Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/117

 Mfumbiro peaks, and of other distant summits, named by Spelce the " Mountains of the Moon." On the Earagwé uplands the air is so cool that the natives of Zanzibar fancy that they must be in the neighbourhood of England, the only cold country known to them by repute. In some of the depressions lakes have been formed, amongst others the lovely Raveru (4,300 feet), which to Spcke and Grant seemed beautiful enough to merit the title of the African "Windermere." But although encircled by grassy slopes rising 1,500 or 1,600 feet above its waters, it is not an Alpine lake, its depth nowhere exceeding 45 or 46 feet. The Urigi, another basin near the southern frontier, is merely a large pond, discharging its overflow northwards to the Tunguré. According to tlie natives the whole valley was, even in recent times, still under water. Boats were able to ascend from Nyanza to Urigi, and the little dome- shaped hillocks dotted over the plain were then rocky islets. These hills consist of argillaceous sandstones of a bright red colour, interspersed with large masses of white quartz. The decomposition of the sandstones, the prevailing formation throughout the whole region, supplies the fertile red soil on which such beautiful crops are raised. At the head of a shady valley in the north-west spring the six thermal streams of M'tagata, which have a temperature of 130° Fahr. They are resorted to by all the surrounding populations, who have much faith in their curative properties.

Except in some districts, such as that of the capital, near "Windermere, Karagwé is rather thinly peopled. The majority of the inhabitants belong to the "Wa-Nyambo stock, and speak the Zongora, a Bantu dialect. But here also the chief power has been usurped by the Wa-Huma, whose daughters are not permitted to contract alliances with Negroes of lower castes. The lives of the "Wa-Huma are held to be sacred; hence they are absolutely exempt from capital punishment, all crimes, murder not excepted, being punished by fines alone. We know that in many parts of Africa the women are systematically fattened, to such an extent as to be no longer able to stand up. This excessive obesity is regarded as a supreme virtue, doubtless because it proves the wealth of people who can thus afford to nourish their wives and exempt them from manual labour. For an analogous reason many Karagwé chiefs allow their nails to grow, like the Annamese mandarins, to show that they have no need of their hands, slaves working and toiling for them. On certain occasions human sacrifices are also still practised. At the death of the sovereign a "mortuary chapel" is built over the body, into which are thrown five girls and fifty cows, destined to accompany their master on his long journey to spirit-land.

Warahanje, capital of Karagwé, is pleasantly situated, over 4,300 feet above the sea, on a grassy terrace overlooking Lake Windermere, and commanding a view of a steep hill, on which stands the royal necropolis. Farther on winds the valley of the Alexandra Nile, a vast forest of papyrus bounded on the distant horizon by the triple-crested Mfumbiro. At the eastern foot of an inter'ening cone the Arab traders have established the station of Kufro (Kafuro), where woven goods, salt, and European wares are bartered for ivory, coffee, and other native produce. In this district elephants have already begun to disappear, although a huge species of