AXD THE COXGO POREST 



201 



In tliis vilhige, however, we olitained one or two species of okapi skin 

 -which had been cut up by the natives. 



One of these Dwarf settlements merits a few words of description. \ on 

 must imagine that you have ])eneti-ated an extren)ely dense l)it of forest, 

 and in a hollow, near a tiickling stream, under such a dense canopy of 



163. IX THE CONGO FOREST 



foliage that the presence of the sky above is only indicated by twinkling 

 stars of blue through the interstices of the leaves, where the great tree- 

 trunks are covered with green moss or lichen due to the damp, there 

 are tiny habitations made of leaves and sticks which it is difficult to 

 believe at first are the dwellings of human beings. These are placed 

 usually in a little clearing between a clump of great tree-trunks. They 



