THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



and yet, in spite of their wild life and habits, they possess 

 a good deal of intelligence, and are the very best big-game 

 trackers and hunters in East Africa. Among other inter- 

 esting people in this Protectorate are the Galla, Lumbwa, 

 Kavirondo, Nandi, Mbe, and other tribes, which are all 

 more or less like the already mentioned natives. 



Of these latter tribes, the Kavirondo is, in a commer- 

 cial way, the most promising, for they are splendid agri- 

 culturists, and perhaps on the whole the hardest-working 

 natives in British East Africa. They live all around the 

 extreme western part of Victoria Nyanza, where the large 

 Kavirondo Bay is almost in the center of their country. 

 Strangely enough, it is not, as is usual, the men, but the 

 women of the Kavirondo tribe who go around absolutely 

 nude, even without the little loin cloth that otherwise the 

 most scantily dressed native woman carries. Until the 

 middle of 1909 one could see scores of these women, 

 young and old, coming right down to the railroad stations, 

 and there gazing at the foreigners as they passed, evi- 

 dently without the slightest feeling of embarrassment, 

 even if the tourist wanted to photograph them. Partly 

 owing, I believe, to one of Mr. Roosevelt's expressions 

 about the impropriety of this custom, they have now been 

 forbidden to come up to the railroad stations, at least with- 

 out some kind of covering. 



When said that the women generally go around abso- 

 lutely naked, it should be mentioned that the older ones 

 carry a funny kind of " tail " of animals' hair, which 

 hangs down from the center of the back and is held fast 

 by a string around the waist. It is rather surprising to 

 hear in connection with the strange fashions of the Kavi- 



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