HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



interpreter he said, " I want some meat : there are a great 

 many elephants, they have destroyed my fields and we 

 have nothing to eat." On my asking him if any white 

 men had been here lately, he replied, " not since the last 

 elephant was killed by a white man with a lot of hair on his 

 face. Ah ! that was grand ! the hairy man was old, 

 yes, very old, no teeth " ; but he was unable to give me 

 any other clue as to who the white man may have been. 

 A grass mat round his loins and an old buck-skin thrown 

 over his shoulders was all this headman wore, his head 

 shaved clean but for a tiny patch in the centre. He was 

 adorned with copper rings through his lip and ears, and 

 heavy iron and ivory bangles around the wrists and 

 biceps. On cross-examining him he said that at present 

 the elephants were not in his district ; but after the first 

 rain they would all come back and make further depre- 

 dations on his domain. I gave him a few tawdry trinkets, 

 and he arranged that some of the young men of the 

 village should go out and watch the country around and 

 bring reports of any game they saw. 



It was now midday, and I found that we had travelled 

 over fifteen miles from Wadelai. At our feet lay the 

 marshy Nile, some three miles in width, but choked with 

 grass and other growth. To the north-east a range of 

 hills stood up, running towards Nimule and forming the 

 right bank of the river, which for miles flowed in a series 

 of channels separated by wide tracts of grass. It became 

 somewhat monotonous sitting in camp, the centre of a 

 curious and interested mob of people who freely dis- 

 cussed my appearance, laughed and nudged each other 

 when I made any movement unfamiliar to them. For 

 instance, when the midday meal was ready and Monica 

 had set the table, I drew up my chair and began to eat. 

 The sight of my knife and fork caused great amusement, 

 and the mob pressed forward to witness the manipula- 

 tion of these strange things. Every time I brought the 



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