EAST AFRICA AND ITS BIG GAME. 
T 5 2 
entire absence of clothing, the complete costume of the 
men being a liberal coating of clay and grease, and 
a scanty belt of untanned leather which held the in¬ 
evitable knob-kerry and knife. They were mostly of 
medium size, active, and armed with small-headed 
spears of inferior workmanship, oblong hide shields, and 
short swords. Among the ladies I noticed a few who 
would have been well shaped, had they not ruined the 
contour of their arms by heavy coils of iron wire wound 
tightly round their flesh during childhood. A tiny 
petticoat, a few beads, with anklets and bracelets of 
wire, completed their visiting dress, and most were 
accompanied by some of the plumpest children we had 
hitherto had the pleasure of meeting. All appeared 
thoroughly bent on businesss and comparatively free 
from curiosity—a rather remarkable fact, as, up to our 
arrival, their part of the country had only been visited 
by three other white men. 
The whole of the eastern slopes, which extend for 
some forty miles, are, like the southern or Caga slopes, 
inhabited to about five thousand feet above the sea-level, 
and present similar banana plantations and shambas: 
but beyond this point all is dense bush and forest. Be¬ 
fore night the chief of Useri sent down a present of 
one goat and ten loads of bananas, and in return we 
promised to send up a load of fancy-coloured cloth and 
our compliments. We decided not to pay him a visit, 
as Martin assured us we should be unable to get away 
if we did before some ten loads of cloth had been handed 
over, and Martin was by no means a bad judge. He 
