50 In the Heart of Africa 



goats. The iimiizimii of the Bakora is the chameleon ; the 

 Wasinga's sacred object is a particular species of ox with a dirty- 

 brown patterned hide ; that of the Batwa, in the Bugoie forests, 

 is the man-ape, and so on. 



The high degree of civilisation existing among the Watussi 

 is assisted by climatic conditions. These are nearly ideal for 

 an equatorial country. Intense heat is excluded by virtue of an 

 average altitude of some i,6oo metres. The temperature pre- 

 vailing generally is something like that of a warm summer day 

 in Germany. It is refreshingly cool in the mornings and even- 

 ings, which is conducive to healthy sleep. As the malaria-carry- 

 ing mosquito {Anopheles) does not exist in this district, such a 

 thing as an outbreak of fever is of rare occurrence. It is true 

 that isolated malaria parasites are found in the blood of Ruanda 

 natives, but these have doubtless been imported from less healthy 

 regions where the Anofheles is an acknowledged pest. According 

 to Raven's researches, cases of malaria in Ruanda are insignifi- 

 cantly few in proportion to the density of the population. The 

 tsetse-fly, so destructive to man and beast, is non-existent, and 

 this fact has, so far, protected the territory from the ravaging 

 sleeping-sickness which, as is well known, is disseminated by the 

 tsetse-fly {glossina palpalis). 



The Watussi make the best uses of their very favourable 

 climatic conditions. The country possesses a fabulous amount of 

 wealth in its herds, to the breeding of which this pastoral people 

 are particularly devoted. Day after day immense herds of broad- 

 horned oxen and small stock of all kinds may be seen grazing 

 on the mountain slopes, for whom provision is made by continu- 

 ally burning away the dried-up grass. The young grass which 

 shoots up from these burnt-out tracts forms a special delicacy. 

 Stock-raising and the productivity of the country are greatly 

 aided by the extraordinary number of small watercourses, which 

 never run dry, even in the dry season. 



From what I have written it will easily be seen that the greater 

 part of Ruanda is eminently adapted for colonisation by white 

 men, and that cattle-raising on a large scale, and also agricul- 



