HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



Trading is not all honey when pursued in the Belgian 

 Congo, as is shown in E. D. Morel's " Future of the 

 Congo " (Smith, Elder), as follows : "... A merchant 

 purchasing ivory from the natives is required to hand 

 over one-half of his purchase to the Administration. 

 Thus if he buys two tusks (with European goods upon 

 which he has paid ten per cent, import duty to the 

 Administration), weighing forty pounds each, he must 

 hand over one of them to the Administration. The other 

 is stamped and he is then free to take it out of the 

 country." 



The tusks, which were rather long and thin, weighed 

 twenty-nine and thirty-one and a half pounds respectively. 



That night the village was lit up with numbers of 

 fires around which dark forms sat and literally gorged. 

 My camp was also a scene of great festivity, half a dozen 

 fires burnt merrily away and around them sat the boys, 

 each with his allotted portion, chunks of which he toasted 

 on a stick or cooked on the hot embers ; all ate until 

 their eyelids drooped ! Talking ceased, camp fires 

 flickered and dwindled to mere heaps of ashes. In the 

 east the clouds gradually hid from view the glittering 

 heavenly bodies, and it looked as though we should 

 shortly have some rain. Suddenly a stiff breeze came up 

 from the marsh, and so did the mosquitoes. After seeing 

 the mule made comfortable for the night in his little 

 improvised stable I went in to bed. I seemed to have 

 slept only a few minutes when I was awakened by a 

 terrific crash of thunder, rain was falling in a deluge, 

 terrible violet tongues of flame seemed to strike the ground 

 at our very feet. The storm played incessantly around 

 and over us. The ghastly flashes seemed to snap in the 

 drums of my ears and every moment I expected to be 

 flung to the ground. I could see as though a thousand 

 searchlights played over the country around. It was 

 bright, yes ! even more so than the midday sun, and 



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