2i8 FROM KIVU TO TANGANYIKA 



moralizing, and we did not summon up energy 

 enough to go and see it. Soon after it emerges 

 from the hills, the Rusisi is joined by some big 

 streams from either side, and it is a great river — 

 bigger than the Rhone at Geneva — before it flows 

 into Tanganyika. 



Our route took us along the west side of the 

 valley, which is there about fifteen miles wide, close 

 to the foot of those mountains which I have de- 

 scribed before as forming the western wall of the 

 great Central African trough. The valley itself is 

 densely covered with bush, and has but few in- 

 habitants, except elephants and antelopes, but the 

 lower slopes of the hills are thickly populated, and 

 we often saw a crowd of natives perched upon a 

 point of vantage to watch us as we passed. These 

 people are famous for their skill as blacksmiths — 

 their knives and spears are exceedingly well wrought 

 — and for their tobacco, which they smoke and chew 

 and use as snuff in prodigious quantities. They 

 have a curious device to assist them in their habit 

 of taking snuff; their noses are of the retrousse 

 type, and their nostrils are large and round, so, in 

 order to prevent a waste of the precious snuff, they 

 fix a neat little bamboo clip over the end of the nose, 

 which compresses the nostrils and prevents the snuff 

 from falling out. When it is not in use the clip is 

 carried fixed on to the ear (see illustration, p. 218). 



Though there are hardly more than forty miles 

 between the foot of the hills, which we had left, and 



