HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



what not, all of vivid hues to attract the eyes of the 

 natives. One young man who has come from a village 

 close by, clad in nothing more than a string of beads 

 with an old skin slung over his shoulders, gazes pensively 

 for about an hour at a piece of coloured cloth. Eventu- 

 ally he decided to purchase it, ties it round his loins and 

 having carefully arranged it, looks himself up and down. 

 He at once assumes a superior air to all the admirers 

 who gaze on him with envy as he proudly struts about. 

 Here is vanity in its most acute form. The raw native 

 knows a good piece of cloth at once, although he has 

 not perhaps set eyes on good or bad before. I have 

 noticed the same with boys on the mines in South 

 Africa, they invariably insist on having a real Witney 

 blanket no matter what the cost. 



The morning after our arrival we were seated at 

 breakfast, when a European hove in sight with some half- 

 dozen boys, coming up from the river side. He proved 

 to be Mr. Rogers, who, accompanied by a friend, had 

 recently reached the head of the lake, having walked 

 up from Katanga, the Star of the Congo, a distance of 

 some 1200 miles. The two men were prospectors. For 

 days at a time one, and sometimes both, had been struck 

 down with fever during the journey. Neither of them 

 used a mosquito net, which naturally made things verv 

 much worse than they would have been. The soft and 

 narrow sandy shore of Lake Tanganyika presented great 

 difficulties owing to the sand and dense vegetation which 

 came down to the water's edge, and enormous stretches 

 were covered ankle deep in the water. 



That evening Rogers had dinner with us, and during 

 the meal he astonished us by saying to his boy in English, 

 " Aaron, bring me my big spoon." It is certainly very 

 nice in some respects to have a boy who can speak 

 English, but it has its disadvantages. When two of 

 you are together chatting, it is impossible to discuss 



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