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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Nyanza to the Upper Congo, Kamerun, 

 Zanzibar, and Zululand. This great Bantu 

 family is noted for the beauty and relative 

 simplicity of their languages. The Bantu 

 languages form a most interesting sub- 

 ject of study, because they are obviously 

 of quite recent origin and constitute a re- 

 freshing contrast to the linguistic condi- 

 tions existing in all that vast Sudan and 

 in western Guinea, where nearly every 

 tribe speaks a language differing radically 

 from that of the next tribe. Once you 

 cross the Bantu border to the south you 

 come to a family of languages almost as 

 closely interrelated in its members as is 

 the Aryan group of Eurasia, so that 

 when once you master one Bantu lan- 

 guage it is relatively easy to pass on to 

 another. This gives us extraordinary 

 facilities for entering into direct com- 

 munication with the people of the south- 

 ern third of Africa. 



the: largest known volcano in the; 



WORLD 



The crater of Mount Elgon, on whose 

 slopes it is probable the President will 

 also do some hunting, is about 14,200 

 feet above sealevel. I believe I am 

 right in saying that Elgon is the largest 

 known volcano in the world. The super- 

 ficies of the whole mass of Elgon is about 

 equal to the area of Switzerland. It is 

 almost as though Switzerland were con- 

 centrated into a single huge mountain 

 mass. The crater is perhaps 30 miles 

 across. 



Many caves are found around the cir- 

 cumference of Mount Elgon at an aver- 

 age altitude of 8,000 feet and at the bot- 

 tom of abrupt terraces. I think the caves 

 were formed originally by the action of 

 water, but undoubtedly they have been 

 enlarged by the work of man. They 

 have been inhabited for a period of un- 

 known length. In fact, there are vague 

 indications that Elgon was a great trad- 

 ing resort in quite ancient times; that 

 between Hamites and negroes Egyptian 

 trade goods coming from the Land of 

 Punt* reached Mount Elgon, where they 

 were exchanged for the products of the 

 *Somaliland. 



forest negroes. We have also evidence 

 that the blue beads that have been dug up 

 there, and which are sought for as great 

 rareties, are of ancient Egyptian origin. 



These waterfalls are a very common 

 feature along the terraces of Elgon. They 

 form splendid cascades, and in nearly 

 every case they mask a cave. I am in- 

 clined to think that the cave represents 

 the original channel of a stream which 

 has been blocked by lava rock and the 

 stream eventually flowed over its closed 

 canon. 



Passing under a 200-foot cascade of 

 water we find the entrance to a dry, com- 

 fortable cavern. Thus the entrance to 

 the cave-man's home is completely 

 masked from the outside by a stream of 

 water. In several cases the entrance to 

 the cave has been defended by a rude 

 stockade, with huge stones piled on top 

 of branching boughs. There are remains 

 in France and other parts of Europe 

 showing that the cave-men of prehistoric 

 times adopted almost the same method 

 of restricting and defending the access 

 to their caverns. One fascinating aspect 

 of the study of backward parts of Africa 

 is like mounting Mr Wells' time machine 

 and traveling backward to vanished 

 phases of European life in the stone age. 

 Paleolithic man still lived on in Tasmania 

 till 1 87 1. In negro Africa you can find 

 existing nearly all the stages of culture 

 through which our own ancestors passed 

 in Britain and in other parts of Europe. 



Giant bamboos are found on the East 

 African elevated plateaus above 7,000 

 feet, growing in some places to about 100 

 feet in height. 



A native beau of this region dresses 

 his hair into little balls with red clay and 

 mutton fat and decorates his ears with 

 white flakes cut from the large Achatina 

 snail shells. 



the; remarkable kingdom of uganda 



The people of Uganda present a very 

 striking contrast after having traveled 

 five hundred miles through a land of ab- 

 solute nudity and finally reach a people 

 who make it an offense to go about in- 

 sufficiently clothed. 



