198 LAKE KIVU 



enough, as may be supposed, when strangers came 

 to relieve the monotony of their existence, and we 

 arranored a sort of entente cordiale dinner of the 

 three nationalities at Kissegnies, in which a long- 

 treasured bottle of Munich beer played a prominent 

 part. Calculations of the probable cost of trans- 

 porting that bottle of beer from Munich to the 

 north of Lake Kivu ended in pity for the over- 

 burdened German taxpayer, whose health we drank 

 with acclamation. 



There is a mission station of the White Fathers 

 in the Ruanda Mountains a few miles from Kisseg- 

 nies, but we had no opportunity of visiting it. The 

 Fathers distil a very excellent liqueur from the juice 

 of the banana, and they make very fair cigars from 

 the tobacco for which Ruanda is famous. In con- 

 trast with the Congo stations, where such people 

 are not encouraged to stay, there are settled near 

 Kissegnies a number of native traders — Suahilis, 

 Zanzibaris, Arabs, and one Greek. So far as I could 

 find out, their trade consists chiefly in an illicit busi- 

 ness in ivory and rubber, which is brought out from 

 the Congo in large quantities, and finds its way by 

 devious routes down to the coast. Nobody seems 

 to mind very much, or to attempt to put a stop to 

 the smuggling. During our stay near Kissegnies it 

 was known to the Germans and the Belgians that 

 several canoe-loads — about two tons — of rubber had 

 arrived one night in a trader's storehouse from the 

 Congo side of the frontier. 



