232 A NATURALIST IN MID-AFRICA. 



sandstone and quartzites, with occasional shales, 

 continues, so far as I can see, without variation. 

 There was only one place where I thought that 

 a different rock occurred, and that was in the 

 valley of the Kagera at Latoma. 



The people at Rubata's were very much like 

 those of Ankole generally. They are very poor 

 and miserable, and most rapacious and determined 

 beggars. Some of those I saw had been muti- 

 lated ; just as used to be the case in Uganda, 

 where I have seen at Buddu a man without nose 

 or ears — a punishment inflicted by the chief for 

 gross misbehaviour. The man had been thrown 

 out as dead, and subsequently recovered ; during 

 the prevalence of an epidemic of " jiggers," he had 

 found rather a nice-looking young woman who had 

 suffered severely from them and had been simi- 

 larly thrown out to die. He had carefully washed 

 and attended to her sores, so that she recovered 

 and married him, presumably out of gratitude. He 

 seemed rather proud of his horrible appearance, 

 and was a great favourite with the French mis- 

 sionaries. Here at Rubata's there were several 

 similarly mutilated. One had the nose cut off as 

 well as an eye put out. Besides other bad habits, 

 these people smoke almost all day long, and, as 

 in Buddu, divide the day as follows : — When the 

 women smoke their first pipe; when the women 

 smoke their third pipe ; after or before that impor- 

 tant period ; and so on down to the fifth pipe. 



