HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



delighted, but the fish did not agree with them, for that 

 evening nearly all those who had partaken were suffering 

 from sore stomachs, and looked very down in the 

 world. 



At that village the people greeted me next morning 

 before the stars had disappeared, with shouts of " Pembe, 

 Pembe" (ivory), and pointed to the south. Numbers of 

 them were armed with spears, etc., and led off down the 

 path in the direction that they had indicated. Not 

 feeling well at the time I sent Matakanga with them 

 and instructed him to return with a piece of stick 

 measuring the exact width of the largest elephant's 

 tracks he could see. About midday he reached camp 

 torn and bleeding, in a great state of excitement, with 

 a piece of stick measuring just under nineteen inches. 

 Hurriedly I set out on foot accompanied by six boys and 

 followed up the tracks, but not until after noon the next 

 day did I have the satisfaction of lowering a thirty- 

 pounder; the ivory was short and thick but excellent 

 in quality. I spent thirteen rounds before dropping him. 

 The rest of the journey back to Wadelai was uneventful 

 but for the increased depth of the water and its expanse 

 in the flooded country. 



Salem had lately been suffering from severe internal 

 pains, and was in a bad state when we got to Wadelai ; 

 I always told him that the fish was responsible. Here 

 on my arrival at the post-house on the Uganda bank 

 of the Nile I received a letter from my friend, written 

 at Nimule some three weeks before, asking me to meet 

 him in the neighbourhood of Faradje in the Belgian 

 Congo. I tried to get in touch with him on the telephone 

 at the post-house, by ringing up Nimule, but was unable 

 to get a reply : presumably the wire had been pulled 

 down by a giraffe or an elephant. The natives referred 

 to the telephone and telegraph indiscriminately as the 

 " tin glove." 



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