A FREE FIGHT 



by, whereupon the owner sprang to his feet and closed 

 with his opponent. Such was the account given by 

 Salem, and corroborated by all the other boys who had 

 witnessed the affair from the start. Judging that the 

 punishment that I had already meted out to them was 

 not sufficient, I ordered the three of them to stand 

 stationary for three solid hours in front of my house, each 

 bearing on his head a seventy-five pound load. The old 

 chief loudly harangued those of his people who were 

 concerned in the fight, and judging by the way they 

 slunk off to the village it was evident that his speech 

 had made an effect on them. The old man was highly 

 pleased and amused to see my three shame-faced delin- 

 quents standing like statues under their respective 

 burdens. 



It was most fortunate that this was a friendly village, 

 and the affair had passed over as lightly as it did. 



That day I shot a fine buck on the flats to the north, 

 and the greatest punishment of all to Kasinbasi and Co., 

 was that they were not allowed to join the other boys 

 in the feast that night. 



The next day we moved about eighteen miles to the 

 west, at the foot of the mountains that divide the Belgian 

 Congo from the Lado Enclave. I camped on a beautiful 

 flat piece of country with fine short grass, outside the 

 village known to the natives as " Farbra " : there was the 

 customary scrub, and forest-like glades through which 

 beautiful streams ran down from the mountains. My 

 grass house was sheltered by a grand old tree with 

 enormous branches stretching out fifty feet from the 

 trunk all round. The natives were delighted to have a 

 " msungu " (white man) near the village, for they all 

 anticipated a huge feed of elephant flesh during my stay. 

 Large herds had been seen in the vicinity lately, so they 

 said, but experience teaches that natives are gifted with 

 extraordinary love for " throwing the hatchet," especially 



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