On the 24th, after winding in and out of several valleys, between various pastoral ranges, which were black from recent fires, as the grass everywhere was white with age and drought, we entered the valley of Mavona, to descend gradually amid a thin forest of acacia sprinkled with euphorbia, milkweed, thistles, and tall aloetic plants. The settlement of Mavona produced abundantly quite a variety of garden produce, such as peas, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, manioc, cucumbers, banigalls, bananas, and plantain. The next day, continuing down the Mavona valley for four and a half hours, we suddenly came in sight of the Alexandra valley, and found that the long line of hills which winded S.S.E. was on the Karagwé side of the river. At this season the features of the land on both sides are very forbidding, and unrelieved by any patch of cultivation, and rendered more so by the fires, which have transformed every valley and hill into wastes of black ashes and desolateness. During the 26th and 27th we were ferried across the river in four double sets of most uncouth canoes, and then the Ankori escort, the Waganda converts, were dismissed, having satisfied Antari, and each of our friends with such gifts as won their professions of gratitude. The Alexandra Nile at this place was about 125 yards wide, and an average depth of nine feet, flowing three knots per hour in the centre. CHAPTER XXXIII. THE TRIBES OF THE GRASS-LAND. The Wahuma: the exact opposite of the Dwarfs: their descendants--Tribes nearly allied to the true negro type--Tribes of the Nilotic basin--The Herdsmen--The traditions of Unyoro--My experiences of the Wahuma gained while at Kavalli--View of the surrounding country from Kavalli camp--Chiefs Kavalli, Katto, and Gavira unbosom their wrongs to me--Old Ruguji’s reminiscences--The pasture-land lying between Lake Albert and the forest--The cattle in the district round Kavalli: their milk-yield--Three cases referring to cattle which I am called upon to adjudicate--Household duties of the women--Dress among the Wahuma--Old Egyptian and Ethiopian characteristics preserved among the tribes of the grass-land--Customs, habits, and religion of the tribes--Poor Gaddo suspected of conspiracy against his chief, Kavalli: his death--Diet of the Wahuma--The climate of the region of the grass-land. [Sidenote: 1889. July. The Wahuma] The Wahuma are the most interesting people, next to the Pigmies in all Central Africa. Some philological _nidderings_ have classed them under the generic name Bantu, and every traveller ambitious of being comprehended among the scientific, adds his testimony and influence to perpetuate this most unscientific term. _Bantu_ is an Inner African word of which the translation is Men. We are therefore asked seriously to accept it as a solemn fact, upon scientific authority, that the Wahuma, like the Pigmies, are men.