
The fighting men were conveyed in two boats and
250 boats. The paddlers increased his number by
5,000 men and brought the total under his command
to 10,000 men.
The Baganda fleet set out from Murchison Bay,
effected a Janding and encamped on the island of Busiri,
and a few days later it practically annihilated the fleet of
the Wavuma. The great island of Buvuma was occeupied
after a stubborn resistance on the part of the people.
Some miles south of Buvuma is the island of Bugaya :
its inhabitants were regarded as the bravest and most
fearless of the Wavuma: after the conquest of Buvuma
the Bagaya surrendered.
It has been mentioned already that the Wavuma
refused to accept Christianity or to have it thrust upon
them, but preferred their old fetish (or Lubare) worship,
which consisted in attempts to appease imaginary
evil spirits by offerings of food and drink placed in
little grass huts built outside the village or in the
depths of the forest.
IV ISLANDS OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA 47
Fetish huts are of two kinds. One consists of a hut
constructed of dried grass surmounted by a tall spire ;
the offering or charm (daua) is placed within the hut.
A Fetish Hut made of Grass (Island of Buvuma). Offerings
of food and drink are placed in such huts. This is the
way the spirits are worshipped. These huts are placed
outside villages ; often in the forest.
The other kind is a hollow cone of grass shaped like an
inverted funnel suspended from the bough of a tree,
and overshadowing a hollow stone on the ground
48 EASTERN ETHIOPIA IV
containing food, drink, or charms. The Wavuma are
extremely superstitious, and whilst there is good reason
to believe that much of their fetish worship is harmless,
in some instances it was attended with disgusting acts
of cruelty. The charms placed in these little fetish
huts are chiefly scraps of bark, bits of iron ore found
among the meadow, bundles of banana bast, and
different kinds of dried berries.
Many curious customs prevail among these people.
The national dress for men is a robe made of bark
cloth, but a woman’s consists of a banana leaf.
Cunningham points out the advantages of this simple
attire: it is easily renewed, and always clean. In this
respect the naked natives are angelic when compared
with tribes which wear bark cloth from month to month
and from year to year, without changing it. Un-
fortunately bark cloth cannot be washed. A woman in
Buvuma must not sit on a chair; even when no men
are present: she must sit on the floor.
On some of the islands (Buvuma and Busiri) the
incisors are removed, and the dentist who removes them
receives a fee of two kauri shells. The removal of the
teeth interferes with distinct pronunciation.
The boats used by the Baganda and by the natives
of the Buvuma and Sesse Islands are of great interest,
for, though of peculiar construction, they have been
brought to a state of perfection.
The keel of the boat is formed from a tree trunk
shaped externally with a hatchet and hollowed in-
ternally, in part by burning and in part by hatchets :
the keel is prolonged beyond the boat anteriorly in the
form of a long sharp peak. The depth of the boat
is increased by the addition of lateral planks about an inch
thick. These the boat-builders hewfrom tree trunks: they
have no saws: the planks are sewn to the tree forming
the keel and to each other by means of wattle fibre, the
holes for the threads being made in the planks with red,
hot awls. ‘Two tiers of planks are added to each keel-
Iv ISLANDS OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA 49
and where these planks meet to form the bow and stern
of the boata triangular piece of wood is let in to tighten
A Uganda boat with”paddles and baler.
them. One plank is not long enough to extend the entire
length of the boat ; two or more may be needed. Where
E
50 EASTERN ETHIOPIA Iv
the edges of two planks overlap a narrow strip of
wood is firmly fastened to make them watertight. A
strong spar traverses the sides of the boat near the prow
and projects on each side beyond the planks; this serves
as a handle to enable the boat to be drawn ashore. The
narrow seats are fastened into the boat in a peculiar
manner. When the side planks are fashioned, semi-
circular notches are made in corresponding parts of the
adjacent planks which receive the ends of the seats.
The seat hag a rounded knob at each end; this knob is
received in the holes formed hy the apposition of the
semicircular notches in the planks and projects on the
outer surface of the boat. When the seats are in
position a line of knobs is seen in the line of junction
formed by the union of the first and second row of
planking. The seats, therefore, give firmness to the boat.
In addition to the sharp beak formed by the keel
a movable prow (the prow of peace) is added, and
in order to make it firm, a strong cord passes from the
prow to the bow of the boat: this line is usually hung
with grass or fibre cut to a convenient length. The end
of the prow is often surmounted with horns. When
completed the boat is usually smeared with red Uganda
clay. The boat is impelled by paddles about three feet
long; the paddlers sit with their backs to the steersman,
who turns the vessel in any desired direction by using
his single paddle like a lever on the right or left side.
When the lake is calm a boat containing twenty
paddlers can be impelled at a quick rate and for a long
time. The paddlers sine monotonous songs as they
urge their boats through the waters of the lake. It
is an interesting sight to watch such a boat in
motion ; the rhythmic movements of the paddlers would
do credit to any crew; the handles of the paddles
simultaneously strike the sides of the planks and produce
a loud knock. The centre of gravity les far back in the
boat, so that the fore part is well out of the water ;
each is provided with a baler.
IV ISLANDS OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA 51
Some of* the boats, especially those built for war
purposes, accommodate a hundred paddlers. In war-
A Sesse Boat on the Victoria Nyanza.
time the false prow is removed and its point serves for
a ram.
52 EASTERN ETHIOPIA 1V
No nails, screws, or metal of any kind is used in the
construction of these boats; neither the Baganda nor
the Wavuma know anything of the use of sails, or
Saws.
The skill and daring of the Basesse and Wavuma
boatmen are proverbial. When Stanley circumnavigated
the lake in 1875, he was often in peril from the Wavuma.
He describes the voyage around the indented shores of
Speke’s Gulf and his visit to Ukerewe, where his guide
had many friends. Some of the natives laughed at the
novel method employed by his men in rowing, but when
the sail was hoisted they fled in terror. The boat was
frequently chased by hippopotamuses, and further along
the coast it was pursued by war boats, blown about
by severe gales, pelted by hailstones as large as
filberts, and deluged with torrents of rain. The
piratical craft of the Wavuma were so belligerent
that one had to be sunk with bullets. When he
approached Uganda he was received with a flotilla,
greeted with volleys of musketry and the thunder of
drums. On shore he was welcomed with flags and
received in audience by Mutesa. On leaving Uganda,
after a stay of many weeks, Stanley returned to his
base at Speke’s Gulf, and ran a narrow risk of being
murdered by the inhabitants of a large island ten days’
sail from Uganda.
The dwellers by the lake believed wonderful stories of
the Wavuma daring in the water, and credited them
with the ability of swimming under water to hostile
boats, and cutting with short knives the sutures which
secured the planking.
Great changes have come over these interesting Lake
Islands. In 1901 the sleeping-sickness visited them
and the adjacent shore districts, especially Uganda and
Busoga. In 1908, Bishop Tucker, in describing the havoc
wrought by this disease, stated that “the islands have
been depopulated.” Kome, which at one time was said
to have a population of 10,000, has hardly 500 souls
IV ISLANDS OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA 53
left. The fishermen on the lake shores have become an
extinct race. South Busoga has suffered even more
than Uganda. Nanyumba’s country has been more
than decimated, whilst Wakoli’s, formerly the very
garden of Busoga, is now a “ howling wilderness.”
At the time of my visit (1910) the last act, so far as
the islands are concerned, had been performed. The
few people living on the great island of Buvuma had
Harpoons used by Natives for Catching the Hippopotamus.
A. This fragment of harpoon was found in the body
of a hippopotamus shot in Rhodesia firmly
encysted in the animal’s subcutaneous tissue.
B. Harpoon and float as used on the Victoria Nyanza.
(British Museum. )
been removed to the mainland and isolated in a sanita-
tion camp. Similar measures had been carried out in
the islands of the Sesse Archipelago. To-day there is no
fishing carried on in the northern waters of the lake,
and on these islands crocodiles and _ tsetse-flies reigu
supreme.
54 EASTERN ETHIOPIA IV
Many of the large rivers and lakes of the Ethiopian
Region are inhabited by the hippopotamus. This huge
pig is the largest mammal which lives in fresh water,
as the sperm ‘whale is the biggest mammal known to
live in salt water. It is by no means difficult to shoot,
and this form of sport is as devoid of danger as
pigeon shooting. The natives endeavour to hunt the
hippopotamus with the harpoon. The method appears
to be this :—
The harpoon is a piece of barbed iron with a cord
and wooden float attached. The line traverses a hollow
handle made of bamboo several feet long. When
ready for use, the harpoon is drawn up to the end of
the hollow handle by means of the line attached to it.
The wily native conceals himself alone the track used
by the hippopotamus, and as the animal passes it
receives a forcible thrust which fixes the harpoon in
the thick hide. The wounded beast rushes into the
water, but the hollow handle is retained in the hands of
the hunter, and the line runs along it; the float
attached to it indicates the position of the animal,
which immediately seeks refuge in deep water. The
second part of the hunt is performed in the water.
The hunters go out in boats, and, on finding the float,
await the harpooned beast as it rises from the depths.
When the hippopotamus comes to the surface and opens
his enormous mouth to seize the boat and overturn it,
the hunters inflict serious damage, especially on the
animal’s nose, with their spears. In this way, as the
result of repeated attacks, the animal succumbs, and
forms the material for a native debauch.
It does not necessarily follow when a hunter implants
a harpoon into a hippopotamus that he secures the
object of his ambition. The line may break, and the
iron which enters the animal’s body may fail to entail
its destruction. I have had an opportunity of
examining an iron harpoon, removed from the body of
a hippopotamus, which had been thrust into its
IV ISLANDS OF THE VICTORIA NYANZA 55
hide a long period before it was shot by Mr. Long in
Rhodesia. It seems as if the iron ring which held the
rope had broken off. The harpoon was found deeply
embedded in the subcutaneous tissues, whilst the animal
was being skinned. This is an interesting specimen,
because it shows that the hippopotamus is hunted with
the harpoon in Central, as well as in Kast Africa and
Uganda.
Old and Young.
The hippopotamus is a menace to the natives in their
boats and canoes.
V
UGANDA
Uaanpa is the most northerly as well as the most
powerful negro kingdom on the Victoria Nyanza. It
is governed by a Kabaka (or King) assisted by a
Prime Minister, a Parliament, a Chief Justice, and a
Treasurer. Kampala is the headquarters of the
administration.
In 1894 a British Protectorate was proclaimed over
the territory of Uganda, which included only the
country subject to King Mwanga: this protectorate has
since been extended by the additions of territories
bordering Uganda and known as Usoga, Unyoro, Ankole,
Buddu, and Koko. The official capital and head-
quarters is Entebbe, situated on the shores of Victoria
Nyanza at Murchison Bay. Entebbe, the principal port
of Uganda, is in direct communication with the Hast
Africa Protectorate by steamboats which run across the
lake to Port Florence on Kavirondo Gulf.
Stanley’s visit to Mutesa (1875) was fraught with
important consequences, as it led to the introduction of
Christianity into the country. This notorious, cruel,
and bloodthirsty king, anxious to find a more satis-
factory religion than fetishism and ancestor-worship, was
initiated into the principles of the Christian Religion by
Stanley. This was followed by the advent of mission-
aries, an event which led to many complications, for
in religious matters Mutesa proved to be as fickle as he
56
v UGANDA 57
was cruel. The Arabs who were settled in the country
as ivory merchants had introduced Mahomedanism, and
the religious question was complicated by the Roman
Catholics who founded the Mission of the White Fathers.
Eventually the Protestant and Roman Catholic sections
of the Church found themselves, not only in rivalry, but
in actual strife.
Mutesa (or M’tesa as his name is often written) died
m 1884: he remained a pagan to the end in spite of
the proselytising efforts of Protestants, Roman Catholics,
and Mahomedans. He was succeeded by his son
Mwanga, a violent and vicious man, who soon came
into collision with the religious factions. For this
there was some excuse, as the religious bodies were
quarrelling with each other, and each trying to impose
its religion on the Kabaka. Cunningham neatly ex-
presses the position in this way :—‘‘The Arabs dosed
him with Mahomedanism, the White Fathers dosed him
with Catholicity, and the English missionaries dosed him
with Protestantism.”
Mwanga cruelly persecuted the Christians and
Mahomedans. His corrupt and vicious ways led to his
deposition in 1888, and he died an exile in the
Seychelles, 1893. It is a fact of some importance in
connection with the religious struggles which took place
in Uganda from 1884 to 1898, that the natives are not
circumcised unless they become Mahomedans: they
have a great dislike to this rite, and this may
have had some influence in preventing the spread of
Mahomedanism.
When the Mahomedans for a time obtained the upper
hand in Uganda, they wished to make Kiwewa, the
eldest brother of Mwanga, Kabaka, and attempted to
force on him the rite of circumcision, but he refused,
and killed some of the high functionaries who had come
to his enclosure for the purpose of performing the
rite.
58 EASTERN ETHIOPIA Vv
The Baganda are now almost completely converted to
Christianity either in its Protestant or Roman Catholic
form. Some are Mahomedans. In the revengeful
religious wars which took place in Uganda during the
reign of Mwanga the zeal of the converted natives was
similar to that of English Protestants in Mary’s reign,
and “it carried many Baganda to martyrdom.”
The natives of Usanda are known as Baganda, but
one of the race would be called Muganda : the
language is known as Kiganda. It is import fant to
keep these rules in mind. For example the islanders
of Bavuma are the Wavuma, those of Sesse islands,
Basesse ; and the inhabitants of the great island of
Ukerewe, Wakerewe. In the same way, in the East
Africa Protectorate, Wakikuyu signifies the natives of
Kikuyu, and the Wakamba live in the district of
Ukamba.
The Baganda differ in many ways from ordinary
Africans. Their faces are very black, but they have a
mild and inoffensive appearance. They are clothed
with garments made of bark cloth, but many native
Christians, men and women, wear a long white calico
garment, not unlike a nightgown, called a kansu,
and wear sandals of stiff ox- -hide made to fit the feet.
The Baganda live in comfortable houses built of
wood and dried grass: the interior of such houses is
divided into suitable apartments for the members of
the families who use them. They cultivate beans,
sugar-cane, sweet potatoes, coffee, and bananas; the
age is not drunk as a decoction, but the berries are
eaten.
Though possessing cattle the Baganda live mainly on
bananas, which grow luxuriantly in Uganda and on
fish from the lake which are caught in weir baskets.
These people make earthenware vessels, pipes, spoons,
musical instruments, such as guitars and especially
drums, spears, shields, and various things which they
v UGANDA 59
use as charms to ward off evil spirits. Necklaces and
bracelets are worn in a becoming manner and these
people do not circumcise, nor disfigure their bodies by
keloid sears. They do not file or knock out the incisor
teeth, nor work the hair into grotesque or fantastic
shapes.
It is an extraordinary change to pass from the
Province of Kisumu, where the Kavirondo men and
women walk about more naked than our apple-loving
parents in the Garden of Eden, and enter Uganda,
where the natives exhibit the most scrupulous regard
for outward decency. This astonished Speke, for he
tells us in his account of Uganda (1863) that Mutesa
inflicted a heavy fine on courtiers who exposed their
legs in his presence, but he was not so particular in
regard to women. His valets were young women who
used to walk about the palace naked like the Kavirondo
girls. When Speke entered Uganda his donkey was
regarded as indecent without EroMscrst
‘Tt is noteworthy that a negro people so punctilious
in outward decency especially i in regard to clothes, and
stricily covering the body from neck to ankle, should
be considered among the most immoral of ihe, African
races. The word Baganda is almost synonymous with
sensuality, debauchery, and drunkenness. In Uganda,
syphilis is almost universal. This terrible opinion is
supported by reliable medical men and the testimony of
bishops.
Sir Harry Johnston states on the authority of Mon-
signeur Streicher that in Mutesa’s reign the population
of the Kingdom of Uganda approached 4,000,000. In
1901 it was eeeurmaheal at little more fier 1,000,000.
This decrease is partly due to the massacres which took
place between 1860 and 1898, especially under Mutesa
and Mwanga.
Human life had little value in Mutesa’s court. Speke
gave this Kabaka some firearms and at his request shot
60 EASTERN ETHIOPIA v
four cows with a revolving pistol. Mutesa then handed
a carbine full-cock to a page and told him to shoot a
man in the outer court. On the return of the page he
asked, “Did you do it well?” ‘Oh yes, capitally,”
said the boy.
Infant mortality is very great among the natives—
it is rare to find a woman with more than one
child: they have little love for their children. The
Baganda learn arithmetic with great facility ; a lady
missionary was very proud that one woman in her class
had shown exceptional ability and could work out vulgar
fractions. The missionary then stated that this
woman had a sick child, and as it showed no signs of
improving, and as nursing interfered with her arithmetic,
she left the little child in the forest at night for the
hyeenas.
Uganda is not much troubled with lions, but leopards
are often a nuisance. Shortly before our visit, some of
the villages had been worried by a man-eating leopard.
A native party was organised to kill this animal. Nine
of the party were badly mauled by the leopard and
four of them subsequently died from their wounds.
Leopards are sometimes very bold, and have been
known to seize and make off with patients in the
sleeping-sickness camps. A Government official was
having a shawri with a party of natives in Nandi: they
were sitting round an ant-hill when suddenly a hare
chased by a leopard appeared and dodged about among
the men. A timely and well-placed ‘bullet cut short
his career.
All who have visited Uganda are unanimous in regard
to the fertility of the soil. The valleys are moist with
frequent showers which render them extremely favour-
able for the cultivation of bananas. The mists and
rains which are so beneficial are probably due to the
regular south wind which blows across the lake and
carries the watery vapour with it, to fall on the verdant
hills along its northern shores. The amount of watery
Vv UGANDA 61
vapour which arises from the lake by evaporation must
be enormous, especially when we remember that the
lake has a superficial area of 27,500 square miles
lying under the equator.
The Banana (Musa). A. The flower cone.
A banana plantation is as typical of Uganda as a wheat-field
is of England and a potato-field of Ireland.
As Uganda enjoys an abundant rainfall it is easy to
understand that the valleys between the hills may be
luxuriant forests, marshes, or papyrus swamps with
millions of gnats.
62 EASTERN ETHIOPIA Vv
The Banana (Musa), a gigantic herbaceous plant,
common in the tropical parts ‘of the East, is cultivated
in all tropical and subtropical countries. It erows wild
in Uganda, but among the cultivated plants it is
estimated that there are more than thirty varieties.
A banana plantation is as typical of Uganda as a wheat-
tield is of an Enelish county, or a potato-field of
Treland.
The banana is a curious plant: it forms a spurious
stem by the sheathing bases of the leaves. Such a stem
may rise fifteen or twenty feet in height. Some of the
leaves are ten feet in leneth and two feet across the
blade. These large fan-like leaves are often of a delicate
green and move with every breath of wind; indeed a
banana plantation is a feast of colour.
