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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



and idiosyncrasies. Thus they learned 

 that I was especially fond of tea between 

 five and six o'clock in the afternoon. 

 Then they would say to themselves, "He 

 will start at such and such a time." So 

 they would arrange a resting place near 

 the road, set a table, and lay it with a 

 clean cloth. Then they would have the 

 kettle boiling at the right time, so that 

 just as I reached the top of some hill the 

 tea would be poured out and handed to 

 me in a shady arbor. 



these PEOPLE are: RELATED TO the: 



ANCIENT EGYPTIANS 



The aristocracy of the western regions 

 of Uganda, the Bahima, in their features 

 and traditions suggest a far-off affinity 

 with ancient Egypt. They must have 

 penetrated further and further south, and 

 wherever they went they were received, 

 as demi-gods by the forest negroes. The 

 actual word for demigod, "spirit," is 

 the same as the appellation of these aris- 

 tocrats (Bachwezi) at the present day. 

 They have an almost Caucasian profile, 

 but they have acquired typically negro 

 hair. The Bahima are the cause of the 

 hallucination existing fifty or sixty years 

 ago at Zanzibar, that there was a white 

 race living on the Mountains of the 

 Moon. 



It was the infusion of this Gala or 

 Hamitic blood into the races of Uganda 

 (which consisted mainly of the ordinary 

 black Negro stock grafted on to a pre- 

 ceding dwarfish race like the Congo Pyg- 

 mies) that built up dynasties and king- 

 doms which in comparison with most Ne- 

 gro states were powerful, well organized, 

 and endowed with some degree of indi- 

 genous civilization. This infusion raised 

 the peoples of Uganda, and the countries 

 of the west coast of the Victoria Nyanza 

 to a position of comfort and refinement a 

 good deal superior to the life led by the 

 naked folk to the east and north of that 

 lake, many of whom were still leading an 

 existence no higher in culture than that 

 of predatory carnivorous man in the 

 lowest Stone Age. 



The people of Uganda can recall their 

 kings of a period as far distant as the 



fifteenth century. The genealogy of the 

 Uganda sovereigns includes thirty-six 

 names (prior to the present king) ; and 

 if the greater part of the earlier names 

 are not myths, this genealogy, reckoning 

 an average fifteen years' reign to each 

 monarch, would take us back to the mid- 

 dle of the fourteenth century. 



Though the Uganda dynasty, no doubt, 

 in its origin is Hamitic and of the same 

 race from which most of the earlier in- 

 habitants of Egypt proceeded, neverthe- 

 less, as for several hundred years it has 

 married negro women of the indigenous 

 race, its modern representatives are 

 merely negroes, with larger, clearer eyes, 

 and slightly paler skins. When these 

 kingdoms on the Victoria and Albert 

 Nyanzas flourished, their utmost knowl- 

 edge of the outer world seems to have 

 been a very vague perception that there 

 was an Abyssinia, or a country to the 

 northeast, which was a powerful king- 

 dom inhabited by people of palish com- 

 plexion ; while in other directions their 

 geography was bounded by the marshes 

 of the Nile, the Congo Forest, Tangan- 

 yika, the steppes of Masailand, the cold 

 Plateau of Nandi, and the mass of Mount 

 Elgon. 



ATTEMPTS TO TRAIN A WILD ELEPHANT. 



One day a baby elephant was pre- 

 sented to me by an Uganda chief. 

 It is a sad thing to relate, but three 

 men were killed in attempting to cap- 

 ture the first elephant. I had ex- 

 pressed a wish one day for some ele- 

 phants to experiment with in domestica- 

 tion, and the natives, with their usual 

 desire to please me, were so ardent in 

 their determination to gratify my wish 

 and so determined in their pursuit of the 

 young elephant that the mother elephant 

 knocked over and killed three of them. 

 But finally they succeeded in their object, 

 capturing the calf, and to my great sur- 

 prise it trotted into camp behind one of 

 the men. 



This little creature was at the time only 

 four feet high. In two days it had be- 

 come perfectly tame, and would follow 

 a human being as readily as his own 



