“When we took possession of the Kenya province we had to fight our way in. As soon as we had subdued the people, we made them work at making roads as a penalty for their insurrection. We connected all the villages by roadways and gave each town so much to take care of. As a result we now have in that province alone several hundred miles of good wagon roads each ten feet wide. We have also made it the law that all roads shall be treated in one respect like a market place. This means that no native can assault another while walking upon them and that all feuds must be buried when travelling over the highways. Many of these roads connect villages which were formerly at war with each other, and the result of the law is that they have become peaceful and the citizens can now pass safely from one town to another. They are really changing their natures and are going through a process of travel-education. As I have already said, five years ago they never left home. Now thousands of them go over our thoroughfares down to the seacoast, and we have something like eighteen hundred natives of Kenya here at Mombasa.” The British have found the Masai such good cattlemen that they believe they can train them into good grooms for horses. Another feature of British dealings with the natives is the establishment of trading posts in the native reserves. Here the Africans are encouraged to set up little stores of their own. It is hoped that this will develop wants and help civilize the more backward groups, like the Masai, until they become as enterprising as the Bagandas and Kavirondos. CHAPTER XXXVI WHERE THE MEN GO NAKED AND THE WOMEN WEAR TAILS Unfurl your fans and take out your kerchiefs to hide your blushes. We are about to have a stroll among the Kavirondo, who inhabit the eastern shores of Lake Victoria on the western edge of Kenya Colony. These people are all more or less naked, and some of the sights we dare not describe. We have our cameras with us, but our Postmaster General would not allow some of our films to go through the mails, and no newspaper would publish certain pictures we take. We are in the heart of the continent, on the wide Gulf of Kavirondo on the eastern shore of the second greatest fresh-water lake of the world. That island-studded sea in front of us is Lake Victoria; and over there at the northwest, less than a week’s march on foot and less than two days by the small steamers which ply on the lake, is Napoleon Gulf, out of which flows that great river, the Nile. With the glass one may see the hippopotami swimming near the shores of Kavirondo Bay, while behind us are plains covered with pastures and spotted with droves of cattle, antelope, and gnu, grazing not far from the queerly thatched huts of the stark-naked natives.