The banana is propagated by young shoots which
arise from its roots. The old stem dies down after
flowering and fruiting, and a new stem from the old
root takes its place. The flower is of interest, for it
consists of a conical bulb of purple spathes. The
poorly developed petals and reproductive parts are
covered by a huge purple spathe which surmounts the
stalk. When the fruit forms, the stalk becomes top-
heavy and doubles on itself.
Dr. Cook found these spathes very useful. The
Baganda love physic, but it was dificult to persuade
the patients at the Missionary Hospital to take the
stuff in definite quantities at regular hours; they
preferred to drink it wholesale. Graduated medicine
glasses could not be supplied, but the deficiency is not
felt because the spathe of a banana is shaped like a
spoon, and its concavity holds for practical purposes one
ounce of fluid, and thus fulfils the function of a medicine
glass.
When a native goes out in the rain he takes off his
clothes, carries them under his arm and uses a banana
leaf as an umbrella. Bark cloth, as clothing, is soon
ruined by rain. Women sometimes wrap a baby in a
v UGANDA 63
banana leaf. Good fibre is obtained from these leaves,
for ropemaking. The fruit of the banana after fer-
Muganda with two Banana Leaves.
64. EASTERN ETHIOPIA Vv
mentation furnishes a sweet and intoxicating beer.
When, in consequence of drought, the banana crop
fails, the Baganda are reduced to a state of famine.
Dried banana leaves are emblems of mourning. When
King Mutesa died the whole country went into mourn-
ing, and everyone allowed the hair to grow. (Ashe.)
Boy Collecting Termites.
In Uganda, as in other parts of Africa, termites (in their winged
stage) are regarded as delicacies.
Men were clothed in the national costume of bark
cloth, knotted over the right shoulder, but girded as a
sign of mourning with withered banana leaves, emblems
of decay and death.
The sweet potato is cultivated everywhere in East
Africa from Zanzibar to Egypt (Grant). The tubers are
favourite food with the natives. Guinea fowls and
Vv UGANDA 65
antelopes are destructive to it. The plant once in the
ground seems to be allowed to propagate itself without
replanting from season to season.
Locusts are eaten after the wings have been removed
and the bodies roasted. Termites (white ants) are
regarded in Uganda as in other parts of Africa as
delicacies.
In Uganda the people are divided into clans, and
each clan is named after an animal, insect, fish, or
The Scaly Ant-eater, or Manis (Manis ¢ricuspis).
plant. Thus, a clan is named after a sheep, grass-
hopper, crocodile, hippopotamus, serval cat, bean,
mushroom, dog, &c. There is some reason for the
choice of a particular animal or plant as the badge,
totem, or sign of a clan, but its precise significance 1s
il-understood. No member of a clan may eat the
F
66 EASTERN ETHIOPIA Vv
animal or vegetable which is the totem or sign of
that clan. For instance, the mud-fish (mamba) is the
sign of the Mamba clan, but no member of that clan
will eat, injure, or willingly destroy this fish.
The Baganda make their own pottery. There are
several varieties of clay, red, kaolin or white, and
black. The blackness of the vessels made from black
clay is intensified by a glaze made from graphite which
occurs In Uganda. Some of the pottery 1s artistic, and
good examples of vases glazed with plumbago may be
seen in the British Museum. They also weave baskets
and mats, and are skilful in utilising the various lone
grasses which grow in the marshes. The thatchers are
a separate guild. They are especially clever in covering
the outer walls of porches and the woodwork of veran-
dahs with the long polished stalks of elephant grass
packed closely together in an upright position and
bound with string.
It is aremarkable fact that the Baganda, the foremost
negro race in Africa, have no knowledge of the plough,
the saw, sails, or of wheeled vehicles ; neither have they
done anything to tame or domesticate animals, but they
are fond of dogs.
A curious kind of ant-eater known as the Manis is
found in Uganda. From head to tail it is covered with
scales, so that this animal has the appearance of a huge
fir-cone, and like a hedge-hog it can roll itself up like a
ball and expose a hard smooth surface to its enemies.
It is said that the Manis can contract its scales on its
body, so that if a monkey’s finger or a dog’s nose
is placed beneath a scale either would be badly nipped.
This animal lives entirely on ants and termites: it has
a tubular mouth, a long tongue, and no teeth. The
walls of the stomach are much thickened, and like birds
it swallows small pebbles to assist in grinding its food.
The Manis lives on trees; sometimes when climbing a
tree it may descry an enemy, it will then fling its body
backwards and remain immobile, with its tail firmly
v UGANDA 67
pressed against the tree trunk. In this attitude the
animal resembles the trunk end of a broken branch.
The animal is represented in this position in the
excellent stuffed group representing scaly ant-eaters or
Pangolins in the Natural History Museum, London.
A Fetish Hut or Spirit-shelter.
At night the piece of pottery
serves for a door.
F 2
VI
KAMPALA (MENGO), THE NATIVE CAPITAL OF UGANDA
KamPaLa is a picturesque town about twenty-three
miles from Entebbe and seven miles from Port Kam-
pala (Munyonyo) on the Victoria Nyanza. The town
occupies the summits of seven hills, and has been
called in consequence, by the missionaries, Zion. The
names of the seven hills are: Mengo, Mutesa, Rubaga,
Nasambya, Kasubi, Nakasero, and Namirembe. Each
hill is the headquarters of a separate community.
Mengo is occupied by the residence of the Kabaka
(King), his court and followers. Three of the hills are
occupied by religious communities. Rubago has on
its summit the Roman Catholic Mission, known as the
White Fathers (French). Nasambaya is occupied by
the buildings of the English Roman Catholic Mission
(St. Joseph’s). Namirembe, “the hill of peace,” the
highest of the seven, has the schools and the admirable
native hospital belonging to the Church Missionary
Society. At the time of our visit it was surmounted
by the Uganda Cathedral. This remarkable edifice was
struck by lightning and destroyed, September 1910.
Nakasero is ened to military and civil officials.
We approached Kampala from Entebbe travelling in
a transport motor-car along an excellent road twenty-
three miles long. The journey was particularly interest-
ing ; the ae was of the same brick-red material as
has already been described in connection with the
railway journey from Mombasa, and tall ant-hills were
very frequent m the plantations bordering the roadway.
68
VI KAMPALA (MENGO) 69
In the cultivated patches by the side of the road sweet
potatoes were growing, and in several places young
tubber trees had been planted and appeared to be
An Ant-hill in Uganda.
It is surrounded by tobacco plants.
flourishing. In many parts of the journey the road
was bordered by banana plantations; the huge green
leaves of the bananas were waving like fans in the
breeze ; groves filled w ith palms and bordered with tall
70 EASTERN ETHIOPIA VI
tufts of elephant grass made us fancy that we were
passing through the Palm house at Kew. Suddenly
the road traversed a stretch of equatorial forest filled
with large trees, in all stages of growth and decay,
supporting parasitic trailing plants and lianas. Some
of the trees thoroughly invested by thin, pendant,
trailing plants resembled a confirmation irl in nun’s
veiling.
These thick groves and corners of forests contain a
great variety of birds, and as they flew from one grove
to another I was able to recognise some of them. Not
the least remarkable were the huge black and white
hornbills; these birds seemed to think it a hardship
that they should be expected to fly. The bee-eaters,
sun-birds, parrots, and rollers filled the scene with life,
glory, and beauty. In some of the forest patches
monkeys are seen in troops, especially the colobus,
playing among the trees or sunning themselves in the
tops of dead trees, or sliding down the lianas and
landolphias like children in a gymnasium.
As we emerged from the forest, palms, bananas, sweet
potatoes, and rubber trees again came into view with
native huts built of mud and thatched with grass :
black-skinned children gnawing at bananas or a piece
of sugar-cane watched the p passage of the car. We rode
up and down the hills of this switchback road until we
caught a glimpse of the Uganda Cathedral on the top
of Namirembe hili, and in a short time we entered
Kampala. It was a beautiful approach to a remarkable
town.
When we visit Rome with its almost continuous
lines of houses and well-kept streets we do not notice
the inconvenience of ascending and descending the
slopes of one or other of its seven hills, when we pass
from part of the town to another. In Kampala the
isolation of the various institutions from one another in
consequence of being perched on a hill is inconvenient,
especially as the only means of conveyance is the
VI KAMPALA (MENGO) 71
jinvicksha. ‘The districts around the bases of the hills
of Kampala are occupied with plantations, and the
residences of the white oflicials are surrounded with
ample gardens, or compounds, filled with tropical trees,
flowers, and fruits. In walking among these gardens I
started a female bushbuck eating cabbages in the
kitchen garden ; in another two crowned cranes were
performing the dance for which they are so celebrated ;
I also started a heron, and in the verandah there was a
pretty serval cat chained up by the collar like a dog,
quite tame, eager and willing to receive caresses. Our
hostess, Mrs. Baker, had a young genet as a pet, and a
chameleon. Genet kittens are very pretty and great
favourites with men and women. While we amused
ourselves in catching flies for the chameleon an inter-
esting question arose concerning its mode of reproduc-
tion. I maintained that the chameleon laid eges, and
was immediately faced with the following statement :—
A lady friend made her a present of a chameleon, which
was at once placed on the wire-work blind in the lower
half of the window; an hour later, three young, clay-
coloured chameleons were clinging to the wire blind
aud there were no signs of eggs or shells. There is no
real dithculty, for one species Cl pwmilis is viviparous,
and this proved to be the species under discussion. It
is noteworthy that the young chameleons were active
very quickly after birth, and one of them caught a fly
within the first three hours.
We often amused ourselves with finding chameleons
and attempting to photograph the tongue when ejected
at afly. The protrusion of this long elastic organ is a
deliberate and, on the whole, a slow action. When the
process is watched it is easy to see when a chameleon
intends to secure a fly; whilst it is carefully focussing
the insect, its cheeks swell out and the end of the tongue
protrudes slightly from the mouth and is then quickly
ejected at the fly, and, if the insect be secured, the
tongue is quickly and easily drawn back into the mouth.
72 EASTERN ETHIOPIA vI
Flies are often secured when held six inches from the
chameleon’s mouth ; it seems to aim at the fly with
much more certainty at six inches than at four. Any-
one who has carefully watched chameleons will agree
with Gadow that the tongue works best when shot out
with full force. When a chameleon ejects its tongue
at a fly and misses it, the reptile appears to have more
difficulty in withdrawing the organ into the mouth than
when the fly is hit cil oanwecl. When the object is
missed the tongue hangs about like the loose end of a
rope. Protusion and retraction of the tongue, even
when performed vigorously, are actions sufficiently
deliberate to permit a photograph to be obtained of the
act. The chameleon even in its own natural surround-
ings occasionally misses a fly although the tongue may
be aimed with apparent care.
The variation in the colour of the chameleon’s skin
was another source of interest to us. Although the
movements of a chameleon seem very slow when care-
fully watched yet left to itself for a few minutes the
reptile generally escaped, and its power of altering the
colour of its skin to the environment soon taught us
the hopelessness of even a rigorous search. It is dith-
cult to detect chameleons among the branches of trees
unless the reptiles move. The skin of the chameleon is
covered with granules.
These reptiles can hold very tightly by means of
their awkward-looking feet “‘ with triple claw disjoimed.”
They are also aided in maintaining a secure position by
means of their tails. The following observation related
by Selous bears on this fact :—he saw a small owl
sitting on a bare patch of ground under a thorn tree.
The bird did not move Trill he was quite close to it.
The owl flew two or three yards and something could
be seen attached to its lee. He caught the owl and
found that a large ehamelean had a enlanl itself to
the bird’s leg by twisting its tail round it two or three
times,
v1 CHAMELEONS 73
The eyes of chameleons are curious, for each can act
independently of the other; one can be directed
forwards whilst its fellow is looking backwards. The
prominent eye is covered with a circular lid pierced by
a small hole.
Zola
i —_—~
je S
Burren WwepTH se SS
Stranger animal,
Sure never lived beneath the sun ;
A lizard’s body lean and long,
A tish’s head, a serpent’s tongue.
Its foot with triple claw disjoined ;
And what a length of tail behind.
— James Merrick, 1720-69,
74 EASTERN ETHIOPIA vI
It is worth remembering that according to Mosaic
law chameleons are included among the creeping things
Mutesa’s Grave ‘‘ behind the fence of spears.”
(From Bishop Tucker’s Highteen Years in Uganda.)
v1 KAMPALA (MENGO) 75
unclean and therefore uneatable. They are classed with
the weasel, ferret, mouse, tortoise, snail, lizard, and
mole (Mev. xi. 29; 30).
The Tomb of Mutesa.—This conspicuous building
surmounts one of the hills of Kampala. It is cone-
shaped, built of timber and reeds, and thickly thatched
with grass. It has one door and no windows, so that
the interior of the tomb is weird and mysterious. Two
rows of poles make a sort of aisle which is strewn with
erass, and a fence of spears protects the grave, which is
covered with bark cloth. There is a Uganda shield at
each end of the row of spears. A large sheet of bark
cloth consisting of white and dark squares arranged in
chequer or draught board pattern forms the background
of this sombre chamber of the dead.
In connection with the tomb a complete household is
maintained as though the Kabaka was alive. These
keep a perpetual vigil in the deep shadows of the tomb
and are not allowed to come out.
In savage Africa monuments to powerful chiefs are
rare. Among most tribes death means annihilation
and a man is forgotten unless he has children. It is,
however, a curious fact that the names of tyrants go
down to posterity more surely, and leave a more vivid
impression, than rulers famous for good deeds. Herod's
dreadful Massacre of the Innocents is known to a
multitude of men aud women, whereas few know much
of the good qualities of the Emperor Hadrian. All
visitors to Paris are reminded, in many districts of
that famous and artistic city, of the destructive ability
of Napoleon Bonaparte. Tourists in Moscow are not
allowed to forget the atrocities of [van the Terrible.
In Kampala the name of Mutesa survives though in
the main it is a byword for cruelties and atrocities of
the vilest kind which earned for him the title ‘“ causer
of tears.” Most writers on Uganda, in referring to the
cruelties of Mutesa and his successor Mwanga, state
that the details are too harrowing to publish, Severe
76 EASTERN ETHIOPIA VI
bodily punishments were inflicted on ‘frivolous pretexts.
Cunningham refers to a poor wretch he had seen,
whose ears had been cut off because his goat, in passing
alone a path, nibbled a blade of grass on the King’s
land. The present Katikiro or “Prime Minister of
Ueanda wrote an account of the Kings (Bakabaka) of
Uganda; he states that at frequent intervals Mutesa
proclaimed sacrifices, and the royal harem was rifled for
victims, who were duly slaughtered, with many others.
When Mutesa died the whole country mourned for him,
a King whose conduct was so atrocious as to excite
horror in a country like Africa where ‘‘ Eye for eye,
tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot”
does not excite astonishment. For instance, when
Livingstone visited the native ruler of Lunda in
1867, he found the court of the palace decorated
with men’s skulls, and a great portion of the people
had cropped ears and lopped-off arms, which served to
remind the subjects of these mutilations that the ruler
had been obliged to give expression to his disapproval
of their conduct. (Brode. )
THe Ucanpa CATHEDRAL
It has been mentioned that the most conspicuous
edifice in Kampala, the Cathedral on the summit of
Namirembe hill, was struck by lightning and reduced
to ashes a few months after our visit. Probably no
other place of Christian worship in the world was like
unto it. This cathedral rested on a foundation of burnt
bricks, but those used in the construction of the walls
were sun-dried. The wooden roof was supported by two
rows of octagonal columns built of unburnt bricks, and
thatched with dried grass. The beams which supported
the roof were overlaid with polished stalks of elephant
grass which caused the interior of the cathedral to be
filled with a pale yellow light, producing an unusual
and pleasant impression,
VI KAMPALA (MENGO) V7
The walls were pierced with long narrow windows
with wire netting instead of glass to exclude bats.
(From a Photo by C. W. Hattersley.)
The Thatched Cathedral.
The netting became a necessity because the bats hung
from the roof in crowds, and a dead one occasionally
78 EASTERN ETHIOPIA VI
fell on the native worshippers squatting on the cemented
floor.
A
Wy!
Interior of the Uganda Cathedral.
The interior of the cathedral consisted of a nave and
two side aisles, a chancel, transept and vestibule. There
VI KAMPALA (MENGO) 79
were two entrances, one at each end of the transept.
This cathedral accommodated four thousand persons.
lt had neither belfry nor bell-tower, but a drummery
ti
|S
a May)
Whi cali”
St. Paul’s Cathedral, Uganda, had no belfry. The worshippers
were reminded of their duty by drums. The drummery
is a detached building constructed of wood and dried
grass.
—a detached building constructed mainly of grass —
containing three Jhon: a major, minor, and minimus ;
these were beaten to summon the Baganda to te
services Instead of bells.
80 EASTERN ETHIOPIA VI
The gateway of the cathedral precincts is con-
structed of sun-dried bricks roofed with elephant grass,
and the columns supporting the corners of the roof are
the untrimmed stems of palm trees.
This unique cathedral was designed by Mr. Borup
to replace the older building, which was in an unsafe
condition. The new cathedral, built by native labour,
was begun in 1901. The Kabaka laid the foundation
stone (June 18, 1901), and it was consecrated June
21, 1904. The interest evinced by the Baganda in
its construction was great and practical. The members
of the congregation carried the clay up the hill from
ome =)
the swamps to the brickmakers, and women gathered
The raven which Bishop Hannington taught to
tell the people of Hurstpierpoint to ‘“ go
and sign the pledge.” This bird survived
its preceptor seventeen years in the care
of Dr. Hawken.
the wood and material required for burning the bricks.
The beams were conveyed from long distances by men.
Occasionally the Katikiro (Prime Minister) would join
the procession and carry a load of clay. (Tucker.)
A plot of ground immediately under the shadow
of the apse of the cathedral is reserved as a burying
ground. It contains the remains of Bishop Hannington,
who was murdered by the natives in 1885 at or near
Lubu in Usogo by the orders of the superstitious
Mwanga.
After the murder the bishop’s body was interred near
the scene of the massacre at Mumias; it was recovered
by Bishop Tucker during his second journey to Uganda
VI KAMPALA (MENGO) 81
in 1892, and re-interred with great solemnity at
Kampala. Mwanga, who was responsible for the
murder, attended mie second burial, December 31,
1902.
Captain Raymond Portal is also buried here, and the
officers Thruston, Wilsc mn, and Scott, who were murdered
by the Soudanese mutineers in cold blood, 1897.
The view from the summit of the hill on which
the cathedral stands is very fine. From the west
end may be seen the tomb of Mutesa, and the hill
on which Stanley was encamped in 1875. The path-
way, or track, leading from Stanley’s camping ground
to Mutesa’s residence is pointed out to visitors.
The road leading from the cathedral passes the large
native hospital in which Drs. J. H. Cook and A. R. Cook
carry out their admirable medical work among the
Baganda. The institution is fitted with most of the
requirements of modern surgery. The organisation
of the place is excellent, and testifies to the zeal and
energy of the capable staff connected with it.
