CHAPTER V. 
AT COURT IN AFRICA.—COSTUMES OF THE COURT.—-AN AF- 
RICAN HOUSEHOLD.—A FALSE ALARM, 
In the midst of the great forest, far from the sea, 
stands a village of Mbondemo. 
Before I entered it the gate had to be opened in order 
to let me in. The village was composed only of a single 
street, each end was barricaded with stout sticks or pali- 
sades, and, as there was war, the doors or gates of the vil- 
lage were finally closed, and persons approaching, if they 
could not explain their intentions, were remorselessly 
speared and killed. | 
On the ends of the sticks making the palisades were 
skulls of wild boars, of gorillas and of chimpanzees. 
At the gate I entered there was a large wooden idol, and 
close by the idol was a very large elephant’s skull. 
If I had come alone I should probably never have en- 
a 
tered the village, but I had with me one of the King’s | 
numerous sons-in-law belonging to a far town, and he 
had sent word that I was coming with him and some of 
his people. 
I had hardly entered when all sorts of wild shouts 
were heard from one end of the village to the other; the 
women ran away; the children hid in their huts; and 
