The language at this point deviated from that spoken by the people of Toro. Besides employing a few entirely different words, the Banyankole soften down the s, j, and k, and until the ear has become accustomed to these changes one might imagine it a distinct dialect. A rather welcome sight was the _men_ working on the roads and digging in the banana plantations, in place of the peasant _women_ who do all the rough manual work in Toro. Ankole is a large ranch country. A gentle range of mountains extending toward the east shores of the Albert Edward is the only interruption to an extensive area of rolling land of which the whole kingdom is composed. It is inhabited by two separate races, the Bairu, who are the original people of the country, and the Bahima, the ruling race. The latter are an extremely superior order of people; generally speaking, they are of lighter complexion, and their features, in the sharply defined nose and chin and the thin lips, are in marked contrast to the other tribes of inland Africa. Another peculiar characteristic is that the women live in entire seclusion and keep the face and head covered, as in Mahommedan lands. It is generally believed that they migrated from Abyssinia or Arabia; probably disease among their cattle drove them from their native land, and they travelled south until they reached the pasture land of Ankole. At first sight the country looks scarcely inhabited—there are no fences or patches of cultivation which elsewhere denote villages. The population, however, is considerable, but the people are a tribe of herdsmen, who build unpretentious little grass huts among the soft, waving grass, and live almost exclusively on their cattle, which graze together in enormous herds. The oxen are splendid creatures, with immense horns; there is not so much hump with them as with the cattle of Uganda. The unvaried diet of milk and butter has produced a people of abnormal dimensions. The King, although only about 19 years of age, weighed 20 stone. He could not walk, but had to be carried about in a gigantic kind of clothes-basket. One little chief waddled into our tent to salute us who stood about three feet high and was nearly twice as large in circumference. The higher a person is in social position the larger is the amount of milk he must daily get down in order that he may reach a worthy correspondence in weight. On one occasion, while walking along the road, we heard screaming and shouting coming from a hut, and, on going in to find out the cause, saw a young princess with her eyes bandaged and face dripping with milk; an old hag was standing over her with a cane, which she brought sharply down across her shoulders when the unfortunate girl declared she could take in no more milk. Being remonstrated with, the old woman explained how the young princess was only going through the customary preparation for her bridal days.