A short distance from the hospital is the native
market, and we were greatly amused with the quaint
things offered for sale. Dried fish from the lake
resembling sprats; pieces of the paunch of a sheep
carefully folded up with a small piece of soft fat. It
was a matter of surprise to see kaurie shells in heaps,
but whether as a means of exchange, or on sale for
ornamental purposes, [ could not ascertain. Metallic
ornaments for native use were abundant and betrayed
their Western origin, for some were made in Birmingham
and others came from Germany.
In the middle of the market- place we found a boy
busily engaged in removing ‘ ‘jiggers’ * from the sole of
an old man with a safety pin. The native boys are
very expert in extracting these pests.
Here we had excellent opportunities for studying
bark-cloth, for the manufacture of this material is quite
an art in Uganda. The bark is obtained from a species
G
82 EASTERN ETHIOPIA VI
of fig tree which flourishes in this fertile country. The
bast on the inner side of the bark is removed in strips
six or ten feet in length. Red bast is preferred. The
strip, which varies in width according to the circum-
ference of the tree, is soaked in water until it is a soft
mass; it is then beaten with a wooden mallet to uniform
thickness and dried. The strips are sewn together
with extreme neatness to any desired size. The bark-
cloth is often variegated by bold stencilled designs,
sometimes in grotesque patterns, by means of a black
dye.
It is the correct thing in Uganda for princesses and
the wives of the chiefs to wear bark-cloth in preference
to calico. Bark-cloth makes a useful material for
binding writing books and blotters.
Whilst at Kampala we had an opportunity of visiting
H.H. the Kabaka, a youth of fourteen years, the son of
Mwanga by a Protestant wife. He was born August
1, 1896, and christened Daudi (David). The Kahbaka
is a well-grown and dignified youth, somewhat shy, but
has a pleasant face and answers questions without
reserve; he is fond of dogs, mechanical toys, bicycles,
and. motor ears. Mr. Sturrock, the clever tutor,
informed me that the Kabaka is fond of reading,
especially historical books and those relating to animals.
Kipline’s Jungle Book has for him a peculiar fascina-
tion. The signature appended shows that he writes
English characters as neatly as any boy of a
corresponding age in a public school.
HH. the Kabaka of Uganda receives from the British
Government £800 yearly, and on attaining majority
this will be increased to £1,500, and he will be entitled
to a salute of guns. He became Kabaka, August 14,
1897, under a regency.
Facsimile of the autograph of the Kabaka of Uganda.
VII
DRUMS
No account of a visit to Hast Africa, and particularly
Uganda, would be complete without some reference to
drums. In Uganda a musical band sometimes consists
entirely of drums. They take the place of church bells
in European cities, and, like bells, they are used for
ceremonial purposes on such occasions as weddings,
funerals, and religious services ; at times of national
rejoicing, as well as to sound alarms. In the Sesse
Archipelago they are used for signalling purposes
between the islands : a special drum is beaten on Kome
to announce the birth of twins, and a select drum is
used on the appearance of the new moon. Drums were
introduced into the British army in the sixteenth
century, and used for giving signals in times of peace
and war.
The principle underlying the construction of a drum
is the same in all countries, and in all ages. A drum is
composed of a cylinder which may be of wood, bamboo,
or metal, covered at each end with vellum, parchment,
or prepared skin, the tension of which is regulated by
strings. The sound is produced by percussion, usually
by beating on the parchment or skin-covered ends with
appropriate drum-sticks, or by means of the fingers
or the palm. Much ingenuity is shown in making
drums, and great skill is often displayed in percussing
them.
There is great variety in the shape and size of drums.
The Uganda drum consists of a hollow truncated cone
1 —
83 Ga
84 EASTERN ETHIOPIA vil
of wood with a piece of ox-hide stretched over its ends.
These two pieces of hide are connected by cords made
from banana fibre, which serve to keep them tense.
The disposition of the cords produces a decorative
effect enhanced by staining. Some of the drums are
of enormous size. I have seen one a yard and a half
es aad na pace na
{
\
N
i
t
i
Saas,
The Uganda drum consists of a hollow, truncated
cone of wood witha piece of ox-hide stretched
over each end. The pieces of hide are con-
nected by cords made from banana fibre which
keep them tense. The cords are sometimes
stained to produce a decorative ettect.
high and nearly a yard in width at the broad end.
The conical-shaped drum stands on its narrow end and
is beaten on the broad end. Large war drums are held
extremely sacred, and the loss of one is as much taken
to heart by an African Sultan as the loss of a flag by
ourselves.
VII DRUMS 85
When Speke visited King Rumanika at Karague, he
found thirty-five drums ranged on the eround, with
as many drummers ranged behind them. The thirty-
five drums all struck up together in very good harmony ;
and when their deafening noise was over, a smaller band
of hand-drums and eed instruments was ordered in to
amuse him.
BOTER NM RTS:
Women Drummers at Suna’s Tomb.
(After Hattersley. The Baganda at Home.)
In Uganda the State organisation is of a high order ;
every principal chief has his own standard and ae um call.
When the King’s war-drum sounds the call to arms
in Mengo, each district passes the signal on. Thus the
country is quickly aroused. Special beats of the drum
are used for alarms, as when a wild animal, such as
a lion, is discovered in a village
86 EASTERN ETHIOPIA VII
In Kampala, | was much impressed by the way sound
travels from one hill-top to another. A native on the
summit of one hill can converse without much difficulty
with a native on a neighbouring hill, and in the calm
of the evening the anit of ae drum travels long
distances. This makes it easy to believe that drums
are used in these countries not only for issuing signals,
but for conveying messages in code.
In Uganda the drum is an appanage of royalty, alive
or dead. Women drummers live in the tombs of the
kings. The tomb of Suna, the father of Mutesa,
contains some of his memorials, and the old women
(his widows) live in the tomb and believe that so long
as a certain part of him (umbilical cord) exists, the old
lord and master is with them im spirit. When this
relic is brought out all the old drummers and _ singers
beat their drums and sing old chants, just as they used
te do to welcome the approach of their master during
his reign. (C. W. Hattersley.)
Simple forms of drums are made by hollowing out
a piece of the stem of a tree, a yard long and eight or
nine inches in diameter: over the ence of hese! long
cylinders a piece of skin from a large lizard is stretched:
sometimes a piece of goat or antelope skin is used, but
whatever the material, it is fastened over the end of
the drum and fixed to the wooden cylinder with pegs,
or in some of the more elaborate drums, the skin is kept
stretched by means of strips of leather.
Long narrow drums of this kind are carried by means
of a leather strap passing over one shoulder of the
drummer. ‘lhe drums are beaten by means of wooden
sticks, or the end of the drum-stick is enveloped with
bast or rags.
The most complicated drum I have seen was shown
me by Mr. Hobley, who obtained it from the Wa-Kamba.
The drum-cylinder was from the stem of a large
bamboo; it measured two yards in length and_ six
inches in diameter. At one end of the cylinder a piece
VII DRUMS 87
of wood is left as a handle: the opposite end is covered
with, hide which is drawn into a cone by means of a
piece of stout brass wire passing upwards through
the hollow of the drum: near the handle this piece of
wire is strained over a bridge of wood like a violin
string and made taut on the outside, near the handle.
In order to play the drum, it is held by the handle
A Sesse Guitar.
It is covered with python’s skin.
and the lower end is gently tapped upon the floor :
an agreeable soft drumming noise is thus produced.
The drum, or ngoma, is an indispensable accompani-
ment to all native Annee: hence this word has come to
signify a a dance. In many instances the band consists
entirely of drums, and before dancing begins the
drummers tune fier instruments to the same pitch
88 EASTERN ETHIOPIA vil
so as not to “mar the dancers’ skill” When a drum
is not in tune, the drummer collects some grass
and makes a small fire, over which he heats the hide
until it becomes tense enough to furnish the proper
An Ashantee Fetish Drum. (British Museum.)
note. When drums are played by hand, variations are
produced by striking the stretched skin with the palm,
the finger-tips, the knuckles, or the closed fist. The
music and dancing usually last many hours, and in
VII DRUMS 89
native villages situated near European settlements,
is the practice to permit dancing on Saturday night oie
The natives have other bind of musical reece
such as flutes and guitars, but the drum ene.
the dance music. Sane of the guitars are neatly made
and the sound box is covered smal thin skin, often that
of the python. The men will often play Tee OTE
tunes on such instruments for hours. These guitars are
sometimes ornamented with the tail of a ooat,
I had heard that in some parts of Uganda a drum-
covering is made from the ear of an elephant. My
efforts to obtain or see such a drum were unfruitful.
It is conceivable that the ear of the African elephant
could be used for such a purpose, for some ears measure
four feet across.
There is a tract of country extending from the
north-west corner of Tanganyika towards the main
affluent of the Congo in that region known as the
Manyema Country. Pure cannibalism is practised by
the Manyema people. They eat their own dead. Thus
a father would not eat his own sou or daughter, neither
would anyone of the same village, so the corpse is given
to the natives in a neighbouring village. When
anyone is very ill and likely to die, word is sent to the
relations in the nearest village, int they await the
signal to fetch away the hody. The information
of the death is generally conveyed by drum-signal.
(Cunningham. )
Drums also play a part in fetish-worship, and an
extraordinary drum of this kind comes from Ashanti ;
it is decorated with the thigh bones of human beings
and the skull of a baboon. ‘This drum was sounded at
human sacrifices.
Drums now serve better purposes in Uganda, for they
are used to summon the worshippers to church. It is
odd that pious people should require to be reminded of
their religious duties by means of such discordant sounds
as the deleral ringing of bells or the booming of drums.
go EASTERN ETHIOPIA VII
It has been mentioned already that the term drum is
usually restricted to sound-producing instruments in
which a tense membrane, stretched across a hollow
In Uganda drums are used instead of bells to call the congregations to
worship.
cylinder, is set in vibration by hand or stick. The
peculiar booming of a drum can be produced without
the aid of a stretched membrane. The Gordon College,
Khartoum, possesses a specimen of the remarkable
vu DRUMS gl
drum used by the Niam-Niam. It is roughly shaped
hike an ox, with head and horns attached by a narrow
neck to a thick body two feet in diameter, furnished
with a tail and supported on four short, thick legs. The
whole is cut out of one log, The part representing the
body of the ox is as big as an ox and narrow Pare
the spine. The whole is hollowed out like a trough,
with a narrow, slit-lke mouth replacing the backbone.
The sides of this drum are of unequal thickness and
enable the drummer to produce two distinct sounds
according to the side struck. The wood is extremely
hard and resonant. Schweinfurth states that three
important signals are rendered on these drums—one
for war; another for hunting, and the third a
summons to a festival. The war signal sounded on
the drum of a chief and repeated by other drums
brings together thousands of armed men when
necessary.
War drum of the Niam-Niam. Captured 1905, (Gordon College, Khartoum. )
VIII
THE MASAI. THE SHEPHERD-WARRIORS OF MASAILAND,
THe Masai inhabit the inland districts of British and
German East Africa from the equator to 6° S.L. In
spite of much research nothing is known of the origin
of this race of men: they not only differ widely in
language, customs, and organisation from the surround-
ing tribes, but they are themselves divided into two
sections : of these one is pastoral and nomadic, and the
other (L-Oikop) agricultural. Both sections avoid the
sea-coast and though lakes, ike Naivasha and Nakuru,
are found in the districts in which they live, they never
use a boat or catch a fish.
The males of the tribe are divided into boys, warriors,
and elders. The stage of boyhood continues till the
age of thirteen or seventeen ; then the boys, with much
ceremony and mystery, are submitted in batches to
circumcision. This operation among the Masai is a
complicated procedure and occurs once in five years.
Previous to circumcision a boy helps to herd the cattle
but after this event he becomes a warrior or Elmuran
(often erroneously spelt El Moran); he then plaits his
hair, adorns himself with certain ear ornaments, and
goes naked with the exception ofa small skin which he
wears over the shoulders for warmth, not for decency.
His outfit as a warrior consists of a spear, shield, bow
and arrows, a club and a sword. The shields are made
of hide, but they are not all of one pattern : each age
and sub-district has its own design. This is also, true
of the spears and arrows. The Masai rely for their
92
VIII
THE MASAI
A Masai Warrior,
93
94 EASTERN ETHIOPIA VIII
weapons and metal ornaments on smiths, usually
Ndorobo. Each clan has its own smiths.
The decorations of a warrior are very elaborate. He
Wears ear-rings, ear-studs, and an arm-clamp. When
on the warpath he has a cap of ostrich feathers, or a
head-dress made from the mane of a lion. On his leg
there is an anklet formed from that part of the skin of
the Colobus monkey which has long white hair, or the
long hair of the goat. The boys shoot birds with bows
An Arm-clamp which a Masai warrior wears, but only
as an ornament. (British Museum.)
and arrows ii order to obtain feathers and plumes for
the decoration of the warriors.
The manly dress that marks the warrior’s pride—-
Two foes he slew before the raid was done,
And in their blood his maiden spear was dyed.
W. J. Monson.
The arm-clamps worn by the Masai are of two
kinds :—The one worn by warriors is only put on as an
ornament. It is taken off when starting on a raid.
The arm-ring, which is cut out of a buffalo horn or an
VIL THE MASAI 95
elephant’s tusk, is only worn by elders who possess large
herds of cattle and many children: it denotes the
wearer’s wealth. Examples of both kinds of clamp are
shown in the British Museum.
When a warrior attains the age of thirty years he
marries and settles, and if a man of importance he may
be elected chief. The life of a warrior is a tame affair
now that this tribe is under British control. Raiding,
cattle stealing, plundering, and murdering are not per-
mitted. Some notion of the extent and frequency of
Masai raids may be gathered from Gregory’s statement
based on his own observations in 1893.
“South of Merifano on the Tana, Harris and I found
the Galla driving their flocks and herds across the river
to escape the marauders, and saw the smoke of the burn-
ing villages whence the natives had fled. At the
Kiboko river I found the dead bodies of some Wa-
Kamba who must have been surprised and murdered in
their sleep, as their arrows were still in their sheaths,
and their simes in their scabbards. Two days’ journey
north of this place the road was littered with the debris
of broken boxes captured from a caravan taking stores
to Sir Gerald Portal’s party in Uganda. Again, on the
Kapte plains near Bondini, during our second march
south from Machakos, we encountered a small party of
El-Moran, who were on their way to attack some Ki-
Kamba villages. On the plains of the Thika-Thika we
met some Kikuyu refugees from Igeti; their country
had been ravaged by the Masai army which we had
seen enkraaled on the shores of Lake Naivasha, and the
district, for two days’ march in leneth by one in breadth,
had been cleared as if by a hurricane. ‘The fugitives
described the sudden attack, the massacre, the devasta-
tion of the plantations, the capture of the cattle and
the burning of the villages. And yet as we listened to
this sickening story, we realised that this was merely
one incident in a continuous series of such horrors.”
The warriors in the zenith of their power would
96 EASTERN ETHIOPIA VIII
sometimes take a thousand head of cattle in a single
rad. After a successful capture of cattle the warriors
returned to their kraals and divided the spoils.
The foe is routed: surely not in vain
Upon our brows we bound the lion’s mane.
With bootless zeal the herdsman tracked our line,
Far, far ahead we drove the captured kine.
Their kraals we’ve burnt, their cattle we have ta’en,
And now we come in triumph home again.
W. J. Monson.
Feasting and fighting among themselves were usual
sequels to successful raids. Joseph Thomson in his
African romance, Ulu, has described a blood-and-meat
orgy which followed a cattle raid.
The most remarkable adornments of the men and
women are the curious ornaments worn in their ears,
especially that known as the ’surutya (see the Essay
on Kars).
All tribes which disregard clothes as a rule pay great
attention to their hair. ‘This is true of the Masai. After
the boys have been circumcised, the hair is allowed to
grow and, as soon as it is long enough, worked into
plaits. In wet weather the hair is protected by a cap
made from the paunch of a goat.
The women dress in leather garments; shave their
heads and eyebrows ; wear earrings and encase their
legs and arms with coils of iron, brass, or copper wire.
The wire coils are sometimes wound so tightly round
the limbs that the wearer moves with difficulty. The
wire coils around the neck resemble the well-known
firework arrangement called a Catherine wheel. All
these metal ornaments are kept brightly polished.
The young unmarried girls have an agreeable time,
for when a boy becomes a warrior he no longer lives
among the married members of his tribe, but in separate
kraals with the girls. The newly initiated warrior
usually selects the girls with whom he wishes to live.
Thus whilst the warriors and girls are philandering and
VI THE MASAI 97
what is often termed enjoying life by spending their time
in dancing, singing, and adorning themselves, the mothers
A Masai Woman.
98 EASTERN ETHIOPIA VII
of the men are engaged in what may be called house-
work and cooking.
The women also milk the cows and goats, and in
this they are assisted by the boys. Now that the
Masai no longer raid their neighbours and steal cattle
the occupation of the warriors is gone, but these men
make excellent herdsmen and are often employed in
this capacity by European settlers. The Masai are
not only polygamous but also polyandrous, for the
wife is lent to a visitor: they are exceedingly
immoral. Thomson states that though the Masai and
Wa-Kikuyu were eternally at war ‘with each other,
there is a compact between them not to molest the
womenfolk of either party, and the Masai women
would wend their way to a Kikuyu village whilst their
relatives were probably engaged in a deadly strugele
close at hand.
The Masai are fond of moving, and if the grazing
is poor they move to another place. The donkeys iid
women are the pack animals. It is quite common to
meet with a party on the move and find the women laden
with babies, bags, gourds, and other utensils; the work
of raising the skin tents or building huts devolves on
them also. The men accompanying the party merely
carry their spears and clubs.
With us to spit upon a thing expresses contempt ;
with the Masai it is a sign of friendship and respect.
The two lower incisor teeth are knocked out in men
and women, and no reason is assigned for this practice ;
in spitting the fluid is ejected through this gap, some-
times in a forcible stream. I first saw the practice in a
village. When my conductor entered the village a
woman of the tribe advanced and shook hands with him,
having previously spat in her palm. My friend spat
on his palm, and I noticed that he did not shake hands
with what would be called warmth. I mentioned this
opinion to him subsequently ; he replied that she had
expressed her high appreciation of his visit by spitting
VIII THE MASAI 99
too freely into her hand! Among these people spitting
is a custom with an infinite variety of meanings.
The Masai take very little trouble with their dead.
The corpse is carried a short distance from the village
aud left to be devoured by hyvenas, jackals, and
vultures. They believe that when a man dies it is the
end as with the cattle. To bury a corpse would, in
their idea, poison the soil.
Masai drawing blood from an ox by shooting a blocked arrow into the
, alg aan ae
jugular vein. (From the Veterinarian. After R. J. Stordy.)
