Through the Semliki Valley 201 



semble the men as regards stature and complexion. Occasionally 

 they wear thin copper rings drawn through their lips, and cowrie- 

 shell pendants as ornaments. Their apparel is yet more primitive 

 than that of their lords and masters, their apron often dwindling 

 down to a barely perceptible triangle. 



The children, who are quite naked, are carried on their 

 mothers' hips, supported at times by a very thin cord running 

 down from their mothers' shoulders, which occasionally cuts 

 deeply into the infants' bodies and causes many a poor little 

 creature to wail miserably. 



The Wambutti have no fixed abode. Their place of residence 

 changes according to their whim or hunting conditions, but is 

 never to be found outside the forest boundary. The huts are 

 carefully built of liane, covered over with foliage, which is 

 scarcely proof against beating rain. 



Those who do not live by pillage, theft and hunting — 

 favourite pursuits of the entire race — spend their existence in and 

 about these huts, occupying themselves, as mentioned, with smith- 

 craft, carving, etc. 



At Muera's village the two biologists parted from us, as they 

 were anxious to continue their task of collecting along the road, 

 the small birds, butterflies, etc., being more frequently met with 

 there than in the forest itself. Later on in our march through 

 the mysterious forest, which lasted some weeks, we noticed that 

 the feathered tribe was more in evidence on the borders of the 

 roads and the clearings than in the villages. The observations 

 and collections of the botanist, too, were facilitated by the clear 

 survey which the open country afforded. 



Wiese, Veriter and I, with the dwarfs, pitched a camp right 

 in the interior of the forest, far from all human traffic, and for 

 eight days roamed through the jungles. Without the dwarfs' 

 escort this would not have been practicable, as the only possible 

 means of communication lay in the numerous elephant tracks, 

 which would quickly have bewildered any white man. 



As we ascertained by inquiry, we were already within the 



zone of the okapi. The reader is, doubtless, no longer un- 

 2 A 



