Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-04-27
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
ABOUT KENyA

ABOUT kEk4A
Kenya Colony, in Africa, which is
! none other than erstwhile British
| East Africa, appears in London dis
patches because immigrants from
| India WHO settled there wish to re-
tain their full British citizenship
| rights in their new homeland.
Though seldom heard from, Ken
va is one of the most fascinating
regions of the globe. geographically
speaking" says a bulletin from the
| Washington, d. c.. headquarters of
the National Geographic Society.
"At it's southeast corner is Lake
Victoria, second largest fresh-water
lake in the world. Along its shores
dwell a people whose nudity is a
symbol of their modesty, and whose
men are as beautifully formed speci-
| mems of their sex as are the Mar
quesas women of theirs.
Africa's Highest Mountain
"Just across Kenya's southern
border is Kilimanjaro. highest moun-
tain in Africa, and near its center is
Kenya peak, also volcanic, which
o'ertops Mount Whitney by some
1900 feet.
Cutting across the colony is the
famous Rift Valley here from 90 to
10 miles wide. and generally several
thousand feet below the p%lateau's
general level.
However, it is as a zoo and a
%luxuriant botanical garden that Ken
va makes its chief appeal to the
nature-loving visitor. Perhaps it's
most amazing single spectacle is the
famingo colony on the northern
shores of Lake Harrington. The
banks arc dazzling white with the
birds guano, their nests are mounds
of mud spread like mole-hills on a
fiat plaip.
F1amingoes Color Landscape
THE adult bird has a rose-pink
neck and body, the beak is purple
and scarlet, the wing feathers r
crimson. For a mile or SO before
reaches their haunt he can hear
these birds-the splash and the
swish of a million or SO becomes tu-
multuous rs he approaches.
"~Hippopotami swim in the shallow
waters of this bay, antelope and gnu,
infest its shores. Its port, Kisumu is
the terminus of the Uganda steam
ship line, which lands rubber, ivory
and hides here for railway shipment
to the coast.
From the time one sees a belle
of Mombasa, gully clad, with circles
painted On her cheeks, and her
hands dyed purple. until he reaches
the shores of Victoria, where dwell
the Apollo-like Kayirondo men, he is
amazed by the variety of human
tribes. Travel, there, says one en-
thusiast, is like walking through
miles of living statuary.'
Wire Jewelry Popular
Though unclothed the Kavirondos
are much bedecked. every circum-
ference the human affords, from
chest and stomach to ankle and
wrist, is wire-wrapped. The women
add n other decoration, q tail-like
tuft suspended from their waistline
in the rear.
THE fierce Nasal tribesmen go in
for wire jewelry, too. but their spec
ialty is the earring. Soon after a
child is born its ear is pierced with
a silver and the aperture is enlarged
from year to year until a huge disc |
may be inserted therein.
THE Nasal tribesmen have less
pleasant customs. They place their |
dead outside their settlements for
the .hyenas to devour, hence that
animal is sacred. They bleed cattle
to drink hot blood: they kill game
with poisoned arrows; they drug |
their dogs before the chase to make
them more ~ferocious.
Cease Raids TO Farm
Sparse population of a region
where the altitude offsets equatorial !
heat and the fertility invites farm
ing is due largely to these warrior |
Nasal whose former livelihood was
gained principally by raids on their
neighbors. Many of them have set
tied down to tilling the soil.
Another native tribe, the Andora-
Dos, formerly lived largely upon flesh
OF the colobus monkey. The skin has
a market value because of its silky
black and white hair and the tail
with an immense bushy plume at the
end. They, too, turned to the soil as
the British imposed restrictions on
monkey killing to save the animals
from extinction.
"kenya has a native population of
about 100000 entirely negligible SO
Tar as the present political problem
is concerned. The issue is between
about 5000 Europeans and six times |
that many Asiatics, Arabs and In
dams. The claim of the latter to
British citizenship necessarily raises |
a question about the interests of the
European ~colonists who have been |
pioneers in developing the country's |
resources"