HARTEBEESTE AND WATER-BUCK 



but hurried whispering and an occasional tittering could 

 be heard on all sides. I ordered all my boys to come out 

 of the grass immediately, which they did, and I told 

 them that the dance was not to be repeated again that 

 day. They slunk off to the fires which had just been lit. 

 For ten minutes no one dared even to whisper, after that 

 every one was as merry as before, but the dance was not 

 resumed. The villagers had flown at the first sign of 

 trouble, tearing down the hill at a great pace, shrieking 

 and laughing, to their huts. 



Later on in the evening I was rather surprised to 

 hear the clear notes of a bugle ring out. It sounded quite 

 close to our camp. At the time I speak of there was still 

 some doubt among the hunters and traders as to whether 

 the Belgians were still to be found patrolling the Lado. 

 In these circumstances I was fully aware that some 

 unpleasantness might ensue, knowing well that their 

 Askaris are recruited from such races as the Manyema 

 cannibals, and are allowed to pillage and plunder, rape 

 and murder as much as they like. However, in this case 

 I learnt from some natives who passed through the 

 camp, homeward bound from a hunting expedition, that 

 the people at a village further back had a bugle on which 

 thev were wont to give a few calls every night, just to let 

 every one know that they were all right I suppose. I 

 recognized one or two calls as similar to those that we 

 had on the gramophone. 



Next morning, on going through my stores, I found 

 that one case of provisions had been left behind, on the 

 Uganda side of the Nile, so taking Monica, the tent boy, 

 and Kadali, the gunbearer, with the two guns, I set off 

 for the river-side, and for a hand of cloth the canoe man 

 agreed to take me over : a " hand " of cloth is measured 

 from the ball of the elbow to the finger tips ; in some cases 

 traders and others measure from the elbow to the knuckles 

 only. On arrival at the Wadelai camp the case was 



73 



