276 IX DARKEST AFRICA. 



absolutely nothing in Stanley's account of these curious people to 

 warrant such a surmise. These Wambutti, as they are called, 

 dwell in the region of the Ituri river. They live mostly on game, 

 which they are very expert in catching. They vary in stature from 

 three feet six inches to four feet and a-half. A full-2;rown adult 

 weighs about ninety pounds. Their weapons are bows and 

 arrows. They smear their arrows with poison made from a 

 species of arum, and with them they are able to kill even 

 elephants. They are very ingenious in laying snares for elephants, 

 civets, and ichneumons. They collect honey and other produce, 

 and carry on a rude commerce with neighbouring tribes. Their 

 dwellings are ' low structures, of the shape of an oval figure cut 

 lengthways ; the doors are from two feet to three feet high, placed 

 at the ends," and are arranged in a rough circle. The queen of 

 the Pigmies is described as wearing iron ornaments, and as having 

 a quiet, modest demeanour, and being altogether a very pleasing 

 little creature. 



Mr. Stanley is not a naturalist, and he did not allow his 

 attention to be diverted from his main business by making collec- 

 tions, but he has given much useful information on points of 

 natural history and geography. We learn that he met with 

 numerous members of the quadriiinaiia order, such as chimpanzee, 

 baboon, lemur. " Now and then troops of monkeys bounded 

 with prodigious leaps through the branches, others swaying by 

 long tails a hundred feet above our heads, and with marvellous 

 agility hurling their tiny bodies through the air across yawning 

 chasms, and catching an opposite branch, resting for an instant 

 before burying themselves out of sight in the leafy depths." 

 Then there were buffaloes, antelopes, gazelles, zebras, wild cats, 

 boars, squirrels, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, elephants, rats^ mice, 

 coneys, etc. 



Reptiles were represented by tortoise, water snakes, whip 

 snakes, pythons, puff adders, and horned snakes. It is remark- 

 able that there were so few casualties from snakes, only one or 

 two of the men having been injured during the whole of the 

 journeyings. 



Of Amjjhibia, only frogs are mentioned, which in many places 

 made the night discordant with their croaking. Fishes are only 