The principal food of the old men, women, and child-
ren is milk. The warriors drive bullocks into the
forest and slaughter them for meat. All the members
of a village would eat an ox if it died a natural death,
orif killed by a snake, or a beast of prey. They are
very fond of blood, which is obtained from an Ox hy
shooting a blocked arrow into its jugular vein. The
blood they catch in gourds and drink it hot aor the
H 2
100 EASTERN ETHIOPIA VIII
beast. Drinking blood seems a horrible practice, but
the poor in Eneland eat a large quantity of blood in the
form of a sausage known as “ black pudding” which
consists of bullocks’ blood, spiced, mixed with fat and
cooked. Blood is an important ingredient in the haggis
so famous in Scotland, and in whose honour Burns wrote
a poem describing it as the
“Great Chieftain o’ the puddin’ race.”
Moreover, some thirty years ago the drinking of warm
bullocks’ blood was advocated as a cure for consumption,
and patients afflicted with this disease would regularly
attend slaughter-houses in London and drink the pre-
scribed quantity of this supposed specific.
As the Masai live on milk, meat, and blood, and hunt
no game, they are dependent on their flocks and herds.
Zebras, gazelles, and kongoni run unmolested with the
cattle. Their domestic animals are cattle, sheep, goats,
donkeys, and dogs. The cattle are humped (zebus) and
oxen without humps they treat with disdain. The
settlers have crossed some of the native cattle with un-
humped species and in two generations the hump
disappears.
Anatomically the hump of the zebu consists of fat
interspersed with muscle fibre; the latter is derived
from the broad thin stratum of muscle known as the
panniculus carnosus, immediately beneath the skin.
This is the muscle which enables oxen and horses to
twitch their skin, especially when irritated by flies.
The hump is excellent to eat, especially when salted.
The cattle can take care of themselves. It is stated
that a herd will charge a leopard, or a hyena, and
leave it a shapeless mass. It is common for a_ boy
of five or six years to be left in charge of a herd of
cattle and manage them without difficulty. It is
strange that cattle allow children to manage them so
easily. Kipling, in the delightful Jungle Book, refers to
this matter in India: the very cattle, he writes, that
VIL THE MASAI IOI
would trample a white man to death allow themselves
to be banged and bullied and shouted at by children
who hardly come up to their noses.
The Masai love their cattle very much. Each cow
is known by name. As the cattle feed on grass the
Masai love it on this account. In times of drought
the women fasten erass to their clothes and pray. In
A Masai Bull.
The cattle are humped like the Zebu. Oxen without humps
the Masai treat with disdain.
a fight grass is used as a sign of peace. They castrate
their bulls in the following manner :—The operation is
performed on bulls from two to four years. The animal
is cast by means of leather thongs; the feet are tied and
the wives hang on to the thongs and hold its head down.
The cutting instrument is a knife or arrow-head set in
a handle. These things are made by the smiths from
102 EASTERN ETHIOPIA VIII
native iron, or imported iron wire. An incision is made
in the scrotum to expose the gland, which is then pulled
out by main force. Both testicles are extracted through
a single incision. The animal is then bled from the
jugular vein, the opening in the vein being made by
shooting a blocked arrow into it. The blood is collected
in calabashes to be drunk at the end of the day. As
the bull joins the herd, the wife of the operator smears
its back with cow-dung for luck. (R. J. Stordy.)
The Masai not only act as veterinarians, but they
practise surgery. In treating comminuted fractures
they cut down upon the fragments, remove the splinters,
bring the broken edges into contact, and suture the
mettll with sinews oma the back of the ox. This is
on a level with the best modern surgery. When it is
realised that a man’s bone cannot be mended, the
surgeons fasten a ligature round the limb and ampu-
tate it. (Hollis.)
These shepherd warriors are dignified men; they are
born orators and conduct lengthy arguments. They
are also wags in their way, and exhibit their wit at the
expense of the Swahili, whom they despise. The Masai
rarely smoke and do not take intoxicating drink : they
reckon time by the sun, and fix dates by the moon and
rain. There are two rainy seasons annually. Their
kraals consist of low, oblong, round-topped huts,
placed end to end, surrounding a circular enclosure
with a diameter of thirty or forty feet which is used
as the stockyard. The framework of the huts is wood
and wickerwork filled in with a mixture of cow-dung
and mud. The doorway of the hut is a hole which
looks towards the stockyard. In building the huts the
rafters are completely hidden with the cow-dung and
mud mixture except one which protrudes beyond the
door: “It is said to be watching the cattle” (Hollis).
Outside the continuous line of huts, a strong thorn
fence (boma) affords protection against man and wild
beasts,
VII THE MASAI 103
During the dry season such a place is habitable, but
in wet weather detestable. In order to protect the
roofs of the huts hides are spread over them and tied
down or kept in place by stones. These hides not only
stink, but are visited by myriads of insects, such as
crawl and fly. The central space of the village is a
reeking dunghill haunted by clouds of flies.
Bearing in mind the moral and physical conditions
under which these people live in their villages, there is
ample justification for Routledge’s strong opinion, that
a Masai kraal near civilis sation, 7.é., near a railway
station; town, or Government post, is a sink of iniquity.
The cattle are the mainstay of the tribe: it was
recently estimated that the section of this tribe living
in the Naivasha Province owns 35,000 head of cattle
and 250,000 goats and sheep.
The white settler finds fault with the Masai on the
ground that their great object is to accumulate wealth
im the form of herds and flocks. They will not sell any
cattle useful for stock purposes: barren and dried up
cows they part with to be slaughtered for food. They
do not encourage the milk-yielding properties of their
COWS.
The Masai, however, now play a different part in
East Africa from that which they performed thirty
years ago: from 1850 to 1885 they were numerous and
formidable. Their military organisation made them
feared by their neighbours, and they have played an
important part in Hast Africa. For many years they
levied toll on the Arab slave dealers, the Swahili
traders, and all caravans, whether organised by Arabs
or Europeans, which passed through Masailand. Joseph
Thomson suffered from their arrogance and exactions
in 18838 and has written an excellent account of these
bloodthirsty, overbearimeg warriors.
‘The Masai have since fallen from their high estate.
Rinderpest attacked and destroyed their cattle whole-
sale. Many of them have died from smallpox, and the
104 EASTERN ETHIOPIA vill
tribes who were raided by them in the days of their
power have not been slow in making reprisals for the
inurdering and plundering of days gone by.
At the present time it is estimated that this tribe in
British East Africa do not exceed 25.000: “The Rift
Valley and the high plateaus where the fierce blood-
thirsty Masai once reigned supreme are becoming
colonised by white settlers.” Hollis, in his admirable
monograph on this tribe, asks the pertinent question :
Will the Masai alter his habit or cease to exist?
Thoughtful and experienced men, who have carefully
studied this question, are of the opinion that any plan
of leaving the Masai to themselves, with their old
military and social organisation untouched, is fraught
with danger to the tribe as well as to the public
peace.
Hinpb, 8. L., |
and +The Last of the Masai. London, 1901.
Hinps, H. (Mrs.)
Hous, A. C. The Masai: Language and Folk-lore. Oxford,
1905.
Svorpy, R. J.‘ Emasculation of the Bull by the Masai Tribe,”
Veterinarian, 1900, 525.
TuHomson, J. Through Masailand. Wondon, 1885.
en Ulu. An African Romance. 2 vols. London,
1888.
IX
WA-KIKUYU. THE PEOPLE OF THE KIKUYU COUNTRY.
THE area commonly known as the Kikuyu country,
though traversed by the Uganda Railway, is imper-
feetly delimited ; southward it abuts on the Athi
plains ; northward it is near the equator; eastward
it extends towards Mount Kenia, and westward to the
Aberdare mountains aud the edge of the Rift Valley.
Those parts of this country best known to Europeans,
sometimes termed the Kikuyu Highlands, are 6,000 feet
above the level of the sea, and were formerly covered
with thick forest, but the Wa-Kikuyu have gradually
cleared it with the help of fire; now, with the excep-
tions of patches here and there of virgin forest, the
best part of the country consists of undulating land
dotted with villages and patches of cultivation. The
extremes of temperature experienced at this altitude
are trying; in the dry season the temperature varies
from below freezing point at midnight to above 90°
Fahr. at noon. The weather is unpleasant in the wet
season and hailstorms of great violence are fairly
common.
The Wa-Kikuyu are agriculturists and grow maize,
millet, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, bananas, tobacco,
castor-oil trees, beans, and the arum lly. The work in
the fields is performed by the women. These people
also possess flocks and herds, chiefly goats and sheep,
and the care of the animals devolves on the men and
boys. The possession of focks and herds excited the
105
106 EASTERN ETHIOPIA Ix
cupidity of Ta ne cats tribes, especially the Masai.
These two ‘aah wer e perpetually at war. The Wa-
Kikuyu is the only “people which offered any real
resistance to the swaggering, fighting, raiding Masai.
In order to raid Kikuyu cattle the Masai warriors had
to travel through the forest
alone winding tracts beset with
pits, with the enemy lining the
side bush with bows and arrows,
swords and spears. On the
plains the Wa-Kikuyu warriors
were no match for them, but
in the depths of the forest the
El-Muran raiding parties had a
bad time.
The warriors of Kikuyu
imitated thei warlike neigh-
bours in many ways, such as
De ee copying their customs in regard
| ones CAI HERS Hine decorating
t=)
themselves with feathers, the
hair of goats, the long tails of
the guereza monkeys, and the
tusks of the wart-hog. Men
mutilate their ears in the Masai
style, practise circumcision, file
their teeth, and possess the
habit of standing on one leg.
They attach the same value to
spitting as a charm and a sign
A Honey Barrel ornamented Of friendship, and imitate the
with poker-work. Masai in their weapons of war,
such as spears, swords (sime),
bows, arrows, knobkerries, and shields. The warriors
also ape the Kl-Muran in the drinking of blood, which
they obtain from the cattle, by piercing the jugular
vein by means of the blocked arrow, as practised by
their warrior neighbours, Myr, and Mys, Routledge
IX WA-KIKUYU 107
have described the comic side of “the drinking of
warm blood” in their interesting account of the Kikuyu
people.
They make an alcoholic drink from the juice of the
sugar cane. The juice is obtained by pounding the
cane In a trough with wooden pestles. This is the
A Man of Kikuyu with a gallipot in
the distended lobe of the ear.
work of the women.
which cause sleeping sickness. A Woseil’ Teetse Fly.
In the dry terms of a medical The thorax is alittle distorted ;
text-book this disease is defined eee Sear the right
as:—An endemic disease of ?
different parts of Equatorial Africa, characterised by a
gradually increasing lethargy, mental and physical
degeneration, Siem evening temperature, rapid pulse,
progressive emaciation, and tremors ; after running an
acute or chronic course, it almost invariably terminates
fatally.
This is a dreadful indictment against any disease, but
it is more remarkable than appears from this carefully
drawn up statement of claim. Although Sleeping
Sickness was known to medical writers early in the
nineteenth century, the disease did not really attract
much attention until it was detected in Uganda in
1900 by Dr. J. Howard Cook of the Mission Hospital,
Mengo. ‘The disease spread very rapidly along the
north shore of the Victoria Nyanza, espec sially in
4
322 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVI
Usoga and along the east side of the lake to Kisumu.
It spread to, and practically depopulated, the islands of
the Sesse and the Buvuma Archipelagoes, and the
lacustrine districts in the German sphere of interest.
In Uganda it is very prevalent and no age is exempt.
Race plays no important part, for many Huropeans
have contracted the disease.
For a long time Sleeping Sickness baffled all attempts
to determine its cause, but in 1902 Castellani examined
the cerebro-spinal fluid from patients with this disease
for organisms and detected the presence of trypano-
somes in this fluid. ‘This discovery was confirmed by
Sir David Bruce, and Drs. Nabarro and Greig.
The trypanosome is a protozoan parasitic in the blood
of vertebrate animals. It lives freely in the serum of
the blood, never within or attached to blood corpuscles,
and possesses an undulating membrane which runs
down one side of its more or less spindle-shaped body.
At, or near, one extremity of the trypanosome is placed
the blepharoplast, and from this structure, or in its
immediate vicinity, the flagellum takes origin and runs
along the free edge of the undulating membrane to
the opposite end ‘of the body, where ‘it continues its
course as a free flagellum.
When these parasites obtain an entrance into the
bodies of men, certain mammals, and_ birds, they
flourish, multiply, and, certainly in the case of man,
disturb the health: in the majority of instances they
destroy life. Infection by these parasites is termed
trypanosonuasis. So far as we know the chief disease
resulting from their presence in the blood of man is
known as Sleeping Sickness, or Negro Lethargy. The
Baganda call the disease Kubongota “to nod.” The
species more particularly connected with man is known
as 7. gambiense. When these parasites colonise the blood
they are carried in this medium through the ‘ natural
gates and alleys of the body” so that when blood is
extracted either from the trunk, the tip of the toe, finger,
XXVI FLIES AND SLEEPING SICKNESS 323
or nose, and examined under the microscope, the minute
wriggling parasite will be seen in the field. Careful
observations also show that though the parasites swarm
in the blood this is not their only, or, indeed their chief,
habitat, but they occur in the lymph glands and the
cerebro-spinal fluid. It was in this fluid that Castellani
discovered them and laid the real foundations of our
knowledge of the pathology of sleeping sickness. The
chief lesions which lead to the fatal termination of
trypanosomiasis and which secured for it the name
Trypanosomes (highly magnified).
sleeping sickness are associated with the membranes and
superficial strata of the brain and spinal cord. For
these facts we are indebted to the careful work of Mott.
Having discovered that sleeping sickness was caused
by trypanosomes, the next and most obvious step was to
find out how the parasites obtained access to the bodies
of men and women. It has already been mentioned
that the early exploration of the interior of Africa was
seriously hampered by the fact that transport animals
acquired a disease due to the bite of a fly which was
particularly fatal to horses, donkeys, and dogs. Bruce
BVaey
324 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVI
carefully investigated animals bitten by the tsetse fly
known as Glossina morsitans and succeeded in proving
that the fy-disease (Nagana) in horses, cattle, and dogs
was due to the presence in the blood of a trypanosome,
and that this tly could convey the disease from an
infected to a susceptible animal.
As soon as the nature of sleeping sickness was
appreciated, its analogy to nagana led the investigators
to suspect a biting insect as the conveyer of the parasite.
Steps were taken to ascertain the distribution of the
sleeping sickness, in order to determine if it coincided
with that of any known biting insect, for the tsetse fly
was at once suspected. The results of this investigation
were very conclusive, for these flies swarm on the
shores and islands of the Victoria Nyanza, and
especially in places where the half-naked natives meet
in thousands to trade in fish, bananas, ete.
Experiments were then conducted with tsetse flies.
The insects, enclosed in cages, were allowed to feed on
natives suffering from sleeping sickness. Those flies
which had fed were then confined in cages and allowed
to bite monkeys, and the bitten monkeys acquired
sleeping sickness in consequence. — It has been estimated
from careful observation that among wild tsetse flies,
1 in 400 is infective. (Bruce.)
The large amount of careful experimental work has
satisfactorily settled the question that the parasites,
which cause sleeping sickness in man, can be conveyed
from patients affected with trypanosomiasis to suscep-
but previously healthy men, women, and children,
black or white. The black people are more easily in-
fected than the white, for the latter wear clothes. In
the districts where this disease exists it is no uncommon
thing to see partially clothed natives sitting in the sun
and their bronze-lke bodies dotted with flies.
From a prophylactic point of veiw it becomes
important to determine not only from which animals
other than man G. paulpalis obtains its trypanosomes,
XXVI FLIES AND SLEEPING SICKNESS 325
but also if the trypanosome undergoes any meta-
morphosis after it has been acquired by the fly. This
has involved a large amount of investigation, and much
more work is required before these questions can be
satisfactorily answered, but we now know that the tsetse
fly is something more than a mere transmitter of
trypanosomes.
In the latest reports of the Sleeping Sickness
Commission sent out in 1908, it is stated the trypano-
some 7°. gamliense does multiply in the gut of the fly.
The flies become infective on an average thirty-four
days after their first feed on infective blood, and it was
proved that a fly may remain infective for seventy-five
days.
These conclusions are very important, because, with
the idea of preventing the spread of the disease, the
natives were removed from the islands in the Victoria
Nyanza and isolated from the flies. Two years after
these evictions the flies along the shores of the
depopulated islands were examined and found to be
infective. Experiments were made to find out if the
birds and large mammals, such as the hippopotamuses
on the lake Sse were capable of giving sleeping
sickness to man by means of the fly, but the results
were negative :
It is an important feature in sleeping sickness that
the disease can be experimentally produced in other
animals than man. Rats are susceptible. This enables
experiments to be performed to test the value of drugs.
In the treatment of the disease Thomas discovered that a
remedy known as atoxyl caused the disappearance of
the parasites, but further observations showed that
after a time they reappeared in the blood. The experi-
menters then realised the astonishing fact that the new
swarm was not affected by the drug, they had become
atoxyl-proof. Plimmer has proved that the hypodermic
use of sodium tartrate of antimony will cause a very
rapid disappearance of the trypanosomes from the
326 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVI
blood. It is an unpleasant remedy, but at the present
time it is the only reliable drug available against this
deadly disease.
The medical profession has long realised that the use
of drugs in many diseases is really drawing a bow ata
venture. Certainly so far as contagious diseases are
concerned prevention is better than cure. To avoid
bites from the tsetse fly becomes an injunction fairly
easily obeyed in the case of Europeans who wear clothes,
and especiallyif they willremember that Glossina palpalis
can bite through thin coverings, especially the stockings
of ladies. The case of the naked natives is different, for
they are ignorant and indifferent. The fishermen on
the shores of the Victoria Nyanza allow the flies to
rest on their skin in dozens, and they take no trouble to
ERs nik them. When the matter is explained to these
folk, they reply that the flies had always been on the
lake shore in their time and during the life-time of their
fathers, and were harmless. A cheap and _ effective
method of suppressing and exterminating the fly is
needed. Vigorous steps in this direction are being
taken. The Uganda shores of the lake have been cleared
of natives ; the narrow strips of land where tsetse flies
abound have been cleared of jungle and rushes, especially
bear landing-stages, ferries, roads, and wells, with
encouraging results. The old motto which runs :—
‘Oppose a distemper at its first approach,” must be
replaced by one probably as ancient—-‘‘ Prevention is
better than cure.”
Tsetse Fly (natural size).
XXVII
TERMITES (WHITE ANTS)
Every Englishman who visits Tropical Africa for the
first time has his attention arrested by the large mounds
formed by the termites. These large and curious
structures are almost as constant features in an African
landscape as cottages in the rural parts of the British
Isles. Termites are often called white ants, but
Smeathman, who wrote an interesting account of their
natural history in 1781, distinctly mentions that
although these insects live in communities, construct
extraordinary nests, and are, like ants, omnivorous, they
are by no means the same kind of insects. There are
scarcely any two divisions of insects more different
than termites and ants.
