African Holiday

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In their living room, Mr. and Mrs. Harry Pearson tell their friend, the Major, that they are planning an expedition to Africa. They tell the Major that they are going to try and photograph many African rarities, including scarce animals and strange native tribes. After packing, the Pearsons travel by boat to England, where they board an Imperial Airways plane to Nairobi, in the British colony of Kenya. In Nairobi, they assemble their expedition force and head into the wild game country of the Serenageti Plains in the Tanganyika Territory. Once in the game country, the Pearsons find and shoot many different types of wild game, including lions, zebras, antelopes and cheetahs. Moving to Mwanza, the Pearsons observe the natives celebrating the retirement of the British governor. Next, the Pearsons head toward the land of the Masai, the most vicious tribe in Africa. In a Masai village, they watch three young boys go through a manhood ritual which includes the drinking of blood and the eating of raw meat. The Pearsons then travel back into the wild game country, where they find a pack of rogue elephants, one of which Mrs. Pearson shots, providing food for a native village for one year and elephant hoof wastepaper baskets for their friends in America. Next, they travel to the Mountains of the Moon, where they photograph the rarely seen top of Mt. Stanley. In this area, the Pearsons visit the "duck-billed" people, a tribe known for its practice of placing large wooden disks inside their women's lips to keep them from being taken by Arab slave merchants. The Pearsons then leave Uganda for the Belgian Congo to visit the home of the Pygmies. The Pygmies, averaging four feet in height, are considered by the Pearsons the smartest natives in Africa, and, unlike many tribes, they live in small hunting groups which barter with other tribes for their farm goods. With the help of the Pygmies, the Pearsons photograph the rare okapi, which looks like a cross of a zebra and a giraffe. The Pearsons then travel to the mysterious snake empire, where they witness a snake dance in which tribesmen are repeatedly bitten by poisonous snakes, yet suffer no ill effects. As they move to the River Nile, the Pearsons get rare photographs of hippopotamuses sunning themselves on a sand barge, and witness the aquatic fury of the Murchison Falls. Finally, the Pearsons end their African holiday in the "Land of Giant Natives," the Latukas tribe where the average height is seven feet tall. As they watch these "giants" dance as the sun sets, the Pearsons point out that their trip has taken over seven months and that they have traveled over 5,000 miles in Africa.