200 IN BRIGHTEST AFRICA 
At the end of this lazy steamer trip we came to 
* Kabalo from which occasionally a train sets out upon 
the journey to Albertville on Lake Tanganyika. A 
boat on the lake took us from Albertville to Usumbura 
from which a seven days’ safari brought us to the 
lower end of Lake Kivu. To get from the bottom 
of Lake Kivu to the upper end, we had to make ar- 
rangements for a special trip of the little government 
boat. This we did with the Belgian Administrator 
at Usumbura. Here, as elsewhere, my experience 
with the administrative officers in these outposts 
of the Belgian Congo was one of courtesy and effec- 
tiveness. Halfway up the lake we stopped at the 
White Friars’ Mission on the west bank and heard 
the story of a gorilla recently killed in the vicinity. 
This gorilla had come down into a banana grove not 
far from the Mission. The chief of the village which 
owned the grove told his followers to go out and 
chase the beast away, but not to go armed, for the 
beast, in the superstition of the neighbourhood, had 
some sacred attributes. The chief’s subjects accord- 
ingly went forth with sticks to drive out the gorilla, 
but he refused to be driven and resented the disturb- 
ance enough to catch one of his tormentors and kul 
him. After this the chief thought the gorilla less 
sacred and ordered his subjects to take their spears 
with them and kill the animal. 
I was not entirely clear about the veracity of this 
tale nor whether it confirmed my theory about the 
gorilla or the more usual “ferocious” theory. If the 
natives were willing to go out to chase the gorilla 
