HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



his face, body, and arms besmeared with ochre-like 

 pigments and grey ash, would dart out of the stamping 

 and shuffling mob of people who, like himself, were reeking 

 with perspiration that streamed down their bodies and 

 filled the air with a sickly pungent odour, his features 

 lit up by the flames of the crackling wood fires. He would 

 lunge forward as though in imaginary combat with another 

 person, perform wriggling sinuous movements with 

 shoulders heaving, the copper and iron ornaments that 

 clanked together on his limbs showing up sharply in the 

 lurid glare from the flames. Every now and then a 

 cloud of smoke hid his body from my view, showing only 

 the demoniacal and ghastly features capped by the 

 fantastic head-dress, as they appeared over the drifting 

 smoke. 



All the time this performance was in progress the 

 rows of men and women behind that formed the chorus 

 continued to sing, shout, stamp, and wriggle their 

 bodies and limbs, wag their heads, and shuffle with their 

 feet, while the whirling, shrieking figure that stood in 

 the open space some yards in front of the chorus per- 

 formed for some minutes all sorts of ridiculous comic 

 and dramatic evolutions, until with a shout he sprang 

 high in the air and dropped exhausted, lying prone on 

 the ground amid a cloud of dust for some moments. The 

 chorus still kept going, and in a few seconds another 

 wild creature sprang from the front rank and started to 

 try and outdo the performance of his predecessor. The 

 other creature had by this time retreated to the back 

 row of the solid phalanx of dancers. All round, behind 

 the dancers, I could just discern in the uncertain light 

 from the flames the tops of conical shaped grass huts 

 backed up by the outlines of the wealth of foliage which 

 showed up against the clear night sky. Even tiny 

 children took part in the ceremony. Suddenly the 

 creature that stood out from the rest uttered a loud yell, 



162 



