Evening star., 1908-01-25
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are within pistol shot Of the cars There
are fifty-odd zebras feeding on the grass
not 100 feet away. Their black and
white stripes shine in the sunlight. and
they are round. plump. and beautiful.
They raise their heads as the train goes
by and then continue their grazing.
Further on we see antelopes. some as
big as two-year-old calf. and others
the size of a goat. The little ones have
horns almost long their bodies.
There is one variety which has white
patch on its rump. This antelope looks
as though II had a baby's bib tied TO its
stubby tail or had been splashed with a
whtewash brush. Many OF the antelopes
are yellow or fawn colored: and some OF
the smaller ones are beautifully striped.
Wild Gnus and Ostriches.
Among the most curious animals to be
seen are the gnus. AS / write this there
are some galloping along with the train.
They are great beasts as big as a moose.
with the horns Of a cow and the name
and tail of a horse. They are sometimes
called wilde-beeste. they make very good
hunting.
But look. there are some ostriches. The
flock contains a dozen more birds.
which stand like Interrogation points
away off there on the plain. They turn
toward the cars as we approach and then
spread their wings and skim away at
great speed Giraffes are frequently seen.
They are more timid than the antelope.
however. and are oy no means SO brave
as the zebraS.
We see more and more wild animals as
we go onward. The whole region Is a
geological garden: and the beasts are so
protected that they are fast increasing I'm
number. All hunting here must be done
by licenses, and as l shall show later. II
costs $3.50 for the right to shoot a GER
tain number of elephants and other big
game. The only animals which one can
kill without government permission are
nordc opA he "A 10 tot
the lion or leopard and not the man will
do the killing.
Telegraph Wire as Jewelry.
One of the great troubles that the Brit
ish government had while building the
Uganda railroad was to keep the natives
from stealing the telegraph wires. The
women use such wire as jewelry. They
bind it around the legs from the ankle to
the knee. They wrap II In great coils
around their necks. and they make Ii into
round disks, which they tie to the lobes
of their ears. They steal all sorts of rail-
road bolts and nuts for personal ornamen-
tation. and brass wire and pieces OF
bronze are SO much in demand that they
will pass current as money. All the way
here / have seen natives loaded with wire
Of one kind or another. Some had little
more than the wire on them. and the
clothes of most were conspicuous by their
absence. About the only cloth worn along
the Uganda ROAD Is small pieces or cotton.
Some of the men wear breech cloths. and
| some of the women have short skirts.
Farther up the line / understand they
wear nothing. and at the terminal sta
tions both men and women go about as
| naked as when they were born.
Some Queer Jewelry.
1t is wonderful how these people mutt
| late themselves in order to be what they
consider beautiful. The ears Of many
| of the women are punched like sieves. in
| order that they may hold rings of various
kinds. At Vol saw a girl with
| corks. each about as big around as
my little finger. put through holes In the
rims of her ears. She had a great cork
in each lobe. and three above that in each
ear. There was a man beside her who
had two long sticks in his ears: and far
ther up the road / saw one who had so
stretched the lobe holes that a good
| sized tumbler could have been passed
| through them. Indeed. l have a photo
graph of a man carrying a jam pot in
his ear.
| AS write can see an ebony African
with a brass collar around his neck and
| anklets on his legs. His only other gar
ment is a strip of calico about the loins.
With him is a man with a nose ring not
| unlike that we use to keep pigs from
roofing: and further DYER is a giddy
naked dandy who has three coils of gal
vanized telephone. wire in each of his
ears. FRANK 6. CARPENTER.