62 In the Heart of Africa 



over mouths in order to hide any indiscretion. Then, after the 

 merriment had passed, the delinquents would gaze quite gravely 

 at the gramophone horn, until a suspicious twitching at the 

 corners of the mouth rendered a fresh manoeuvring of hands 

 necessary. 



The crowd continued to grow denser round the instrument, 

 for the safety of which I was beginning to become nervous, 

 when his serene highness suddenly hurled his long staff into 

 the arena, making the splinters fly, and ending the seance. 



The Sultan being also desirous of seeing the white men do 

 some shooting, an iron pot was placed on a stake and set up 

 at a distance of 150 metres. As I, as well as others of my com- 

 pany, were successful in hitting this tolerably easy mark several 

 times in succession, the plaudits from the crowd were great, and 

 innumerable hands were stretched out in congratulation. 



The Sultan, fearing that he would be beaten if he tried 

 his skill from the same point, approached within fifty paces of 

 the mark. His efforts were not exactly brilliant, yet every 

 company-captain would have been delighted with the faultless 

 way in which he made ready and the precision with which he 

 carried out all the movements ; he was like an infantry man at 

 the rifle butts. 



The Sultan made me a further present of several objects of 

 native industry. Yet the purchase of ethnographical material 

 met with obstinate opposition. However, after some persuasion, 

 Msinga gave his permission for goods to be bartered, and forth- 

 with the whole population hastened from all quarters to enrich 

 themselves by high prices for their wares. It was principally 

 through Wiese's efforts that we were enabled to get together a 

 Ruanda collection such as has never before been seen in Europe. 



At Niansa we received a visit from Father Class and Father 

 Dufays, of the mission station of the White Fathers, who came 

 along in company with Dr. Czekanowski. Long years of inti- 

 mate intercourse with the natives enabled them to give us much 

 valuable information relative to the inhabitants of Ruanda. 

 The day before they had paid us a very delicate attention in 