Termites live in communities consisting of enormous
numbers of individuals ; among them there are several
forms, such as workers, soldiers, and winged males and
females. The winged individuals are only present in
the nest for a few days and then leave in swarms. In
addition, there are the king and queen, which also lack
wings, and therefore cannot leave the nest ; the queen is
enclosed in a cell. The continuance of the community
depends entirely on the king and queen ; andif the queen
dies the community perishes. ‘The queen has a remark-
able appearance, for the abdomen, in consequence of the
formation of the eggs within it, grows enormously, and
these are discharged in such large quantities that
297
B27
328 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVII
Smeathman frequently observed old queens which pro-
truded sixty in a minute. As there is reason to believe
that a queen lives several years, the amount of eggs she
produces is prodigious. The eggs, as soon as laid, are
removed by the attendant workers to the nurseries, fed
and watched until they are capable of taking care
Termites (White Ants).
A, Winged form; near the base of each wing there is a line of
weakness along which the wings break off, leaving the
stumps as short horny flaps; B, female; OC, soldier ;
D, worker.
of themselves, and develop into workers, soldiers, and
winged individuals.
The life-history of termites has uot been followed in
great detail for several reasons: they live in com-
munities concealed from observation; isolated indivi-
duals donot thrive ; and their growth is unusually slow
as compared with other insects.
A study of the nests (termitaria) i is interesting. The
material used for their construction is either earth, wood,
or the excrement of the termites, and the large edifices
constructed by them are so solid that they look like
stone and are so hard that it requires a pickaxe or a
XXVII TERMITES (WHITE ANTS) 329
crowbar to demolish them. The material out of which
they are constructed is in some cases wood that has
passed one or more times through the alimentary canal
of the termites, and the Tater is cemented together
by a secretion furnished by glands. Shaecd nen des-
eribed the nest of Termes bellic ‘Osus as consisting of clay-
like material cemented by their secretions to a very firm
consistence.
In some parts these nests or termitaria are so numer-
ous that they appear clustered together like huts in a
Bene.
The Queen inthe Royal Cell. The abdomen, in consequence
of the formation of eggs within it, grows enormously.
The number of eggs she produces is prodigious.
native village. They may be ten, twelve, and even
eighteen feet high. Within these firm shelters the
termites are protected from the vicissitudes of the
weather and attacks from natural enemies.
The outer shell of the nest is not only useful to
protect the community, but it preserves a regular degree
of warmth which is very necessary for the development
of the eggs and the growth of the young. The queen’s
cell is eitnated in ie middle of the nest, and the
entrances to it will not admit anything larger than the
soldiers and workers. The royal cell is surrounded by
a great number of chambers of various shapes and
sizes, all of which intercommunicate and form an
330 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVII
intricate labyrinth ; some of them contain food, such as
raspings of wood and gum. These chambers are by no
means confined to the part of the termitarium above
ground, but extend into the earth below, and to parts
far beyond that occupied by its base.
It is a remarkable feature of termites that the workers
and soldiers never expose themselves to light; they
either travel underground or within trees and substances
they can destroy. When in search of plunder above
ground, their pathways are really covered-ways, for they
build tunnels of the same material of which the nest is
constructed. Whenever the termites make a covered-
way it has many ramifications, and if one of the covered-
ways be destroyed by violence there are many avenues
of escape without coming into the light. The galleries
are large enough to allow them to pass each other.
These insects are much disturbed when their covered-
ways are broken, and they quickly repair them, because
when termites appear above ground they are seized
and destroyed by ants.
Some species of termites build nests in the tops of
trees, but the passages leading to the nest run up
the trunk of the tree under cover, so that the nest in
the tree-top 1s in connection with a nest of galleries in
the earth beneath.
On one occasion I saw a grove of trees with all the
trunks covered with vertical lines of clay: of this
curious appearance I find the explanation in Smeath-
man’s paper :—If a piece of dead wood is covered with
sound bark, they will eat all but the bark, which
remains and exhibits the appearance of a solid stick.
If they cannot trust the bark, they will cover the
whole stick with their mortar and eat up the whole of
the wood. ‘Thus, when a large tree has fallen from age
or violence, the termites will eat the woody part away,
and a traveller finding a large tree trunk in his path
steps upon it, when to his surprise it gives way and he
falls among the neighbouring bushes. In this way
XXVII TERMITES (WHITE ANTS) 331
termites play a useful part in tropical forests, as they
keep it clear of dead trees and branches. As soon as
the sap ceases to flow through a tree the termites
attack and quickly reduce it to powder. All would be
well if these active insects confined their attention to
dead or dying trees in a forest, but they eat leather as
well as wood, and in countries where these destructive
pests abound, the traveller must Jook to his impedi-
menta, for they eat the wooden store boxes, leather
cases, saddles, boots and similar things in a very short
time. The only things which will resist the termite are
those made of metal or teak.
There are many stories in vogue of houses and stores
tumbling down on account oF termites destroying
the supporting beams. Many years ago a British
man-of-war on the Chinese Station had the fittings
of her barbettes mounted on thick wooden _ bases.
In due course the day of gun practice arrived, and
on attempting to work the guns it was found that
the barbettes had sunk twelve inches. Inspection of
the foundations of the barbettes revealed the fact that
they had been eaten by termites. The destruction
they cause in European communities in tropical
countries is as great as that produced by rats in
England.
A. J. Hayes found termites especially numerous
around Gallabat, on the Blue Nile, and mentions
that these insects are not numerous at a distance
from water, and cannot work without moisture to
renew the fluid that exudes from their mandibles, and
which enters into the composition of the material of
which they build their dwellings. The ant hills from
nine to twelve feet in height were usually built close
to a soft-wooded tree; the roots of this tree had been
attacked by the termites and converted into earth.
The tree is the victim of a gale of wind, and lying on
the ground it is soon converted into red compost by
these indefatigable workers, In the dry months they
332 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVII
convert straw and wood into this red material. Hayes
is stronely of opinion that much of the mud carried
down by the Nile is due to the activity of termites
in tbe western borderland of Abyssinia.
Drummond, in an interesting essay on termites,
gives an Recount of the ravages committed by these
eee on the trees of the gre it plateau between Lakes
Nyasa and Tanganyika ; hes also draws attention to the
enormous amount of earth which is removed by the
termites from the deeper layers of the soil and brought
to the surface for the construction of their nests and for
covering the bark of trees. During the dry season
this work goes on incessantly, and much of it becomes
distributed by the wind as dust, and serves as a
top-dressing to the vegetation around. In the rainy
season, which lasts intermittently for weeks, the loose
soil is washed away in quantities, and some of the
termitaria, though they have great resisting powers, are
not qavulnersple and ultimately succumb to denuding
agents such as mud and rain.
This is an interesting theory and worth consideration,
especially when taken in conjunction with Hayes’
observation, for he explained to me that the red earth
which is such a conspicuous feature of the mud brought
down by the Nile, ordinarily described as coming from
the Abyssinian Highlands, is not to be seen apart from
the districts in which termites abound.
Termites are blind, but when disturbed they express
their alarm by hissing ; 1t is well established that they
have means of communication by sound. The exact
mode in which the sound is produced remains unknown.
Although termites are blind they can inflict sharp bites
with their mandibles.
In the winged state the termites are much altered in
shape and form. They have a pair of eyes, and four
wings, but these differ from the wings of most insects,
for they are only used for a single flight, and are then
shed by detachment at a suture which exists across the
XXVII TERMITES (WHITE ANTS) 232
narrow part of the wing near the body, leaving four
short stumps. These insects usually swarm just before
the rains ; emerging from the nest in myriads, they are
preyed upon by birds, animals and men. After shed-
ding their wines they fall to the ground and become
An Ant-hill of unusual shape on the Baringo Plain. (Photo by
Mr. F. C Cobb. From Powell-Cotton’s Unknown Africa. )
available for reptiles and ants. The winged termites are
the sexual form, and, on the ground, the males may be
seen chasing the ‘eoaelien. and in fhe stage they are the
easy helpless prey of the ants.
The natives look for the swarming of termites with
the same interest as sportsmen look for pheasants and
the London poor for fresh herrings, and they secure them
334 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVII
by very simple means. A network of boughs is built
around the hill and thatched with grass so that it looks
like a miniature hut, and if there are many nests in the
neighbourhood, an appearance resembling a small village
is produced. In Uganda a covering of bark cloth is
thrown over the nest (see p. 64), and when the termites
issue from the holes near the base of the nest they strike
the roof and tumble into the receptacle set out for them.
When these insects swarm unexpectedly the natives
use smoke and quickly bring them to the ground.
Many of course escape, and are pursued by every winged
thing in the neighbourhood. Some of the birds get so
replete with these fat insects that they are unable to
close their bills.
The natives often eat the termites as they catch them ;
but it is a more common custom to cook them or eat
them when mixed with other food. European travellers
have eaten termites, and Schweinfurth described them
as a welcome addition to his slender larder, which
helped to compensate for lack of grease. Smeathman
states that he has eaten termites on several occasions
and found them delicate, nourishing, and wholesome.
Termites are not as a rule found above an altitude of
4,000 feet ; on the Baringo plain they are common, of a
curious shape and attain a great height. In some parts
of Africa the hills are shaped lke mushrooms, but the
majority are conical.
Drummond states that the most peculiar as well as
the most ornate kind of ‘‘ ant-heap” in Africa is a small
variety from one to two feet in height which occurs in
myriads along the shores of Lake Tanganyika. It is
built in symmetrical tiers, and resembles a pile of small
rounded hats, one above another, the rims depending
like eaves, and sheltering the body of the hill from rain.
When a number of ant-hills are built in a wood, the
appearance they produce among the trees and tall grass
is that of a neglected cemetery ; the termitaria resemble
obelisks and grave stones. The ant-hills are sometimes
XXVII TERMITES (WHITE ANTS) 325
put to quaint uses, for Macdonald states that the English
soldiers in Pretoria scooped out the interior of the
small beehive-shaped nests and, covering the tops with
clay, used them as ovens. Sir Samuel Baker converted
one into a kiln in which to burn oyster shells in order
to obtain a supply of lime for soap-making.
The Aard-Wolf (Proteles cristatus) lives in the disused holes of
the antbear, where it sleeps all day and comes out at sunset.
The mane is capable of being erected when the animal becomes
excited.
The brick houses of the Scotch mission station on
Lake Nyasa were built from material obtained from the
nest of the white ant. For this purpose the earth
from the nest was ground up, mixed with water, formed
into a paste, and moulded into bricks. When dry it is
very hard. The natives of Central Africa often build
336 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVII
the walls and pave the floors of their huts with termite
earth.
The only sure way of destroying an ant-hill is to dig
it up and find the queen or queens. Ifa queen be left
the insects rebuild the nest.
A curious animal known as the Aard-Wolf lives
on decomposing careases and termites. In shape and
colour it resembles the hyena. During the day the
Aard-Wolf sleeps in the unused holes of the antbear,
and comes out at night. When excited or worried in a
Skull of the Aard-Wolf, showing the degenerate condi-
tion of the teeth; the animal lives on termites.
(Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. )
burrow it emits, like the skunk, an extremely feetid
fluid from the anal glands. The crest or mane of
hair along the middle of its back is erected when the
animal becomes excited. The feeble condition of the
Aard-Wolf’s molar teeth correspond to its mode of
living, but the strong claws enable it to dig termites
out of their nests.
References.
Drummond, H. ... Tropical Africa. London, 1888.
Hayes, A. J. ... ... The Source of the Blue Nile. London, 1905.
Smeathman, H. ... ‘‘Of the Termites in Africa and other Hot
Countries,” Phil. Trans., 1785, LXXLI.,
p. 139.
XXVITI
BEAKS
THE beaks of birds are formed on the same lines
as the horns of antelopes (see p. 266). There is a
core, formed by prolongations of those bones known
as the upper and the lower jaw, covered with a
modification of skin known as hom: this outer
covering, or sheath, is as inseusitive as the horn-
sheath of a buffalo, goat, sheep, or antelope. The
base of the sheath (known as the cere) softens where
it becomes continuous with the feather-covered skin
on the bird’s head.
The beaks of birds are used for offensive and defensive
purposes: also for constructing nests, but above all
things for obtaining food, and for this purpose it is
afiiera strangely “fare fee Long thin beaks are useful
for obtaining worms from soft ade and long, strong
and sharp eal are used by herene and darters to
secure slippery creatures like fish. Beaks which are
short, but strong and sharp, enable many birds to
extract the kernels of nuts, or grubs from the trunks
and branches of trees. By means of powerful, sharp,
and hooked beaks, birds of prey are able to rend the
carcases of oatrnelke ; ducks, by means of flat, spatulate
bills, sift mud and ooze to obtain the organisms
necessary for their sustenance ; with their stout beaks
open-bills can break the shells of molluscs and extract
the soft animal within.
%
EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVIII
W
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c
The most delicate use of beaks is nest building; the
neatness and beauty of many nests, especially those
constructed hy the weaver-birds are always a source of
admiration. Some birds with apparently clumsy beaks
build exquisite nests; other birds with dainty bills
make ugly nests.
The Open-bill (Anastomus lamelligerus). Tt uses its nut cracker-
like bill to break the shells of molluscs. A feather from
the breast is sketched to show the expanded terminal part
of the shaft; it is also slightly twisted on its axis.
Some of the birds which live in Eastern Ethiopia
possess the largest and most curious beaks known to
ornithologists. Such are the Whale-headed Stork,
Pelican, Saddle-billed Stork, Ibis, Marabou Stork, Open-
bill, Goliath Heron, the Scissor-bill or Skimmer, and
the Spoonhill.
The Open-hill, a black, long-legged, stork-like bird
XXVIII BEAKS 339
which has a beak like a nut-cracker, for the mandibles
cannot be closed in the middle, lives on frogs and
fishes, but its favourite food consists of fresh-water
molluses, especially Ampullaria, the shells of which it
ean crush with this powerful beak. On account of its
cleverness in this direction it has been ealled the
‘ shell-ibis.””
The shafts of the feathers on the fore-neck and
lower parts of the Open-bill expand in the adult bird
into flat, shining, horn-like plates at the tip. This
terminal expanded portion is
also partly twisted on its axis.
These birds breed in society
at certain localities among the
reeds. The places are known
to the chiefs, who, at particular
times of the year, gather most
of the young. The chicks are
very fat, and when roasted are
esteemed one of the dainties of
the Barotse Valley (Living-
stone).
All educated men and women
: ie : 5 : The shell of Ampullaria, the
who visit the Nile Valley take favourite food of the Open-bill.
keen interest in the Sacred Ibis.
This bird was regarded with great veneration by the
ancient Egyptians. Ornithologists are satisfied that
Lbis ethioprcus 1 is identical with the sacred ibis of the
Egyptians: in the form of Toth they deified this bird,
and its body was often mummified (Ibis mummies).
The adult bird has a bare black head which earned
for it the name of Chimney Sweeper from the Dutch
in South Africa. Young birds have the head covered
with short feathers, and the head becomes bald about
the second or third year. The bill is long, strong, and
curved downwards like that of the curlew; its chief
peculiarity is a longitudinal groove on each side, leading
from the nostrils a the base to near its tip.
Vis
340 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVIII
The Ibis is generally found along the shores of lakes
and rivers, hunting for shell-fish, worms, and crabs: it
also frequents mud-banks, probing the mud with its
long bill. In Lower Egypt the shape of the beak has
won for this bird the name of “ Father of a Sickle.” It
is common around the margins of lakes and the banks
of the Nile in the Equatorial Provinces. (See p. 178.)
Hornbills are abundant in Uganda and in the Mau
forests, aud are sure to attract attention from the most
casual observers, for they are big birds with great beaks
of curious shape, fly in a clumsy manner, and make
a creat noise in the forest. The natives do not eat
these birds and as their black and white plumage is
not attractive, hornbills are common and force them-
selves on the attention of travellers. In spite of the
size of the beak the hornbill shows great dexterity in
using it, for almost every morsel of food it picks up
is tossed in the air, caught, and swallowed. The neat-
ness with which these birds can catch with the beak
inay be tested any day at the Zoological Gardens, and
the birds often hold a grape in their beak by means
of its thin stalk. In the wild state hornbills live
on fruit, flowers, berries, insects, eggs, and probably
many other things.
As if to atone for the heavy and apparently clumsy
structure of hornbills, Nature seems to have done her
best to make amends by lightening the heavy beak, for
she has filled it with air-cells. It 1s well-known that, in
birds, the air-cells of the lungs communicate with
cavities in some of the bones; such bones are said to be
pneumatic ; in the hornbills more bones are filled with
air than is common in birds; air also permeates the
muscular interspaces and the subcutaneous tissues.
These birds are Gevoid of fat beneath their skins. In
many birds there is a curious gland near the root of
the tail, known as the oil-gland. When birds preen
themselves they are supposed to dip their beaks into
this natural pomatum pot and rub it over their feathers.
XXVIII BEAKS 341
In some hornbills the grease supplied by the oil-eland
is bright yellow, and if the hand be rubbed over the
feathers it will be stained with this pigment.
Hornbills are not only odd in appearance and
structure, but they have some curious domestic habits.
Hornbills abound in Uganda and the Mau forest and are sure
to attract attention, for they are big birds and _ possess
great bills of curious shape. In spite of the apparent
clumsiness of the beaks, hornbills use them dexterously,
especially in catching grapes.
During incubation the hen is enclosed in a hollow tree
and diligently fed by the male bird until the chicks are
hatched. Livingstone noticed this breeding habit of
the Red-billed Hornbill during his journey down the
Zambesi. Most of the arboreal species have this habit.
The material used for fastening up the hole in the tree
appears to be the droppings from these birds; as the
342 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVIII
material dries it hardens like cement. There are many
facts to be ascertained in regard to the process by
which the hen is immured. It is illustrated by an
actual specimen of the Crowned Hornbill, in the
admirable Nesting Series in the Natural History
Museum, London. Dr. Schonland, who obtained the
specimen, states that this bird moults before being
The Ground Hornbill (Bucorvis) has modified feathers, like
lashes, on its eyelids, which give this bird a weird
human expression, especially when screwing up its
eyelids as it quizzes an onlooker.
imprisoned, and not only sheds the short feathers, but
the quills of the wings and tail. This curious habit of
immuring the sitting hen has been observed of horn-
bills in India (Tickell) and in Burma (Mason) as well
as by Livingstone in Africa. The observations in
regard to the African species have been confirmed by
Schon and, and for the Asian species by Wallace in
Sumatra. It has been suggested that the object in
immuring the hen during incubation is to protect her
from the attacks of monkeys and other enemies.
XXVHI BEAKS 343
The Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus) differs from the
arboreal species (Buceros) in several points. In_ size
and general appearance it resembles a turkey, indeed
English settlers in Africa often call it the “turkey
buzzard.” It has longer legs and shorter toes than the
tree species ; 1t runs along the ground and does not hop.
