The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-06-07
1t is the biggest i'm Victoria Nyanza
 and is bossed by am American

over with grease, and such as had hair 1 had so covered it with oil that the smell
 was pronounced.
 Wakerewe Villages.
 The villages are composed of rude tuts made of cane and poles and covered with grass. They have doors at tha front so low that one has to stoop to go
 in. Over some of the doors are iron
 bells, which are hung there so that if an
 evil spirit comes in 1t will bump its head
 against the bell and warn the owners
 and perhaps be scared away. The peo-
 pie are superstitious. They believe in devils of all kinds and witch doctors They have little idols before which they pray and a part of their religion Is a worship of snakes. There are many poisonous reptiles here. but the natives will not kill them nor drive them out of their huts; and they are said to con-
 sider death by the bite of snake sure passport to heaven.
 Ukerewe Island has dense forests, which are just filled with monkeys. They chattered at us out of the branches as we walked through the woods, scamper- ing away as we pointed our guns at them There are also many hippopotami | here. They live all along the shores and
  They are sometimes trapped in pitfalls | and then harpooned by the natives. MT. Seifert tells me that there is herd or | Il elephants in this part of the island, | but that the German government mas made it a penalty to shoot them ana they are not molested.
 During our stay here the steamer has 1 taken on A dozen cords or so of Ukerewe wood. This was brought on board by 1 rang of black Latives who carried 1t on l their heads from the place where they were chopping the trees. The distance 's. | I iudee. at least mile from the landing Poth men and women are engaged 'n the work, and their wages are about 4 o, ! per cents a day. They are all under ,hts hmerican who is just one foreigner 1 oroong 25.O0O blacks, and notwithstand. | ing this, bosses them all
 The Buyuma Islands.
 wish I could show you some or these islands about which I have been
 trayeling for the last few months. Kayirondo gulf Is separated from the lake by a fringe of islands, and 1t was at these we stopped on our way out l from Port Florence. In going to Ripon | Falls and the source Of the Nile we passed through the Buvuma Islands and we spent some time in the Sesse Archipelago as we sailed southwark | into German East Africa. The largest | eroup of islands in Lake Victoria is | the Sesse, which belong to Great Brit ain. and next to them are the Buvuma | Islands, also British, which lie at the north of the lake, making series of 1 big stepping stones almost across | Napoleon gulf.
 The Buvuma Islands are beautiful. | At distance they might be taken TOT | some of the Thousand Islands of the 1 St. Lawrence. Some of them are coy- cred with grass, and others are high 1 and well wooded. Buvuma Island, which is the chief of the group. is shaped 1 like an octopus. It has a center about | two tn ousand feet high, and from this | great green tentacles branch out into | the sea. It is not unlike the Island of l Celebes in shape. This island is fertile, | and 1t has a large population. It's people live in matched huts, each of which ends in steeple bound around | with grass The sh ores are covered l with banana plantations, and the l houses shine like silver out of the | green. The Buvuma natives are much l like the Basogas, who live on the main l land about the source of the Nile. not I far away They dress in bark cloth. | and the women often wear only fringes | of banana leaves, which are tied to a | cord about the waist. The men buy their wives with cattle, and every man | has as many wives as he can anord. When a man dies his wives become l the poperty of his sons. The only ex- ception is the real mother, who is never | given to her own son. but often to ar uncle or the fathers brother.
 The women are little more than the