110 A NATURALIST IN MID-AFRICA. 



children, he would be overtaken and speared on 

 the road. 



These Wahima seem on the whole to be an 

 extremely shrewd, clever people, with plenty of 

 obstinacy and a certain amount of dogged perse- 

 verance. They are very cowardly, and seem to be 

 peculiarly immoral even according to African and 

 Arab points of view. Of course they have no idea 

 of the truth, and their answers are solely dictated 

 by a desire to please. 



As an instance of minor difficulties in work, and 

 the value of native geographical testimony, I 

 received the following three opinions as to the 

 course of two rivers. 



1. The Msonje river joins the Mpango. 



2. The Msonje river joins the Yeria. 



3. It goes quite by itself to the Albert Edward 

 Nyanza. 



Of course there was no fourth alternative pos- 

 sible, or else there would probably have been a 

 fourth answer. 



The number of chiefs is not very large and they 

 appear to belong to particular families. I found 

 that the chiefs of fairly important sub-districts 

 were often boys of ten to fourteen years of age. 

 Most of these boys were on property belonging to 

 the Queen Mother, and they were usually called 

 her sons. Sometimes also a very old man may be 

 found as chief. 



These little points mark very clearly the unwar- 



