THE WAWAMBA. 149 



things. My small boy "Tommy' learnt every 

 language in every country through which we 

 went, sufficiently to ask questions, in four or live 

 days' time (viz., Kikuyu, Kiganda, KiAnkole, 

 Kitoru, Kikondja, Kiwamba, Kikaragwe, Kinyoro, 

 and Manganja, not to speak of English and my 

 own idea of Suahili). I have only heard of one 

 European who has anything approaching this 

 facility. He is a missionary, who preached a 

 sermon in Mombasa three days after landing, to 

 which the people listened. 



The language of the Wawamba has quite a 

 different sound to the Victoria plateau group, 

 containing, apparently, much more guttural and 

 harsh combinations. The people are shorter and 

 more squarely and stumpily built than the Wahuma 

 or Wakondja, who are frequently tall and rather 

 graceful and athletic-looking. A few have broad 

 high foreheads and small lips. They tile their 

 teeth, which is a habit that seems frequently to 

 go with cannibalism. They dress almost always 

 in bark cloth — at least, if their clothing can be 

 called dress. The women, whom one very rarely 

 sees, seem to prefer cloth when they can obtain 

 it, but usually are dressed in a short band of bark. 



The fig producing this cloth is very widely 

 cultivated all through the Victoria region, and 

 up to 6,000 feet on Enwenzori. On one of the 

 rare occasions in which I managed to arrive un- 

 expectedly in a Wawamba valley, we heard from 



