Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/555

 a health resort and for trading purposes. The Lo-Fuko valley offers at this point the most accessible route westwards to Lake Moero and the Lua-Pula river.

The Ma-Rungu are of a somewhat repulsive Negro type, with projecting jaws, flat nose, very short legs, and long trunk, and in some districts much subject to goître. In their territory Reichard has found the soko or sako, an anthropoid ape resembling the chimpanzee rather than the gorilla, as is mentioned by Livingstone, who also saw the soko in the Ma-Nyema country. These large apes, nearly 4 feet high, dwell in colonies in the forests, where they build themselves

habitations in the branches of the trees. They are dreaded more than lions by the natives, who believe that their "evil eye" is the forerunner of death.

The granite U-Guha uplands north of the Lu-Kuga emissary is inhabited by the prosperous Vua-Guha people, who are related to their Rua neighbours farther west. They are distinguished from other tribes by their lofty head-dress supported by a framework of iron wire and decked with shells, glass beads, and metal balls. They wear garments woven from the raphia fibre, to which the better clasess add aprons of monkey or leopard skins. U-Guha is one of the most industrial centres