igo PYGMIES AND PAPUANS 



August was one that I shall never forget : it had been 

 raining steadily for some days and the river was fairly 

 full, but about sunset on the i8th the rain really began 

 to come down solidly, as it does in the Tropics. About 

 midnight a terrific thunderstorm began, which continued 

 with almost incessant thunder and lightning until dawn, 

 but long before this the river had risen many feet and 

 was already threatening the village. As soon as the 

 waters began to rise the natives appeared at the edge of 

 the river with blazing torches, while canoes were baled out 

 and brought nearer to the shore. When the flood, rising 

 visibly by that time, reached the lowest house, a most 

 extraordinary Bedlam broke loose and it sounded as if all 

 the people in the village were being drowned. The men 

 all shouted at once, the women and children screamed 

 and the dogs whined and howled. By the light of the 

 flashes of lightning we could see them scurrying hither 

 and thither, bundling all their belongings into the canoes 

 and trying to save the roofs and matting walls of their 

 huts by throwing them among the branches of the trees 

 at the back of the village. In a very short time all the 

 houses were swamped and the people were in their 

 canoes, about twenty in all, moored to the branches of 

 the trees along the edge of the jungle, where they kept 

 up an unceasing turmoil until daylight. 



In the meantime our own position was not very 

 secure. The river was swirling down at ten or twelve 

 miles an hour and bringing with it huge tree-trunks, 

 which carried away our fleet of canoes and threatened 

 to destroy our protecting palisade. If that had gone 

 nothing could have prevented our houses from falling 



