126 



THE WESTERN PKOAaXCE 



clear water, such a pleasant contrast to tlie stagnant watercourses of 

 Uganda. 



Except for the banana plantations and the pretty little settlements of 



lOI. LAKE ALUKKT EliWAHJi, FKU.M KATW E (KAINSK i.Ll.F) 



natives round about the crater lakes, both of which smack of former 

 Uganda immigration and influence, the real Ankole villages are rather 

 untidy and unprepossessing. They are kraals of mean huts, with loose, 

 straggling thatch surrounded by a hedge of thorns and an area of 

 trampled mud and manure, kept clear of vegetation by the immense 

 herds of cattle, sheep, and goats. Here and there the dwelling of a chief 

 has its clay sides and door and settle decorated with black and white 

 designs, but for the most part there is nothing picturesque or otlier tlian 

 squalid about the habitations of a race which is perhaps in its aristocracy 

 the handsomest that is native to the Uganda Protectorate. 



The inhabitants of Ankole belong to two very different types. The 

 mass of the population are rather well-developed black negroes, much 

 like those of any other part of West or South Africa. But the aristocracy, 

 the now celebrated Bahima, are, when of pure blood, quite different to 

 their former serfs and subjects. They have the features of the Hamite 

 or of the ancient Egyptian, and sometimes quite a reddish yellow skin. 

 Like so many of the aristocracies and ruling races in Africa, they are 

 passionately fond of cattle, despise agriculture, which they leave to the 



