In the Volcanic Region 133 



their sovereign will and pleasure. This view obtained credence 

 more and more, and took such firm root in their minds at last that 

 I feared that they offered up sacrifices of atonement to their 

 deities for weeks after, so that they might be freed from the 

 spell. This mad idea subsequently caused Czekanowski a great 

 many difficulties when a special sociological investigation was 

 undertaken. 



Before closing these remarks on the Batwa I would like to 

 mention a few of their names, which sound curious when trans- 

 lated. These are some of the meanings attached to them as 

 Barthelemy told me: "Gunsu," for instance, is the name given to 

 a species of jackal ; " Sebulese " means foster-father ; " Semisse," 

 f ather-of-the-liane ; " Luhango " means that he-is-born-f rom-the- 

 river; " Bigirimana," he-is-with-the-deity ; " Bitahungo " — a son 

 of Gunsu — means I-do-not-flee ; and " Semabi " — another of 

 Gunsu's sons — his-f ather-is-dirt ! 



As already mentioned, amongst the larger mammals of the 

 Bugoie forest besides the elephants there are buffaloes, the western 

 variety with small horns lying back, which Schubotz also came 

 across in the Rugege forest south of Lake Kiwu. Only Raven 

 was successful in killing a specimen. Although I came within a 

 few paces of them at least ten times, without however seeing a 

 hair of them, I only once managed to get in a shot. In spite of 

 a lengthy pursuit, I had to give up the chase. All further 

 attempts failed, although we scoured the neighbourhood from six 

 to eight hours daily for a fortnight. These excursions, at the 

 heels of the nimble Batwa guides, over summits of some 2,500 

 metres in height, over slippery ground and through the difficult 

 underwood, were about the most exhausting of our efforts during 

 the whole expedition. Twice I had to take in a hole in my belt, 

 which, as a rule, was fairly tight. 



The Batwa knew the favourite haunts of the beasts, or gener- 

 ally found them very quickly, and watching scouts informed each 

 other loudly through the forest of the buffaloes' exact location, 

 without in the least appearing to disturb them. A favourite way 

 that the Batwa have of capturing these animals is to trap them. 



