THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 267 



more water for sixteen miles, and passed up gourdfuls 

 for our men to drink. 



In the next week I saw many of these Kavirondos, 

 men, women, and children. A majority of them were 

 stark naked. Those that were partially clothed wore 

 the garments as ornaments only. Since they know 

 no harm in nakedness, they of course exhibit not the 

 faintest trace of embarrassment or self -consciousness; 

 so that in a wonderfully brief space of time one comes to 

 accept the fact. One would naturally imagine that a 

 totally naked people would be far down in the human 

 scale, and would exhibit the lowest type of savagery. 

 This is not the case Save for the one fact of naked- 

 ness they are rather above the average. They make 

 very good houses, which they keep clean and the earth 

 around which they keep swept. Their personal habits 

 are cleanly. They raise a variety of crops, which they 

 store in well-made granaries. In natural intelligence 

 they seem to be above the average in the way of being 

 quick to catch a meaning, take a joke, etc. Physically 

 they are one of the finest races in East and Central Africa, 

 tall, well proportioned, upright. The men are wonder- 

 ful, with big frames, developed muscles, yet free from 

 clumsiness. The women, too, are very fine, especially 

 before the age of twenty-five or so; after which, as 

 always in the low, hot countries, the breasts are apt to 

 fall. Both sexes are fond of shaving their heads in 

 queer patterns, which seem to have no uniformity and 



