HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



each boy toreador fashion, every one was trembling with 

 excitement. Suddenly with a frenzied shout Matakanga 

 leapt up in the air as the reptile came towards him, and 

 in an instant all were shouting excitedly as sticks whizzed 

 through the air. Some of them must have been aimed 

 straight, for the snake was killed. Its measurement was 

 four feet seven. The back was of a dull brownish colour 

 with black diamond-shaped marks and little white spots, 

 the belly was of a silvery hue. I flung it with my stick 

 into the bush amidst disappointed murmurs from the 

 boys. 



Resuming the march we shortly afterwards came upon 

 a group of native men engaged in breaking up about an 

 acre of land for cultivation, who regarded us with great 

 interest. A little further on we saw some huts, built like 

 haycocks, six or seven of them standing together sur- 

 rounded by a dense hedge of cactus and thorn bush. 

 The only means of entering this encampment was through 

 a small door two feet high. Some people who have 

 written about this country have stated that a thorn hedge 

 around the villages is peculiar to the Madi race ; but I 

 have seen them further in the country, around the Aba 

 district, up the Kibali and Niam-Niam. Although as we 

 passed I could not distinguish a single person through the 

 dense barricade, we heard a great deal of chatter and chil- 

 dren screaming, and the inevitable chickens were scraping 

 about under the hedge. There could be no doubt that 

 my appearance in this out-of-the-way place was causing 

 a great amount of interest, because, when we had left 

 the village behind, I happened to look back and noticed 

 that the entire population had crawled outside the 

 zareba to see that we were continuing our journey. 

 Their curiosity was natural, for a white man is not to be 

 seen hereabouts once in twelve months, and then he is 

 either a Commandant with a patrol of Askaris, or a 

 solitary trader or hunter. 



76 



