66 THE CENTRAL PROVINCE 



of rivers that are narrow marshes, and of lakes that may have open water 

 in their centre, but are belted round the sides with untraversable swamps — 

 appears to extend from Bukedi across the plains to the verv verge of 

 Elg-on's foot-hills, and thence again westwards to Murnli on the Victoria 

 Nile. Between Elgon and Bukedi, however, though the land is occasionally 

 swampy, it is excellent soil, and a good proportion of it has been put 

 under cultivation by the fine, tall naked tribe of the Elgumi,* a race 

 speaking a language closely allied to the Suk. There are a good many 

 ant-hills in the Elgumi country, and it is the custom of the natives when 

 strangers pass along the paths to cluster on these ant-hills until the little 

 mounds become a mass of black humanity, that stands j^erfectly immobile, 

 silent, neither friendly nor hostile, watching the passer-by. The men are 

 generally resting their hands on long wands, and are often accompanied 

 by prick-eared dogs of pied black and white, or black and tan and white, 

 that are singularly like a breed of dogs depicted on the Egyptian monuments. 

 The lithe, well-proportioned limbs of the tall Elgumi, coupled with their 

 faces that are often handsome and of regular outline, make them quite a 

 picturesque adjunct to the spacious landscapes of their country, with its 

 fertile fields, its patches of apple-green marsh, and its stretches of clear 

 blue water. The hills and isolated mountains dotted here and there over 

 the Elgumi and Bukedi countries assume quaint forms and outlines, notabl\' 

 that square-cut chunk, not yet placed on any map, known to the Masai as 

 Longelai, to the Elgumi as Namboga, and to the Kavirondo as Kangaiwa. 

 South of the marshy countries of Bukedi and Elgumi is the District 

 of Busoga, a land which has a strong resemblance in its present inhabitants 

 and in its formation and physical geography to the adjoining countr}^ of 

 Uganda. Busoga is part of the dam which shores up the northern end 

 of the Victoria Nyanza, through which the Nile breaks at its birth. The 

 northern parts of Busoga, where they verge on Lake Kioga and Lake 

 Mljorogoma, are below the surface of the Victoria Xyanza in altitude. The 

 land very gradually rises as you proceed southwards at least 1,000 feet 

 in average height, and is at its highest where it overlooks the shores 

 of the great lake. Except in the northern parts of Busoga, near the 

 marshes, the country is still thickly forested, and it was at one time 

 evidently one vast tropical forest, like portions of Uganda, Toro, and 

 Unyoro, and like much of Kavirondo likewise was. The traveller coming- 

 from the east feels, wlien he crosses the Sio Kiver and enters Busoga, 

 that he has reached something like West Africa at last. Banana })lantations 

 grow everywhere in splendid luxuriance. Whatever is not cultivated fields 

 is tropical foi'est of grand appearance. The grey parrot of West Africa 



* Elgumi is the name given to them by the Masai. I believe they call themselves 

 " Wamia." 