It differs from other lomaballie’ in having its casque open
in front. Bucorvus can fly when necessary. This bird
feeds on small reptiles, tortoises, insects, and everything
that crawls : also roots, fruits, aud berries. Like Buceros
it tosses dainty bits in the air before swallowing them.
In captivity ground hornbills make delightful pets ;
their eyelids bear eyelashes which are really modified
feathers, and when they screw up the eyelids and quiz
onlookers and bystanders, the effect is very comic, and
often weirdly human.
These birds are heavy on the wing and when flying
produce a sound like a small steam- engine. Among
trees they shuffle along the branches and resemble
in awkwardness a scullery maid at a ball. Ground
hornbills go about in small groups, and roost at might
in trees, and, though little is known of their breeding
habits, it is probable that they build in the flat crown of
a tree where the trunk has decayed away, or actually
in a hole (Stark).
The Whale-headed Stork or Shoe-bill, is an extra-
ordinary bird: in 1860 two living examples. were
brought to England by Petherick and exhibited in the
Zoological Gardens They were obtained from the
Upper Nile. It is a agi bluish-grey bird, four feet
in height and possesses the biggest bill of any living
bird ; it is yellow with dusky mottlings and not unlike
the head of a whale, but the Arabs liken its head and
jaws to an Arabian shoe and call it the ‘‘ Father of a
Shoe.” ‘This bird feeds chiefly on fishes. Whale-headed
storks are grotesque looking objects as they stand
alone or in pairs among the rushes on the shores of
broad rivers, marshes, inlets of lakes, and backwaters.
344 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVIII
They live in the wpper reaches of the White Nile, and
in the ereeks of the Victoria Nyauza close to the
Government station at Entebbe.
This funny bird is capable of being tamed ; it thrives
in the Zoological Gardens, Cairo, and strides about the
palace gardens, Khartoum.
The Whale-headed Stork (Balwniceps rex). This gaunt bird,
about four feet high, possesses the biggest bill of any
living bird. It lives in the upper reaches of the White
Nile, and is found among the papyrus in the creeks of the
Victoria Nyanza and the Bahr-el-Ghazal.
There are four remarkable birds living around the
Victoria Nyanza and the upper reaches of the White
Nile with their beaks modified for fishing, each in a
peculiar way, which deserve special mention. These
birds are the Darter, the Pelican, the Skimmer, and
the Goliath Heron.
The Darter or Snake-Bird is found on the rivers and
XXVIII BEAKS 345
lakes of Eastern Ethiopia. It posts itself on a dead
bough overhanging a river, or the stump of a tree, a
rock, or tuft of rushes, or a rush-island. This bird
swims low, exposing the head and neck, or only the
beak when danger threatens: when it dives into the
water hardly a ripple follows, and the feet are used as
The Darter swims under water and transfixes a fish on its
bayonet-like bill by a quick thrust, then comes to the
surface and the fish is jerked into the air, dexterously caught,
and swallowed. The edges of the beak are furnished with
fine needle-like points directed backward.
powerful paddles. The darter transfixes the fish on its
bayonet-like beak with a quick thrust. On coming to
the surface of the water, the fish is jerked into the air,
dexterously caught, and swallowed. Having satisfied
its hunger, the bird returns to a dead bough and
spreads its wings ‘‘to dry.” The darter rises from the
water with some difficulty, and in this act its powerful
346 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVIII
tail is of great assistance. Darters feed as the sun
declines, and they are often seen in flocks. I have
counted twenty roosting on one tree, which, though
leafless, was white with their euano.
The skill these birds exhibit in securing fish is as
amazing as their voracity. The size of the fish it is
able to swallow astonished me. On the White Nile I
found in the stomach of a darter three fishes, one of
which was as big as a herring.
The fish-spearing habit of the darter is aided by a
peculiar mechanism in its neck. ‘The first eight
cervical vertebree, especially the eighth, are modified
and produce a kink in the neck: correlated with the
modification of the vertebree are some powerful muscles
which enable the bird to make sudden and powerful
thrusts with its beak when it impales a fish. In order
to facilitate the retention of the fish after it is trans-
fixed, the edges of the darter’s beak are furnished with
fine needle-like points directed backwards.
The stomach of the darter contains, at its pyloric
outlet, a singular sieve formed of hairs developed from
the gastric epithelium. The lining of the stomach is
sometimes shed more or less completely and a new one
forms.
Cormorants, insatiable fish-eaters, abound in the
Victoria Nyanza: they swarm on the shore of every
island and inlet. Around the Cascades of Jinja
they are present in hundreds, helping the herons to
whiten with their guano the rocks and trees in the bays
and recesses around the head of the Nile.
It is delightful when out on the lake in a steamer, or
in acanoe, to see cormorants sitting on the small papyrus
islands which float about Kavirondo Gulf; as the
steamer approaches, they either fly away or dive
beneath the surface of the water. Some parts of the
Suez Canal, especially the lakes, swarm with cormorants,
and as the ships glde through the water these birds
often crowd themselves on the light-buoys: it is not
XXVIII BEAKS 347
uncommon to see ten or a dozen of them perched on
one buoy.
When cormorants dive for fish they use the bill as a
pair of forceps: they swim and dive with perfection,
but rise from the water clumsily, and their gait on land
is an awkward waddle, but they perch eal ease on
rocks, posts, and boughs. Their upright position when
perching gives them the appearance of black bottles or
other objects hung up to dry.
Herons abound around the lakes of the Rift Valley
and the Victoria Nyanza. There are many species of
them, including the Goliath Heron with a huge bill.
This bird stands at the edge of a spit of land erect and
stately ; suddenly the head darts forward to seize a fish,
which has come within the range of his spear-like bill.
The goliath heron is a majestic bird.
The Pelican, with its huge bill and bag, is well known
to all who visit the Zoological Gardens. Feeding the
pelicans is one of the advertised events in most
menageries, and the way they scoop up fishes resembles
fishermen cate ‘hing fishes with hand-nets.
Although the pelican appears such a clumsy bird on
land on aguante of the short legs and enormous body, it
can fly buoyantly and swiftly, and it is interesting to
watch a flock of pelicans manceuvring in the air like a
battalion of soldiers at drill.
Pelicans frequent the big lakes in Eastern Ethiopia ;
they haunt the shallow margins where fishes are
plentiful. When the capacious bag attached to its bill
is full of fishes, the bird we addles to the land and
greedily seule them.
It is somewhat difficult to understand how this un-
couth bird has won such an important position in ecclesi-
astical heraldry. In Christian Art the pelican is a
symbol of charity and an emblem of Jesus Christ. This
is pro obably founded on the venerable legend that the
‘pelican in its piety” feeds her chicks with her own
blood. This has no foundation in fact, and much
348 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVIII
ingenuity has been exercised to account for the origin of
the legend. None is satisfactory. It is an cata lihed
fact that the pelican feeds its chicks on fishes which
have been partially macerated in its own crop.
The biggest bird that flies, the Marabou, is easily
recognised by its huge and powerful bill, and scabrous
The Marabou Stork (Leptoptilus crumenifer) has the longest bill
of any living bird, and it is the biggest bird that flies. It is
sometimes nearly five feet high.
head with a few small feathers scattered about it. The
huge pouch hanging in front of its neck is most
conspicuous when the bird feeds. These scanty feathers
and the pouch have earned for this stork the name of
Leptoptilus crumemfer. As if to make up for this
deficiency about the head and neck, the bird is furnished
XXVIII BEAKS 349
with soft lower tail coverts, worn by fashionable ladies
as marabou feathers. It is odd that this, the ugliest
of birds, should furnish such exquisite fee neers, The
curious pouch is filled with air, and opens into the
nasal passage on the left side below the orbit ; the bird
ean inflate it at will. The marabou-stork is an etticient
scavenger and may be seen sailing high in the air, and
descends when it descries carrion. This bird is feared
by the vultures when it drops among them whilst they
are gorging on a carcase. His lone and powerful bill
earns for him so much respect among carrion eaters
that he has been termed by the natives, and not inaptly,
“the master of the feast.”
The marabou eats fishes, also termites when they
swarm. I am not likely to forget the pleasure with
which I watched at daybreak an enormous congregation
of birds around a pooi in the middle of a swamp, an
acre in extent, near Tewfikia (White Nile). ‘There were
thirty marabous. The specific name of these birds,
crumenifer, signifies the bearer of a purse or money
bag; they are caricature-hkenesses of bald-headed
vergers. Among the birds were twenty-three saered
ibises, looking like acolytes, a flock of white herons
which arose like a cloud when |! approached too near ;
seven tufted umbres, many plovers, and numerous
wading birds. One of the party shot a marabou, and I
found in the crop seven fishes the size of large sprats.
The buzzards soon came around for the spoil.
The bills of herons and cormorants are admirable
forceps for securing fishes; the darter is furnished with
an excellent spear for transfixing such slippery food,
and the pelican possesses an excellent scoop with which
to catch them wholesale. There is another bird which
frequents the Central African lakes and the White Nile,
known as the skimmer or scissor-bill, with the most
extraordinary beak ever designed for fishing. The bill
and the bird are so peculiar that they attract attention
from the least observant. The bill is flattened in the
350 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXVIII
opposite direction to that of the spoonbill: it is thin
and elastic like a paper-knife, and the two halves come
together by their thin edges, but the lower half of the
bill projects beyond the upper at least one-third of its
length. During life the bill, except the terminal third
of the lower half, is like the ‘colour of a ripe orange, but
it quickly fades after death to a dull yellow.
The Skimmer is like a large tern (sea-swallow) : by
means of powerful wings it skims the surface of the
water usually as daylight fades, with its mouth wide
The head of the Skimmer or Scissor-bill. It is a tax on credulity
to believe that this bill was designed for securing fish.
open, but in such a way that the lower half ploughs the
water, and as shoals of small fish rise in the evening
hour the bird secures a meal. Darwin gives an
admirable description of the methods of this bird as he
observed it on the Rio Parana and at Monte Video in
1833: ‘The water was quite smooth, and it formed a
curious spectacle to behold a flock (of scissor-beaks)
each bird leaving its narrow wake on the mirror-like
surface.”
The Scissor-bills are found in South and Central
America and Asia as well as in the Ethiopian Region.
Livingstone’s attention was attracted to them on the
XXVIII BEAKS 351
Zambesi in 1853: he gives an interesting account of
their nesting habits. The nests are only little hollows
on the end: vane without any attempts at conceal-
ment. The young are more helpless than the stork in
the fable with the flat dishes, and must have everything
conveyed into their mouth by the parents.
Ornithologists have often argued among themselves
whether flamingoes are long-leg ced ducks or duck-billed
storks: this question has never been settled. No one
can deny that these long-legged and long-necked birds
are particularly attractive on account of thei curious
shape, their beautiful coloration, and the strange
modification of their beaks which enables them to
dabble in the mud and sift out the nutritious particles
like ducks. When the duck is busy with the mud, the
bill is so arranged that the lower half is lowermost ;
in the case of the flamingo, the terminal half of the
beak is bent at such an angle that when engaged in
mud-sifting, or in preening their feathers, the upper half
of the beak is lowermost and the upper half of the
beak fits into the lower, which is the reverse of the
conditions found in birds generally. The odd shape of
a flamingo’s head and its apparent clumsiness on
the end of a long neck reminds me of a golf-club.
The long mee and legs of the flamingo appear to
some observers as awkward appendages to this bird.
This is not the case. When flamingoes fly, the neck is
stretched out in front and the legs behind, so that in
full flight the head, neck, body, and legs form one
stra aight line. The birds arise with difficulty from the
marshes, uttering their kronk-kronk-kronk like a
bronchitic fog-horn. Flamingoes appear awkward when
they alight in the marsh, letting down their long legs
and drawing them up again as if ashamed of possessing
such things, like dainty young ladies in a drawing-room
who have recently been put into long skirts and
petticoats.
Many questions have been asked concerning the
XXVIII BEAKS 353
mode in which the flamingoes sit on their nests. This
is a low truncated cone of mud with a depression at the
top for eges, fashioned at the margin of a_ lake
containing brackish water. ‘This cone varies from two
to Phiean inches in height, and the flamingo sits on it
with the legs doubled under her, and the fee folded
on the trunk with the head directed forward (paelale)
Flamingoes congregate in immense flocks, and when,
as 18 often! the case in the secluded lakes of East Africa,
they stand together like a huge army, the area of the
lake occupied by them seems to be covered by a pink
cloud. The rosy pink of the feathers and legs of these
birds is exquisite. The colouring matter permeates the
skeleton and persists when the bones are macerated.
When they rise on the wing, the black pinions (remiges)
are exposed and then aye cannes wing coverts come
well into the picture, forming a feast of “colour. When
a flock of famingoes rises from the water, it leaves
an impression which, like a glorious vision, is never
forgotten.
XXIX
CRESTS OR TOP-KNOTS
THE heads of birds are variously adorned by Nature.
Some of them are ornamented with a fleshy comb,
others possess wattles or gills about the gape, some
have horny additions known as helmets, and many
have tufts of feathers known as top-knots or crests and,
in a few instances, as crowns. It is a distinction in the
bird world to possess a crest. Ornithologists usually
refer to this embellishment when they confer names on
the happy possessors of top-knots. All animals and
plants receive at the hands of zoologists and botanists
two names, one generic, a noun, and the other specific,
an adjective: these are chosen from the Latin language
for the convenience of naturalists throughout the
world.
The names of living things are not the same in
all countries and often vary in different parts of the
same country, but educated men throughout the world
are familiar with Latin, which was formerly the
universal language of science, therefore the application
of generic and specific names derived from this
language enables a zoologist to know the genus to
which the animal belongs. The specific name often
signifies some fact connected with it. Such reference
in the case of a bird may convey information concern-
ing its size, colour, length of legs, breadth of wings,
shape of the tail, size of the bill and other details con-
354
XXIX CRESTS OR TOP-KNOTS 355
nected with this important structure, not only in regard
to colour, width, and length, but also the relation of the
two parts to each other. The specific name often
conveys information about the sounds the bird makes,
for it may whoop, trumpet, sing, chatter, warble, babble
or hum ; it may tell of its disposition, whether sociable,
solitary, or pugnacious. Sometimes the name of the
country in which the bird lives is indicated, or it may be
the name of the collector or the ornithologist who first
made it ‘‘new to science.” Eponymous specific names
are sometimes dignified with an initial capital.
Some scientific names are short and expressive :
Merops viridis is a green bee-eater; Ardea alba,
a white heron; Anas cristata, a crested duck; and
Haliaétus vocifer, the screaming eagle. It often
happens that a bird with a short name has a long
one in ornithologic language. The entertaining brown
and white chat so abundant and attractive around
some of the lakes in the Rift Valley becomes
Myrmecocichla cryptoleuca in the museum catalogue.
The longest name belongs to the saddle-billed stork,
Ephipprorhynchus senegalensis, for it consists of
twenty-eight letters; the beak of this bird is nearly
27 cm. long, and the ugliness of the generic name
equals that of the bird to which it is applied: in
this instance the length of name also coincides with the
size of the subject, for it is a giant among birds. The
spoonbilled sandpiper, Hurynorhynchus pygmeus, runs
this stork close for letters and for eccentricity of
bill. Although such uncouth names excite mirth
among the uninitiated, they are indispensable to the
student.
The majority of birds possessing a top-knot usually
have this fact referred to in their common as well
as their scientific names. Crested or cristatus is
a title of distinction among birds, like a knighthood
among men. The term crest applies to the plume
on a helmet as well as to the mark of ownership
AA Q
356 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXIX
on plate, livery, and stationery of one who has been
dubbed a knight.
All birds with crests can erect the feathery tuft.
The most familiar example is the crest of the cockatoo.
This movement depends on the action of muscular
tissue in the skin connected with the quills of the crest
feathers, and a large muscle immediately beneath the
skin covering the head and nape.
The feathers on the heads of many birds are larger
than the contour feathers generally, but do not amount
to a crest, although the bird can erect them partially
when excited, courting, or engaged in combat.
Many birds in Eastern Ethiopia possess beautiful
crests: some of them will be considered. The chief
are :—The crowned crane, the hammerhead or tufted
umbre, the crested lark, some hornbills, the hoopoe,
mouse birds or colies, the secretary bird, and the
plantain eaters or touracos.
The hammerhead (Scopus wmbretta) is a curious bird.
Scopus is the Latin word for broom, and wmbre refers to
its dark brown colour. All who know the bird will admit
the aptness of both names. This bird frequents woody
districts near water, wades along the muddy shores of
lakes and islets usually i in pairs, ‘hunting about for fish,
frogs, molluscs, insects, and worms. When this tied
erects its crest it ‘looks very weird and justifies the
natives in suspecting it of witchcraft.
The umbre roosts in trees, builds a huge nest of
sticks and stones and lines it with clay, with an entrance
usually at the side.
The Secretary bird is interesting in relation with
names common or scientific, for it has received many.
The name secretary is supposed to be derived from the
tuft of long feathers hanging over the back of the head
and resembling a secretary with a quill feather “in his
ear.” A. Newton, who has written a critical account of
the names of this remarkable bird, mentions that it was
originally called Sagittarius or Archer from its striding
XXIX CRESTS OR TOP-KNOTS 357
gait which resembles a bowman advancing to shoot, but
this name has been corrupted into Secretarius. How-
ever Secretary Bird is a name which suits, and the
scientific name Serpentarius reptiliworus describes its
habits, for it eats reptiles and snakes, and living in a
country where venomous snakes abound, it is protected.
I am not likely to forget the pleasure with which I
The Tufted Umbre, or Hammerhead (Scopus umbretta). When
this bird erects its crest, it looks very weird, and justifies the
natives in suspecting it of witchcraft.
watched one of these remarkable birds on the margin of
a blackened area left by a grass fire looking after things
it could devour. When engaged in killing dangerous
prey by stamping on them with its powerful feet, the
wings spread, head held high and feathery tuft erect, it
appears a formidable bird, for it stands four feet high.
This bird has a good appetite and likes variety in food.
In the stomach of a secretary bird shot near Cape Town
358 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXIX
‘there were found one tortoise, eight chameleons, twelve
lizards of two species, three frogs, one adder, two
locusts, two quails, and remains of other animals” (Stark
and Sclater). Bones, feathers and other hard parts of
the food formed into pellets are ejected from the
stomach. In its encounters with poisonous snakes the
secretary bird is sometimes fatally bitten.
The Secretary Bird (Serpentarius reptilivorus) resembles
cranes and storks, but those who have carefully studied
its structure prefer to regard it as essentially a hawk
on stilts. It is a striking object on the plain.
Ornithologists have been puzzled in regard to the
systematic position of this long legged bird which out-
wardly resembles the cranes and storks. Those who
have closely studied its structure prefer to regard the
secretary bird as essentially a hawk on stilts.
