( cxxiii ) 



— principally this, as the Ruanda people don't eat banana, 

 and only grow a little for beer. They are a fine people — tall, 

 thin, alert and agile (very different from the fat, sluggish 

 Baganda), with aristocratic thin features. 



" The most noticeable feature of the country, so far, has 

 been the absence of trees, which often, on safari, makes fire- 

 wood very difficult to get. As you may imagine from this, 

 butterflies are not very abundant. Eronia cleodora is much 

 commoner here than I've ever seen it before (it was very rare 

 indeed at Kakindu), but I find it extremely difficult to catch. 



" One day, when I happened on a piece of country of the 

 thorn-bush type, with long lush grass under thorn trees with 

 sweet-scented fluffy yellow balls of flower, I put up a herd of 

 six fine Eland, which was very delightful ! We have had no 

 fighting so far, as the Germans have retreated in front of us. 

 The Boers seem to be getting on very well — so that one rather 

 expects they will finish up before we have got very far ! 



" We had an awful wet season this year — thank Heaven, it's 

 over now — but when we started off at end of April we had some 

 terrible days, and the numerous rivers were all in flood. For 

 days one had feet always wet, and boots and puttees had to 

 be put on wet in the morning, and bedding also wet. This 

 weather, of course, knocked out numbers of porters (it was the 

 worst there had been for sixteen years), but it's only a bad 

 dream now ! I've kept fit save that I was in bed for about 

 five days recently — fortunately we were not moving forward 

 — with what I should certainly have diagnosed as ' flu.' at 

 home ! 



"July 2, 1916. With Belgian Northern Forces. 



" Now we are in dried-up country of brown grass with trees 

 shedding their leaves — a real dry season such as I haven't 

 met. As regards the war, there has been no fighting, the 

 Germans retreating steadily in front of us. We have kept a 

 steady S.E. direction, and are now not far off the S. end of 

 Victoria Nyanza. The country we first came through was 

 named Ruanda, a treeless country of high, rounded hills all 

 jumbled together, with highly cultivated valleys inhabited by 

 fine, tall, alert natives with good features and very friendly to 

 us — fortunately, as they are of warlike disposition. I didn't 



