HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



corn and beans, spreading them out thinly on grass mats 

 in the sun, others were grinding or rather pounding 

 mtama into flour. The " mill " consisted of a piece of 

 rock hollowed, into which the grain was placed, to be 

 pounded with a large stone or piece of hard wood as 

 pestle. 



A hundred yards further on I came to another small 

 settlement where all the men, together with one or two 

 women of a mature age dwelt. Around the huts several 

 children were playing with miniature bows and arrows, 

 learning how to shoot ; pariah dogs slunk about looking 

 hungrily at the pieces of meat which were toasting on 

 little sticks stuck in the ground around the fires. These 

 people give a remarkable amount of consideration to the 

 women so far as all social matters are concerned. In 

 most cases the young girls live apart from the main 

 village, or at least have their own huts. The women are 

 never beaten, and the husband rarely takes any im- 

 portant step without first consulting his " better half." 

 Except when fetching water, the women are seldom far 

 away from the huts. Practically all the cultivation is 

 carried on by the men. The women are occupied ex- 

 clusively with the household duties ; the Lures and 

 Shulis are alike in this respect. The Shuli country lies 

 to the east of the Nile, and runs from the neighbourhood 

 of the Somerset Nile towards Nimule and the Latooka 

 country. The Madi country starts around the neighbour- 

 hood of the Osso River northwards to the Bari. Com- 

 pared with the people further west I consider these 

 folk are not over-endowed with a love for work or 

 cultivation. Chickens, potatoes, mtama and beans form 

 their staple diet. Like most tribes in the Congo, they 

 catch buck and most other game by digging a pit and 

 placing a net over it, on the top of which they spread 

 grass. The unwary buck comes along and steps into the 

 trap, the horns and legs becoming entangled in the net 



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