The Waha and Barundi 



although one of the most dehghtful features of Burundi, 

 hide the satyr's face of Africa behind the smihng mask, 

 for the Barundi have the disgusting superstition that their 

 dead must be placed in a running stream, under a waterfall 

 for preference, to allow their spirits to be carried away on 

 its waters. Thus, almost all the rivers are polluted in this 

 way and the utmost care has to be exercised in obtaining 

 and boiling the water for drinking purposes. We continually 

 saw skulls and bones lying about and always close to the 

 river beds. We were unable to account for this, until one 

 day when out collecting butterflies I came on two gruesome 

 bundles tied up in rotting mats and bark-cloth, with parts of 

 arms and legs poking out, placed beneath a pretty waterfall. 

 I then made inquiries and elicited the foregoing facts. I 

 lighted on another of these gruesome objects in worse case 

 farther along our way and the combination upset us for 

 many days ; it was difficult for imaginative white people 

 to disassociate the washing-water or hot tea (although we 

 drank coffee continuously after this), from the thought of 

 what might have been reposing in it. 



On nearing Kitega we crossed over the watershed from 

 the Tanganyika region into that of the Victoria-Nyanza 

 Basin. Across the same treeless wind-swept downs and 

 ridges but characterised by no typical mountain range to 

 mark the divide. 



At Kitega, which the Belgians have made their centre 

 for the administration of this portion of late German East 

 Africa, we were received with the utmost kindness (in the 

 absence of the Resident), by Mr. Gemaert-Willmar and were 

 given a just-completed ofhce building in which to make our 

 quarters. The village — or town if you may call it such — 



29 



