12G 



THE AVESTERX PROYIXCE 



cleai- water, such a pleasaut contrast to the stagnant watercourses of 

 Uganda. 



Except for tlie banana pLantations and the pretty little settlements of 



lOI. LAKE ALBERT EDWARD, FROM KATWE (KATWE GCLF) 



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 bv 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 other than 

 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 otlier jiart of West or South Africa. But the aristocracy, 

 the now celebrated Baliima, are, when of pure lilood, 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 



