THE NIGER TO THE NILE—ALEXANDER. 397 
attacked by fever. It was at Niangara that the expedition received 
its last great blow. Gosling was struck down with blackwater, whose 
deadly attack he laid himself at the mercy of by his refusal, almost 
to the last, to abandon his labors. 
Leaving Niangara with a heavy heart I next ascended the Kibali, 
which has never before been navigated. On the south bank there 
is a semicircle of igneous hills, about 500 feet high. In this range 
there are seams of magnetic ore, and I observed there were many trees 
on the watershed that had been struck by hghtning. The Momvu, 
who inhabit the hills, told me that when there were blacksmith’s 
villages on their tops many people every year were killed by lght- 
ning. At the foot of this range a hut, during a terrific storm, was 
set on fire, and two of my men were knocked down and stunned; and 
a few days later a heavy thunderstorm broke from the southeast, 
with hailstones ds big as beans. 
Along this river there are many formidable rapids. Among these 
the Andimanza, which stretch for a distance of 2 miles, present a scene 
of wild grandeur. The river here swells out to a width of 400 yards, 
and is broken up by small rock-bound islands which cause tremendous 
chutes. 
The banks of the Kibali are sparsely populated. In the hills south 
of the river are the Momvu and Mombuttu tribes, still unconquered. 
They build their frail huts of mud on the great slabs of rock, fre- 
quently using the caverns themselves as dwelling places and shelters 
in time of war, and wherever there is enough earth they grow their 
maize among the rocks. In these hills I was fortunate enough to 
obtain from the natives two ancient stone implements. The tribes 
are ignorant of their origin and believe they are bolts of lightning 
which strike trees and kill men. The Azandi call them “ mangu 
n’gamba,” or “ axes of the lightning.” They say that these axes may 
often be discovered by turning up the soil immediately a tree has 
been struck by lightning; a little later it would be no good, because 
the stone would have gone back to the clouds in order to strike again. 
Many natives attribute a mysterious power to them, believing their 
discovery announces a friend’s approaching death. 
We next ascended the Ira or Bakwa, which up to now has been 
considered the main stream of the Kibali, but this is not correct. 
The N’soro is the true main stream. The Ira is navigable for 12 
miles, after which there are many bad rapids. 
The whole way we came upon numbers of elephants, which, so 
unaccustomed to man, allowed us to approach quite close, and it was 
a pretty sight to see them playing on the banks and bathing in the 
water. 
From here I penetrated by road into the country of the hostile 
Mombuttu south of the Ira. Here the scenery is grand. A mass of 
