CHAP TEE IX. 



THE WAWAMBA. 



rjlHE Wawamba people seem to begin about the 

 ■*• Meronji river on the west side of Ruwenzori. 

 From this point they extend along the Semliki 

 valley as far north, at any rate, as a point opposite 

 Kasagama's, and not as far as the point where 

 Captain Lugard crossed the Semliki. 



They are certainly a very mixed race. Those 

 who inhabit the hills are not very easily distin- 

 guished from the Wakondja, but those on the 

 lower slopes and in the Semliki valley are different, 

 and to my mind more closely related to the 

 Wanyuema than any other tribe. Their language 

 was at first quite incomprehensible to any one 

 in my caravan, but one or two men who knew 

 that of the Wanyeuma, soon got to know enough 

 to converse pretty easily with them. The manner 

 in which some natives have the power of picking 

 up a language is most astonishing. Probably it is 

 for the same reason that children learn so quickly, 

 viz., fin absence of distracting ideas about other 



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