Among birds with feathery crowns in Africa the
XXIX CRESTS OR TOP-KNOTS 359
Hoopoe holds a prominent place, its conspicuous crest
attracts the attention of the most casual observer,
especially when the bird hops along the ground
The African Hoopoe (U. africana) resides in British East Africa.
hunting for insects and worms, tapping with its
long bill. The hoopoe will also take flies on the
wing. It is a gaudy bird but has unpleasant habits
and delights to find its food among filth: it builds
360 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXIX
a nest in a hole in a tree or wall, using foul material
in its construction. It takes no pains to keep the
nest clean during incubation and the neighbourhood
of the nest becomes unpleasant and often intolerable
to man. In the autumn hoopoes when fat are esteemed
The European Hoopoe (Upupa epops) visits the Nile Valley and
British East Africa.
as delicacies, especially by the Christian population of
Constantinople (Newton), and Arabs impute to this bird,
especially its head, medicinal virtues. There is a fable
connected with the hoopoe: Allah granted to Epops a
golden crest, but at the bird’s request changed it for one
of feathers.
XXIX CRESTS OR TOP-KNOTS 361
The European hoopoe visits the Nile Valley and
British East Africa in winter. The African hoopoe
has feathers of a deeper red than the European
species and the wing-markings are different. he
Wood-Hoopoes of East Africa are interesting birds ;
they have no crest but a long tail and their plumage is
iridescent. These noisy birds climb the trunks of trees
in spite of their long tails and hunt for insects in the
bark like woodpeckers.
The Great Crested Touraco (Corythwola cristatus). This hand-
some coloured bird has an abundant but untidy top-knot.
It is the largest member of the family Alusophayidw, which
is the Latinised expression of plantain-eater. The noise
made by Touracos is one of the characteristic sounds of a
Uganda forest.
The Touracos, plantain-eaters or Lowries, are peculiar
to the African forests. They are striking birds and
arrest attention either on account of the noises they
make, or their beautiful plumage. Touracos may be
said to haunt the forest and they delight in pursuing
each other between the trunks or among the branches
of the highest trees. The noises they make resemble
men bawling to each other, and similar animal sounds.
362 » EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXIX
A touraco thoroughly deserves the name of “ noisy
bird” (Lirmvogel) which Germaus have given it.
These birds have short serrated beaks, eat bananas,
the fruit of papaw trees, insects, worms, and grubs.
The heads of touracos are decorated with conspicuous
crests; many years ago on this account they were
called ‘crowned birds.” Touracos fly with clumsy
undulating flight, usually alighting with the crest erect
and the tail upturned. As they hop about the branches
of trees the tail is in constant motion, the rectrices
being expanded and depressed. The crest in some
touracos is a feathery mop, but the Great Crested
Touraco has an abundant feathery top-knot.
Touracos are remarkable for their colouration, which
is the same in both sexes. Some of them are as
brilliantly coloured as parrots. In many the flight
feathers are crimson and yield a peculiar pigment,
called turacin, which contains copper and may be
reduced to powder. The colour is so soluble that it is
washed out of the quill feathers by heavy rains, but it
is renewed. The green in these birds is due to the
presence of green pigment in the feather.
The most remarkable crest among birds belongs to
the Crowned Crane. This isa very common bird around
the Victoria Nyanza. The crowned crane is a purely
African form and is common in South as well as Hast
Africa. In winter the crowned crane frequents the
banks of the White Nile in thousands. The crest of this
beautiful bird is present in both sexes and differs from
those of other crested birds in the peculiar character of
the feathers composing the crown. The quills of the
feathers are small and thin; each shaft (or vane) is
twisted spirally and bears a few hair-like barbs, which,
owing to the torsion of the shaft, project on all sides of
the axial line. The shaft is flat so that the twist gives
the feather the appearance of being banded alternately
light and dark. The tips of the vanes are dark. At
Fashoda I had an opportunity of examining two chicks
XXIX CRESTS OR TOP-KNOTS 363
twenty days old; the crown was composed of ordinary
feathers. When the birds fight they try to pluck out
the feathers from each other’s crown. Some years
Dissection of the neck of a Crowned Crane showing the pharynx,
which is puffed out when the bird dances. (From a
preparation by Mr. Burne in the museum of the Royal
College of Surgeons, England.)
A. Feather from the crown: it shows the spiral twist and
the thin hair-like barbs.
ago a bad-tempered cock at the Zoo would not allow
the hen to have any feathers in her crown, and as soon
as they grew he plucked them.
Cranes utter loud notes, which are increased by
364 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXxIX
a peculiar arrangement of the windpipe; this tube
is coiled up like a rope and lodged in a_ hollow
space in the breastbone or sternum. This converts
the windpipe into a powerful trumpet. Crowned cranes
differ from other members of the crane family by
The Kavirondos have great respect for Crowned Cranes and
tolerate them in the villages merely for their beauty. These
birds are as tame as fowls in a barn-yard.
possessing a straight windpipe. Everyone who has
watched the antics of this bird has probably noticed
that it puffs the upper part of the neck when dancing.
This swelling of the neck is due to inflation of the
distensihle pharynx with air.
The Kavirondos have great respect for crowned
oO
r=)
XXIX CRESTS OR TOP-KNOTS 365
cranes, which are found in large numbers around the
lake: they tolerate them in the villages merely for
their beauty. In the quiet of the evening these birds
take up positions on the apex of the huts or on the flat
top of a tall tree near the village, perched motionless
on one leg, silhouetted against the sky, like sentinels.
The Helmet-shrike.
These birds are pretty, very tame, and most amusing
when they perform their quaint antics. They dance to
meet one another with nodding heads, necks advanced,
and wings outspread, bowing and jumping in a
grotesque manner. They are as easily approached as
fowls in a barn-yard. The Nandi are very fond of the
366 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXIX
crested crane owing to its beautiful plumage, and though
they eat almost anything, forbid their people eating this
beautiful bird.
Some of the shrikes in East Africa are furnished with
a crest, which differs from that possessed by most
birds, for it extends along the front of the head
to the base of the beak. The top-knot in the Helmet-
shrike resembles the horse-hair plume in the crest of
a Grecian helmet. The crest and plume were probably
added to the helmet in order to make the soldiers look
terrible to their enemies in time of war and appear more
handsome to their friends in time of peace. This
same feeling animates all savage races. The Masai
to this day wear extraordinary head-dresses made of
ostrich feathers, or of the mane of a lion, so that they
may terrify their enemies when on the war path.
The feathery crest or top-knot is useful to birds:
they use it for fascinating hens and terrifying enemies.
XXX
TAILS AND WINGS AS NUPTIAL LIVERY
Tue ends of birds, like their limbs (wings and legs),
are strangely modipedt the variations of the tails of
some birds which flourish i in Eastern Ethiopia are worthy
of consideration.
The quill feathers of a bird’s tail are called rectrices,
or steering feathers, on account of their action in
directing fight. The quills of these feathers are
crowded on a narrow base, which causes them to present
a fan- shaped arrangement. The normal number of
rectrices 18 six pairs; a few birds have ten or eleven ;
several nine, eight or seven pairs ; and many five pairs.
The reduction in number is bro ought about by the
atrophy or disappearance of the outer pair or pairs.
The number of rectrices differs among birds of closely
allied species, and even in the cock and hen of the same
species. For example, the peacock is furnished with ten
and the peahen with nine pairs. The variation in the
shape of the tail feathers is very great and is a fact well
recognised.
The profusion of bird life along the Nile Valley and
around the lakes of Central uenent is wonderful, and so
is its variety. Some of the biggest birds living on the
earth to-day may be seen here. Ostriches, bustards,
storks, cranes, secretary birds, eagles, vultures, herons,
and pelicans. Size always impresses. Many of the
smaller birds, such as bee-eaters, rollers, ibis, sun-
367
368 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXX
birds, touracos, parrots, kingfishers and glossy starlings
are very beautiful. Some are remarkable for their
grotesqueness ; among them the whale-headed stork,
skimmer, hornbill, flamingo and the saddle-billed stork.
Eccentricity of plumage is noteworthy in a few, such
as the nightjars (goat-suckers), weaver finches, egrets,
and hammer-heads.
The first thing about Ethiopian birds that attracted
my attention was the number of them that had peculiarly
narrow tapering tails, and two which had a_ super-
abundance of tail feathers. During my stay in Nairobi
the grass on the unoccupied land around the town was
in flower and seed. These grass patches were the
favourite resorts of large numbers of weaver birds,
especially those known as Jackson’s Whydah birds. In
shape, size, and colour these birds resemble sparrows.
At the bieeding season the feathers of the cock undergo
an extraordinary change, they become quite black with
the exception of the long feathers of the wings, and the
tail feathers elongate out of all proportion to their
previous condition. When the bird flies the tail
feathers spread out like a parachute and arch in a
peculiar way so that it seems to float rather than
to fly through the air. When the bird alights these
long feathers diverge and cause it as much inconveni-
ence as a long court train does to a lady when she seeks
refuge in a four-wheeled cab. In addition to the
extravagant growth of the rectrices, the primaries and
secondaries undergo a compensatory enlargement to
balance the bird in flight.
It is not uncommon around Nairobi to see a score of
these long-tailed finches floating by means of their
feathery parachutes over a grass plot. At the end of
the breeding season these long plumes drop off and the
cock, in the matter of plumage, is similar to the hen.
These birds have two sexual seasons annually.
Mr. F. J. Jackson carefully studied these birds, and
points out that the cocks of D. gacksont make circular
xxx TAILS AND WINGS AS NUPTIAL LIVERY 369
playgrounds for themselves in the grass in which they
dance up and down, especially in the early morning and
Jackson’s Whydad bird (Drepanoplectes jacksont) in wooing-dress.
In this plumage it may be described asa sparrow in widow’s
weeds.
late afternoon. In consequence of these tricks they
have been called dancing birds.
When these black objects are bobbing up and down
BB
37° EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXX
in the grass, the head is thrown back, the beak is
horizontal, and the feet hang down. The tail is drawn
up until it touches the ruff at the back of the head, the
The feathery dancer in its grass amphitheatre or playing ground.
tips of the feathers falling in a curve downwards, with
the exception of two tail feathers which are held out-
wards and downwards. The wings, half opened, are
worked with a very quick, shivering motion, and the
xxx TAILS AND WINGS AS NUPTIAL LIVERY 371
feet move up and down rapidly. As the bird springs
up and down the whole plumage i is puffed out. The
dancing-rings are about two feet in diameter. There is
a tuft in the centre, aud the erass around it is broken
quite close to the ground. There may be a score or
more of these dancing- -rings in an acre of grass land.
These birds associate with the Bishop finches (called
dhurra birds in the Sudan), which, at the breeding
season, blaze out in bright red and lovely orange fon le
There is some confusion in regard to the names of
these birds. Ornithologists call them Whydah birds,
after a place of the same name on the West Coast of
Africa; they are called weaver finches, because they
construct complex nests, and the Portuguese named
them widow birds on account of their sombre plumage
and long tails; certainly D. jacksont resembles a
sparrow in widow’s weeds.
There is an interesting species, V. paradisea, in
which during the breeding season the webs of the
middle pair of rectrices widen greatly and the shafts
twist in such a manner that their inferior surfaces
become opposed vertically ; the next pair are produced
to the length of about a foot and are falciform. The
bird being no bigger than a canary, it seems, when
flying, as if the bird i is attached to the tail, rather than
the tail to the bird.
The Coly or Mouse-bird is very common in the
Ethiopian Region, and is sure to attract attention.
It has a pretty top-knot and a long narrow tail.
The legs are red and the toes have slender, prehensile
claws, all directed forward, but the hallux and the
outer toe can be turned backwards. The peculiar
redness of the legs can only be appreciated in the
living bird. It is curious to watch a coly alight on
the trunk, or branch, of a tree and then creep through
the foliage like a mouse with the whole of its metatarsus
applied to the branch. This bird, like the tits, often
hangs head downwards. The coly prefers thickets to
BB 2
372 EASTERN ETHIOPIA xxx
The Coly, or Mouse-bird, has a long narrow tail. The legs
are red and the toes have narrow claws directed
forward, but the hallux and outer toe can be directed
backwards. When a coly alights on the branch of a
tree, it creeps along it like a mouse, with the whole
of the metatarsus applied to the branch.
forests and is by no means shy, for it frequents trees
around houses in Kampala.
xxx TAILS AND WINGS AS NUPTIAL LIVERY 373
Colies have a bad reputation among the settlers,
because they steal ripe fruit. The plumage of the cock
and hen are almost identical. The colies dart about in
flocks of six, eight, or ten. The Masai use the skin of
the mouse-bird to decorate their heads.
A Shrike (Lantus hwmeralis), very common around Nairobi;
it is very fond of sitting on a prominent branch of a dry,
leafless, prickly acacia. In the vicinity of the railway it
prefers to perch on a telegraph wire. This shrike has the
same habits as the English butcher bird and keeps a larder.
Shrikes are sure to attract attention. The Scarlet-
bellied Bush-Shrike is common in the thorn-orchards of
the Sudan; it has a flute-like note, usually uttered
from a thorn bush. The black and white shrike, like
our butcher bird, keeps a larder.
374 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXX
Mr. Hobley informed me that in his garden where the
Mauritian Hemp grows freely, this shrike uses the sharp
bayonet-like points of the leaves for impaling victims,
such as caterpillars, grubs, grasshoppers and the like.
5 . . * .
Another observer interested in this bird watched it use
The Sunbird (Nectarinia reichenow?), male and female. The hen
is busy with the flowers of a salvia, and her companion has
come to see what she is about. The middle pair of tail
feathers is greatly elongated.
a eucalyptus tree fur this purpose, and saw it fix
caterpillars and slugs on the broken ends of twigs and
small branches. On some occasions the bird would
exercise great force in impaling its victims.
The Sunbirds are the flower-haunting birds of the
xxx TAILS AND WINGS AS NUPTIAL LIVERY 375
Ethiopian Region; their gorgeous metallic colours—
crimson, purple, yellow, blues and green—of their
Tecoma stans ; a favourite flower of sunbirds.
A. Perianth in section.
plumage are only exeelled by the humming birds of
the tropical portions of America.
376 EASTERN ETHIOPIA Xxx
The sunbirds with their metallic colouration form
exquisite pictures as they flit about in the sunshine
or hang in all sorts of positions about the stems
of flowering plants, for they are unable to poise them-
selves in the air Jike humming-birds. The Tecoma
is a flowering shrub common in the gardens around
Nairobi ; it has clusters of fairly large trumpet- shaped
yellow flowers. The perianth of these flowers is too
deep to permit the sunbird to reach the fundus with
its beak, so the bird overcomes this difhculty by
pecking a hole in the perianth just above its fundus,
and thus obtains easy access to the nectar and the
insects it contains.
In some species of sunbirds the middle pair of tail
feathers is greatly elongated, and makes this beautiful
bird very conspicuous as it flits from flower to flower,
usually with the hen, in a restless manner.
Among the latest additions to our knowledge of
Ethiopian birds with a long narrow tail is a beautiful
sunbird, Nectarinia dartmouthi, found in flocks on the
lobelia and groundsel zone of Rawenzon at an elevation
of 12,500 feet up to 14,500 feet. These birds feed on
the lobelias. In the Report of the Ruwenzori Expedition
it is described as a very pretty sight to see them clinging
to the side of the tall flower-spikes es p. 240); their
legs held horizontally so as to keep the body away from
the flowers, they swiftly probe the long, pale-blue tubez
of the blossom with their curved beaks, The males are
incessantly fighting with one another, or flirting with
the females, and each pair seems to claim a district as its
own, from which all trespassers are harshly and noisily
chased. They show little or no fear of man, and one ac-
tually settled upon the barrel of Mr. Carruther’s gun
while he was standing still.
This reference to each pair of birds claiming a district
and driving away trespassers is interesting, for when
birds fight the combats are commonly regarded as “ rows
about hens,” whereas they are often “struggles for
xxx TAILS AND WINGS AS NUPTIAL LIVERY 377
territory.” Our common Enelish blackbird is very
pugnacious in regard to trespassers along his hedge and
ditch. .
Sunbirds are very fond of the tree-lobelias. When
Count Teleki made an ascent of Kenia and had attained
an altitude of 11,600 feet the party was astonished at
the appearance of sunbirds (Nectarinia deckent). A
nest with a chick in it was found and placed in front of
the tent and the male appeared “in all the beauty of
his bridal plumage. ”
One of the most conspicuous birds in the Rift Valley
is the bee-eater, and it is interesting to watch this bird
perched on the leafless bough of a tree from which it
makes short flights after eee wasps, or insects which it
captures on the wing after the fashion of a fly-catcher,
and displaying its brillant colours. The tail of this
bee-eater 1s peculiar, in many species the twelve rectrices
end squarely, but in Merops the two middle feathers
are prolonged far beyond the others, forming a median
tapering point. :
The bee-eaters are uot shy birds, and will allow a
close approach, and they also pick ticks from the backs
of cattle. A. H. Neumann found bee-eaters numerous
around Lake Rudolf: indeed Merops nubicus was very
friendly with the large crested bustard of that region,
and had the habit of riding on the bustard’s back. “The
bustard did not “ resent the liberty,” but stalked majes-
tically along whilst its brilliantly clad little jockey kept
a look-out, sitting sideways, and now and again flew up
at an Insect it had espied, returning ag ain to its ‘‘ camel,”
as Juma the gunbearer not inaptly termed the bustard.
The bee-eater also sat on the backs of goats, sheep
and antelopes, but the bustard was its favourite steed.
Neumann suggests, and probably rightly, that the
bee-eater found the back of the bustard a point of
vantage to see and pursue insects in a country where
suitable sticks to perch on are few. It was a common
sight to see bee-eaters mounted on bustards, On one
378 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXX
occasion Neumann saw a rose-coloured bee-eater try to
use a stork as a steed, but it would not submit to be
ridden.
It is a common belief that the birds of the Ethiopian
Region are deficient in song. Livingstone did not
am. The Crested Bustard (Hupodotis kori) with the Bee-eater
hs (Merops nubicus) riding it like a jockey. The two median
elongated rectrices are conspicuous in the flying bird. (From
A. H. Neumann’s Hlephant- Hunting. )
share this opinion, for he wrote: “ African birds have
not been wanting in song, they have only lacked poets
to sing their praises, which ours have had from the time
of Aristophanes downwards. Ours have had a classic
and a modern interest to enhance their fame.”
Many English birds delight us by their habits and
associations ; a few charm us with song, but many
make noises which can scarcely be called music, for
example, crows, rooks, cranes and jays. The songs,
noises and tricks of birds have been celebrated in
xxx TAILS AND WINGS AS NUPTIAL LIVERY 379
phrase and fable from the earliest dawn of civilisation.
The hawk and ibis were worshipped by the ancient
Egyptians, and in Christian worship some birds are
symbols of the highest qualities of human nature. The
dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit and the human
soul, as well as for tenderness and conjugal love. A
pair of turtle doves yoked to the chariot of Venus
conveyed the goddess of love through the skies.
The Eagle, King of Birds, was used as an emblem of
empire by the Babylonians, Persians and French, and as
an omen of Victory by the Greeks and Romans. As
the emblem of St. John it serves, with outstretched
wings, as a lectern in many thousand Christian churches.
