THE MONBUTTUS.
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left side of Lake Albert Nyanza. After traversing regions not yet visited by the white man, it enters the domain of the Monbuttus (Mang-Battu), a country already made known by the descriptions of Schweinfurth. Monbuttu Land is a magnificent region, an "earthly paradise," abounding in an exuberant vegetation, diversified with charming park-lands and picturesque landscapes. Standing at an altitude of from 2,500 to 2,800 feet, and rising in gentle undulations to hills 300 or 400 feet high, it enjoys a temperate climate, notwithstanding its proximity to the equator. Running waters wind along the bottom lands, shaded by large
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trees with intertwined branches, while the habitations are everywhere encircled by verdant clusters of bananas and oil-palms. Although there are no towns, the population is very dense, being estimated by Schweinfurth at about one million. In other words, in a space some 4,000 square miles in extent, the number of inhabitants, nearly two hundred to the square mile, would be one-fourth greater than the average in France.
The Monbuttus differ greatly in physical appearance from their neighbours, being distinguished by almost Semitic features and often even by a perfectly