112 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



across them in Singo. None of them wore the bark-cloth 

 garment of the Waganda. Some had on a cotton cloth 

 thrown like a mantle over the upper part of the body. It 

 left the arms free and reached as far as the knees. But more 

 often the covering was a cow-hide knotted over one shoulder. 

 The men carried spears, apparently their only weapon. This 

 spear differs from the Uganda spear in having a shorter 

 blade and a shorter shaft. The married women looked ghastly 

 scarecrows, the way they had got themselves up. They wore a 

 good many bead, iron, and brass ornaments. Into their short 

 woolly hair they had plaited all sorts of trinkets, coloured beads, 

 shells, seeds, and bits of wood. The head and body were 

 dripping with rancid butter, and the cloth or skin they wore was 

 one mass of dirt and grease. They were so completely covered 

 up, that only the head was left visible. Most of the girls in 

 the kraal were naked, but not the least bit shy of the white 

 stranger. They seemed a merry, healthy, well-formed lot ; 

 but there was not one amongst them that could have been 

 called good-looking. They crowded round me to have a 

 good look at me ; perhaps I was the first white man they 

 had ever seen. 



As the Wahima are herdsmen, they are nomadic. This pro- 

 bably accounts for the miserable structures they had erected 

 to serve as temporary huts. Out and out it was the humblest 

 attempt at a dwelling I have yet seen, differing as much from a 

 European's conception of a home as the eagle's nest of a few 

 sticks from the weaver-bird's elaborate structure. The hut con- 

 sisted of a few bent twigs covered over with rubbish, sticks, rank 

 weeds, grass, and perhaps a bullock-hide spread out over the top. 

 The entrance was so low, that even the little girls had to crawl 

 to get in or out ; to see a tall man crawling in was a ludicrous 

 sight, reminding one of a long-legged spider. I did not inspect 

 the interior, for though I was travel-stained, there are degrees 

 and limits also to the soiling of one's clothes. The village was 

 more or less circular, but quite unprotected ; a proof that the 

 Wahima were not living in fear of either man or wild beast. 

 Outside the kraal there were two huge mounds of cow-dung, 

 dried and caked by the sun ; these seemed to be favourite places 

 of meeting of the male population. 



The cattle these men were pasturing were magnificent ani- 

 mals, the largest I have seen. Almost every animal might have 