Birds find a place in our literature, whether it concerns
Religion, Art, Poetry, Fables, Caricature, Comedy, or
Tragedy. Their names are so incorporated in our
language that at least a hundred are used as surnames
by the people, such as crow, rook, jay, raven, hawk,
buzzard, gull and finch, with several prefixes, such as
gold, green, &c. The robin is so popular that its name
is common as a Christian name as well as a surname.
Many martins, swifts, swans and drakes will be found
even in a Court Guide.
Now we are beginning to learn something of the
language and social customs of the natives of Hastern
Ethiopia, it is clear that beasts and birds have a place
in their superstitions.
Hollis has reduced to writing some instances from the
folk-lore of the warlike and savage Nandi.
To them the francolin calls to the hyana in the
morning :—
Hide in the wood.
The hon growling says :—
The owner of a cooking-pot is lucky, he can cook his meat.
There is a small bird which builds a nest in the
ground. ‘To anyone gomg near the nest it cries :—
Don’t tread on my head.
380 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXX
When the intruder goes away it laughs, and cries :—
I have told you lies.
When the ground hornbill is foraging, the hen bird
calls to her mate :—
Peep, peep into those holes.
The cock replies :—
I have looked, I have looked, there is nothing.
People with ideas of this kind are not lacking in
imagination. sop was a freed slave, probably an
Ethiopian: who can deny that a story-teller with the
genius of Alsop or of Krylof may not exist in a Nandi
village to-day.
There are sounds made by birds in Eastern Ethiopia
which should delight English ears. The diminutive
long-tailed dove uttering its plaintive note in the woods
of the Kikuyu country and around the lakes of the Rift
Valley 1 in the early morning is most delightful. The
ringing noises of the Ronan in the wood are like
lantern voices. Some of the birds have flute-like notes ;
those of the organ shrike denote the neighbourhood of
water, and its bell sound makes the listener fancy that
a blacksmith is working near at hand. ‘There are many
species of larks in the Ethiopian region, and some of
them sing. In British Kast Africa one, known as
Fischer’s Bush Lark, makes a peculiar noise with its
wings. In the breeding-season as the bird soars it
produces a peculiar rattling sound. Schillings compares
it to the sharp rhythmical clapping sound produced
by rattling together small pieces of lath. The sound,
audible a long distance, is very deceiving, for it
appears to come from a wood near at hand, but the
bird is high in the air.
A bird known as the Coucal, or Lark-heeled Cuckoo
(because of the long spur on its hind toe like that of the
lark), haunts papyrus swamps. It is clumsy on the wing
xxx TAILS AND WINGS AS NUPTIAL LIVERY 381
SS
=
The Coucal perching among papyrus rushes. The inset shows its
powerful foot and long spur.
382 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXX
and skulks in the reed-heds, where it makes a peculiar
whoop-whoop, and is often noisy in the early morning
and at eventide. The coucal has powerful feet, which
enable it to clutch the smooth slanting stem of the
papyrus, and sometimes slides down it like an acrobat.
The bird looks very handsome when it perches in the
The Racket-winged Nightjar (Macrodipteryx macrodipterus) has
the ninth primary elongated in each wing. When flying
in the dusk it appears like three birds—a big bird with
two smaller birds mobbing it.
middle of a papyrus umbel, its dusky white breast and
belly and chestnut head, back, wings and broad _ tail
then showing to great advantage.
One species of coucal makes a noise like water
gurgling out of an inverted bottle ; for this it is some-
times called the “ water-bottle bird.”
It is more common for the tail feathers to elongate in
xxx TAILS AND WINGS AS NUPTIAL LIVERY 3283
birds which assume an extravagant woome-dress than
those of the wings; but in some Nightjars the wing-
feathers are strangely lengthened. The nightjar family
has soft owl-like plumage, which is peculiarly modified
in some species. Among those living in Africa, two,
the Racket-winged and the Pennant-winged species, are
Re
The Pennant-winged Nightjar (Cosmetornis vexillarius).
“The aeronaut of the dusky evening.” In the even-
tide they look like ghosts as they flit in and out of the
long grass.
remarkable for peculiar modifications of certain feathers
in their wings.
The Racket-winged Nightjar has the ninth primary
elongated in each wing: it appears with a long bare
shafe and a racket-like tip. When flying in the
dusk it gives the impression of being three birds—
a big bird with two smaller birds mobbing it. Some-
times it resembles a fluttering kite. This species
oD
occurs in the Rift Valley and especially round Lake
384 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXX
Baringo. ‘These long feathers are only retained during
the breeding season, and hey are used for display.
When wooing, the cock drops noiselessly on the ground
in front of the hen and moves the wings in such a way
as to wave the standards over his heel 4 in front of her.
It is a mistake to suppose that these long feathers are
moved independently of the wing; like the other
secondaries their quills are fixed to the bone (Ulna).
Selous found the racket-winged nightjar very common
along the river Chobe. He states that they lie very
close during the daytime, and when disturbed only fly
twenty or thirty yards, and again alight and lie close to
the ground. The hens lay their eges on the bare
eround, and when sitting will almost eller themselves to
be trodden on before moving. On one occasion, ‘‘ four
horsemen and about thirty Kaffirs walked past within
a yard of a sitting nightjar, in single file. ”
The Pennant-winged Nightjar has the seventh,
eighth, aud ninth primaries prolonged, especially the
ninth. In some of the birds the quills measure
twenty inches, and the bird is only ten inches long; in
the eventide they look like ghosts as they flit in and
out of the long grass. Schweinfurth watched these birds
in the “‘ heart of Africa,’ and observed that they make
their earliest appearance about a quarter of an hour after
sunset and as the twilight passes rapidly into thorough
night. For the purpose of catching insects they
generally wheeled in circles at no great distance from
the ground. The range of their flight was very short
and extremely circumscribed. The antipathy of this
“aeronaut of the dusky evening” to the clear light of
day seemed very remarkable; it kept itself to the
seclusion of the low brushwood ; often it would settle
itself on the ground in a pile of leaves to which its own
hue corresponded, and then it might almost be trodden
on before it could be stirred to flight. The disinclina-
tion of the nightjar for long fliohts when in full feather
is due to the hindrance such elongated pinions offer
xxx TAILS AND WINGS AS NUPTIAL LIVERY 385
when the bird flies. In favourable localities a dozen
pennant-winged nightjars may be seen in the air
together ; they then resemble “tattered pieces of paper
blown about by the wind.” (Woosnam. )
The legs of nightjars are so short that the progress of
these birds along the eround is little more than a
shuftle. Their feet present other unusual features. The
fourth or outer toe has only four phalanges instead
of five and the claw of the middle toe is serrated.
The long-tailed African dove (Gna capensis). It is scarcely
larger than a wagtail and abounds in Eastern Ethiopia.
Nightjars are said to use this pectinated claw to detach
the hooked claws and chitinous wings of insects on
which they feed from the bristle-like feathers which
fringe their mouths. ee
As in the case of other crepuscular birds, nightjars
are occasionally seen flying at dawn. The seissor-bill,
trom which the drawing on p. 350 was made, I shot at
sunrise.
The tails of birds and beasts are often used by the
natives for personal adornment and use. Although the
CC
386 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXX
men and women disdain clothes they love to decorate
their heads. Ostrich and marabou feathers hold as high
a place in the scale of fashion among Ethiopians as
among the milliners of Bond Street.
The Masai wear a head-dress of ostrich feathers when
raiding, in order to inspire terror (p. 93). The Karamojo,
Suk, and Turkana stick them in their chignons (p 160).
The Kavirondos use feathers in the construction of their
enormous head-dresses. A British Field Marshal wears a
plume in his helmet which helps to emphasise his rank,
but these feathers are usually obtained from the tail
of a barnyard fowl.
The long hairs of a girafte’s tail are used as threads for
sewing, or for stringing beads. Huropean sportsmen
who shoot elephants, collect the horn-like hairs from the
tails for their female relatives and friends to fashion
into bracelets. British surgeons often use hairs from
a horse’s tail for suturing wounds. The Masai employ
the tuft of a gnu’s tail as a fly-flap, and it is extremely
useful in a land abounding in flies and gnats.
XXXI
IVORY
From time immemorial certain natural productions
in the mineral and animal world have been highly
esteemed for artistic and decorative purposes. Among
such substances gold, silver, marble, precious stones,
and ivory have held leading places.
Among these materials ivory holds a_ peculiar
position, inasmuch as it is the most durable substance
furnished by the animal kingdom. Moreover, ivory, like
gold, silver, and fienronie cannot be made artificially,
and no satisfactory substitute has been devised to
supply its place in the various arts and industries of the
civilised world.
Ivory is known to anatomists as dentine and it
enters into the formation of the teeth of mamials, but
the term ivory is restricted by use to the dentine of
those animals in which it occurs in sufficient quantity
to be useful for industrial and artistic purposes. Such
mammals are the elephant, hippopotamus, narwhal,
sperm-whale, and walrus.
The chief source of the best ivory to-day is the
tusks of the African elephant. The tusks are the
permanent upper incisors of this huge mammal; they
not only surpass other teeth as belonging to an animal
so enormous, but they are the largest of all teeth in
eT cc 2
388 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXXI
proportion to the size of the body. The remarkable
sub-order of vertebrate animals, Proboscidea, includes
the elephants living on the earth to-day and their
ancestors. These mammals are remarkable for the
length of their trunks and the size of their tusks. The
best known ancestor of the elephant is the mammoth ;
it roamed in the mighty forests which formerly covered
Siberia, and had enormous tusks, some of which weighed
250 pounds: its remains have been found in Europe, in
England, and in Ireland. Mammoths existed in the
Siberian forests in vast numbers, for the fossilised tusks
of this huge animal have been a regular article of
commerce for centuries, especially in China and Russia.
Dr. Breyue, writing in 17387, states that the teeth of
mammoths have been ‘a remarkable and particular
curiosity of Siberia.” These teeth are found “in such
quantity as is suthcient for trade.” He also mentions
that the chief failings of mammoth-ivory are brittleness
and lability to turn yellow on exposure to the weather
or heat.
Elephants are strict vegetarians ; they feed on herbage
as well as on the leaves and soft branches of trees. This
food is seized by the wonderfully mobile trunk (or
proboscis) and conveyed to the mouth. The trunk,
which is formed by a combined prolongation of the nose
and upper lip, compensates the elephant for the short-
ness and inflexibility of its neck. In Africa elephants
are fond of bananas and green plants, and when they
visit the plantations of the natives they not only eat
bananas freely, but destroy a larger quantity by their
trampling. These huge animals congregate in herds
and make long journeys at night in “order to obtain
water and food.
When elephants have appeased the pangs of hunger
and quenched their thirst they sometimes become
playful. It was officially reported in 1909 that the
telegraph line on the Bahr-el-Zeraf had been inter-
XXXI . IVORY 389
rupted by elephants on nine separate occasions between
January and April. This being the dry season, these
animals come down in herds to this tributary of the
White Nile to drink: they jostle against the telegraph
poles and knock them down. When a pole is down the
A Useful Association. Butf-backed Heron on an elephant. When
elephants are suspicious they raise their trunks and move them
incessantly in order to scent danger.
wire falls low enough to touch the backs of the elephants,
and this leads to a large amount of damage, and, in
some instances, the telegraph line is destroyed for half
a mile. Occasionally an elephant uproots a telegraph
post and twists the iron pedestal to which the pole
is bolted (see p. 26).
390 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXXI
A herd of élephants is often accompanied by a flock
of buft-backed herons. When the herd moves the
herons follow on the wing, and hover over, or on its
flanks, like a white cloud. When the elephants are at
rest, or feeding, these birds alight, and rid them of
vermin. In reference to this, Livingstone wrote: the
ox-pecker is a better horseman than the heron, for it
sits on the withers of a buffalo when the animal is at
full speed (see p. 193).
The tusks of the elephant grow throughout life, for
they possess persistent pulps like the incisors of rats
and rabbits, and the only check to their length is the
wear and tear to which they are subjected in digging
up roots, uprooting small trees, or stripping them of
bark : one tusk is used more than the other, usually
the right, and is called for this reason the servant by the
Arabs. They are also used for offence and defence, and
vicious bulls sometimes break their tusks fighting rivals.
In Equatorial Africa the elephant attains its greatest
size. A. H. Neumann gives the average height of the
full-erown bull elephant at 103 feet. The tusks of
such an animal may weigh anything from 50 to 100
pounds, or more. There is a tusk of Elephas africanus
in the Natural History Museum 10 feet long and 2 feet in
eth; it weighs 228 pounds. Although tusks are
present in both sexes of elephants, they are much larger
in the male.
A tusk consists of two parts; a basal portion lodged
in the bone of the upper jaw, and a portion which pro-
jects beyond the animal’s lips. When an elephant is
killed, it is wise not to attempt to chop out the tusks
at once, as this injures the ivory: in a few days, the
tusks loosen and are easily removed.
When a dried tusk is split longitudinally its basal
part will be found to consist of a conical chamber, the
walls of which, near its wide extremity, are very thin,
The remaining two-thirds are solid, but a close examina-
XXXI IVORY 391
tion will reveal a very narrow central area filled Mees
irregular hard tissue representing the remains of :
aera canal. In the living animal the large Noce
cavity is filled with living tissue known as the pulp:
it contains, among other things, blood-vessels and nerves.
The walls of the ‘pulp inmnber are lined with a layer of
cells (odontoblasts) which are concerned in forming the
dentine (or ivory). Under normal conditions the active
formation of dentine continues as long as the elephant
lives, so that whilst the tusk is being worn down at
the tip by use, it is continually renewed by the odonto-
blastic celis in the pulp chamber.
It occasionally happens that the pulp becomes dis-
turbed by inflammation which may be caused by injury,
such as fracture of the tusks by fighting, by musket
balls, by spears or some such contrivances used by the
natives for the destruction of the elephant. Interfer-
ence in a violent form with the pulp has a detrimental
effect on the formation of ivory which is of some interest.
Sportsmen who hunt the African elephant endeavour
to kill this animal with what is known as a heart shot.
This may be effected by shooting it through the
shoulder, or by a shot directed into the chest from the
front. In some circumstances the hunter must take his
chance of what is known as the forehead shot, and
occasionally the bullet penetrates to the brain. A more
reliable method of reaching the brain is to aim at the
centre of a line drawn from the eye to the ear-hole. A
bullet entering at this spot is always fatal. A bullet
badly aimed at an elephant’s head is very liable to
embed itself in the large pulp cavity of a tusk and
the elephant escapes death. In such an event the
pulp continues to form ivory and as a consequence of the
irritation caused by the presence of the foreign body,
the hard material which forms around the bullet differs
from true ivory and is known as secondary dentine.
Ivory turners have known for more than a century
392 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXXI
that hard bodies such as bullets and spear-heads are
occasionally found embedded in the solid parts of
elephants’ tusks without any sign existing on. the
surface of the tusk to indicate the point of entry.
Many observers, among them Blumenbach and Cuvier,
noticed that the tissue in which foreign bodies are
Iron ball surrounded by secondary
dentine, embedded in the solid
portion of an elephant’s tusk.
(Museum of the Royal College of
Surgeons, England.)
embedded differs in appearance and texture from true
ivory. Goodsir (1841) investigated the matter and
furnished a satisfactory explanation. When the ball
hits the free portion of the tusk, if it only penetrates
to a certain depth, no change takes place and the
breach is not repaired. When the ball enters the pulp
chamber through the side of the tusk, the hole in the
XXXI IVORY 393
tusk is repaired by the formation of secondary dentine,
and the offending body is eneapsuled by ‘the same
material. As the tusk advances in its socket, the
bullet is gradually incorporated in solid ivory. The
thorough way in which a bullet may be embedded in
the solid part of an elephant’s tusk, and no mark
betray it, is proved by the fact that one has been found
in a billiard ball. Such a specimen is preserved
in the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons,
England.
These things happened in the days of muskets and
black powder : the introduction of the rifle and high
velocity bullets has completely changed elephant-
shooting. African elephants are often killed by a
single well-placed bullet. Compare this with the
description of the shooting of the famous elephant
Chunee in 1826 at Exeter “Change, a wild beast show
off the Strand near the Lyceum. Chunee became
dangerous and a detachment of infantry was employe ad
to kill him: one hundred bullets were fired into the
wretched animal for this purpose. The skeleton of this
elephant is preserved in the museum of the Royal
College of Surgeons, England. When the skull was
examined after the skeleton had been macerated a large
abscess was found at the root of one of the teeth, sibel
partly accounted for the trouble Chunee caused the
keepers.
When we reflect on the agony human beings suffer in
consequence of an abscess in the pulp of a molar tooth,
it appears ditiicult to estimate the suffering endured
by an elephant when the pulp of a tusk is inflamed.
It is possible for a solid body to enter the pulp
chamber without penetrating the wall of the tusk. The
open end of the tusk looks upwards, and as the natives
have a way, among others, of killing elephants by
dropping a heavy loaded spear upon them from a tree,
or as the result of a trap, it sometimes happens that
the spear penetrates the open end of the tusk and is
394 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXXI
A sketch illustrating one method by which the African native
attempts to kill an elephant. He drops a heavily loaded
spear upon the animal when visiting a drinking pool.
lodged in the pulp. The frightened animal rushes
about, breaks the shaft of the spear, and leaves the
iron head embedded in the pulp chamber. Such a
XXXI IVORY 395
weapon becomes enclosed in secondary dentine, and
is eventually found in the exserted part of the tusk.
C.BERJEAU
Portion of an Elephant’s Tusk in section.
An iron spear 75 by 14 inches is enclosed
within it by a capsule of secondary dentine.
There was nothing on the exterior of the
tusk to indicate its presence. (Museum of
the Royal College of Surgeons, England.)
These elephant spears are formidable things.
Stanley refers to one found in his second journey from
Fort Bodo to the Albert Nyanza, shortly after
396 EASTERN ETHIOPIA XXXI
leaving the Ituri river, in the following terms :—‘ On
the road before leaving the bush we ‘passed a place
where an elephant spear had fallen to the ground, and
buried itself so deep that three men were unable to
heave it out. Such a force, we argued, would have
slain an elephant on the instant. (April 8, 1888.)”
In some districts the natives kill elephants in
enormous numbers and without discrimination, not for
the tusks merely, but for the meat and hides. In 1895
the Homr and Rizighat Arabs killed about 800 elephants.
The Homr killed 87 in one day. (Soudan Reports for
1395 01208)
Many years ago there was an African elephant in
the menagerie of the Zoological Society, London, which
attained some notoriety under the name of Jumbo.
This animal, when in his prime, possessed two broken
tusks which projected through the skin of the cheeks.
The stunted condition of the tusks was due to the fact
that ina fit of passion (must) Jumbo broke his tusks
within their sockets. This led to the formation of an
abscess, and the elephant became so ill that it seemed
likely to die.