A GERMAN POST 197 



and compared well with the Uganda police. Each 

 man has his own house and garden, wives, and boys 

 to attend to him. Their wages are absurdly high, 

 according to our standard ; a private receives twenty, 

 a corporal forty, and a sergeant fifty rupees a month. 

 It might be expected that desertions would be 

 numerous from the Congo forces to the higher pay 

 across the border, but this does not appear to be so ; 

 perhaps they are deterred by the rumours of the 

 ' kiboko,' which is said to play an even more im- 

 portant part in German posts than it does in the 

 Congo. 



In making their post at Kissegnies the Germans 

 wisely selected one of the few places on Lake Kivu 

 where the shore is shallow — a very important thing 

 in a place where most of the communications are by 

 water. Almost everywhere round the lake the shores 

 are rocky, and the water is immensely deep within 

 a few yards of the bank, but at Kissegnies there is 

 a beautiful beach of yellow sand, on which the long 

 canoes can be pulled up with ease. The shallow 

 water might sometimes be seen crowded with native 

 fishermen, who angle in a way that we saw In no 

 other place. They wade out until they are about 

 waist-deep in the water, carrying two fishing-rods of 

 bamboo, which they use in very much the same sort 

 of way that we do ; sometimes they use a grass- 

 hopper or some other insect as bait, sometimes a 

 lump of meat. 



Both the Germans and the Belgians were glad 



