MEN OF THE TREES 



olive; and after harvesting two crops, would abandon 

 their spoilt land to move deeper and deeper into the for- 

 est, leaving always behind them a trail of destruction. 

 Hence the tribesmen earned for themselves the name of 

 "Forest Destroyers." 



This devastation of the countryside may seem like 

 wanton destruction, yet the tribesmen did not act in any 

 spirit of mischief. They were merely ignorant of the 

 consequences of their recklessness. They did not realize 

 that, by destroying the forests at this rapid pace, they 

 would one day leave themselves without fuel to cook 

 their food or building material for their huts and grana- 

 ries. Some of the chiefs and elders of the tribe may have 

 felt vaguely uneasy about it, but the younger men were 

 quite unconcerned, caring little whether their women- 

 folk had to go two hours or two days' journey to fetch 

 fuel, so long as they got their meals. 



When I arrived in their country, I pitched my tent on 

 a hill known as Muguga, which means, a treeless place, 

 an apt description, for it commanded a view of a coun- 

 tryside once lovely with sub-tropical woodlands, now 

 bleak and bare save for the scattered hamlets and a few 

 distant Katinga, or sacred groves. 



It was here, on the hill of Muguga that I held my 

 Barazas, or meetings of Chiefs and Elders, and endeav- 

 oured to impress upon them the urgent importance of 

 tree planting. Day after day, these Heads of the Tribe 

 journeyed to my camp to hear what I had to say; and 



22 



