50 
In the Heart of Africa 
goats. The tiinuzimu of the Bakora is the chameleon; the 
Wasinga s sacred object is a particular species of ox with a dirty- 
brown patterned hide; that of the Batwa, in the Bugoie forests, 
is the man-ape, and so on. 
The high degree of civilisation existing among the Watussi 
is assisted by climatic conditions. These are nearly ideal for 
an equatorial country. Intense heat is excluded by virtue of an 
average altitude of some i,6oo metres. The temperature pre¬ 
vailing generally is something like that of a warm summer day 
in Germany. It is refreshingly cool in the mornings and even¬ 
ings, which is conducive to healthy sleep. As the malaria-carry¬ 
ing mosquito {Anopheles) does not exist in this district, such a 
thing as an outbreak of fever is of rare occurrence. It is true 
that isolated malaria parasites are found in the blood of Ruanda 
natives, but these have doubtless been imported from less healthy 
regions where the Anopheles is an acknowledged pest. According 
to Raven’s researches, cases of malaria in Ruanda are insignifi¬ 
cantly few in proportion to the density of the population. The 
tsetse-fly, so destructive to man and beast, is non-existent, and 
this fact has, so far, protected the territory from the ravaging 
sleeping-sickness which, as is well known, is disseminated by the 
tsetse-fly {glossina palpalis). 
The Watussi make the best uses of their very favourable 
climatic conditions. The country possesses a fabulous amount of 
wealth in its herds, to the breeding of which this pastoral people 
are particularly devoted. Day after day immense herds of broad¬ 
horned oxen and small stock of all kinds may be seen grazing 
on the mountain slopes, for whom provision is made by continu¬ 
ally burning away the dried-up grass. The young grass which 
shoots up from these burnt-out tracts forms a special delicacy. 
Stock-raising and the productivity of the country are greatly 
aided by the extraordinary number of small watercourses, which 
never run dry, even in the dry season. 
From what I have written it will easily be seen that the greater 
part of Ruanda is eminently adapted for colonisation by white 
men, and that cattle-raising on a large scale, and also agricul- 
