HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



movements of my friend had aroused this fellow's curio- 

 sity, and he regarded me with his large brown and blood- 

 shot eyes for some moments. After a short conversation 

 with some of his people, he gave a grunt, that signified 

 that he wished me to listen. 



" Is the other white man } T our father ? " 



" No," I said. 



"Is he your friend ? " 



" Yes ! " I replied. 



They seemed disappointed at hearing this, and the 

 chief again had an animated conversation with his people. 



" I see you also have two fire sticks ; but we have 

 many more than that," and he pointed to one fellow in 

 the background who held an old trade gun of the early 

 days with barrel polished and a quantity of grass wrapped 

 round it. 



" Your guns are not so good as mine," I said. At 

 this they all laughed loudly and shook their heads. " See 

 here, I will show you," for I thought it would be good to 

 make an impression on the people. My cook had a small 

 piece of board that he carried to cut up the meat on when 

 making mince, etc. It was about nine inches square. 

 This I had put against a tree at a distance of some fifty 

 yards. The people stood back, and the plank that had 

 rested on a wart in the tree came down at the sound of 

 the report, with a small hole practically through the 

 centre. The people were loud in their praises of the gun, 

 and crowded round the tree to look at the bullet hole, 

 continuing to gaze at it in wonderment, for no gun of 

 theirs had the penetration of this, and I doubt whether 

 they were capable of being fired at all, or they would 

 certainly have given me an exhibition of their riflemen 

 in the hopes of outdoing my weapons. 



" There are a great number of elephants here," said the 

 headman. 



" Ah, ah ! oye, oye ! " shouted the people in a chorus. 



156 



