Through Ruanda to Lake Kiwu 79 



and then that a pair of fox-geese flew up from the pebbly banks. 

 The singing gradually stopped, and only the measured beat of 

 the paddles in the water broke the stillness. 



We took three days to cross the lake, resting for a short time on 

 Mugarura Island, and again at the Mhoro Falls, which drop into 

 the lake in high cascades. At length, on the igth of August, we 

 were close to Kissenji. At first we could only hazily discern its 

 outlines on account of the mist which again obscured the scene. 

 Then, after a little, the outline took shape, and grew into trim 

 houses, whose white colouring made them look pretty and cheerful 

 in the sunshine. Then further on we saw the grass roofs of a 

 long, extensive town, the eastern side of which was closed in by 

 the bamboo huts of our cantonment, and the western by the 

 station and the guard house. A street, as straight as an arrow 

 and fringed with eucalyptus trees, which ran along the bank of 

 the lake like a marine parade, connected the township with the 

 station. It was not long before we made out our lodgings, a 

 charming little house, whitewashed and with a grass roof, from 

 which my country's banner was waving a greeting to us ; it was 

 encircled by a trimly kept garden richly grown with bananas and 

 gay flowers, and had only been completed a few days earlier. 

 A "tea-house," finished in the same style, beckoned to us invit- 

 ingly from the hill. 



In honour of our arrival the whole town was gaily decorated 

 with flags, or, rather, with substitutes for flags — red, blue, and 

 white cloths, also gaudily painted Kanga (coloured stuffs much in 

 favour for wearing apparel, and therefore useful as barter goods), 

 which waved on all the houses. The entire house fronts, too, 

 were ornamented with gaudy fabrics, and gave the town a really 

 festive appearance. 



Kissenji is the north-western military post of the German East 

 African Territory. Like its Belgian neighbour, which is twenty 

 minutes' distance away by boat, it lies in the Tgrritoire conteste ; 

 that is to say, in the Belgian-German boundary territory, the 

 ultimate apportionment of which has yet to be diplomatically 

 determined. 



