BOBANDANA 199 



After spending a few days on the north shore of 

 the lake, we crossed over to the north-west side, 

 where the Congo State has a post at Bobandana. 

 The lower slopes of the mountains, which descend 

 steeply into the lake on the west side, are uncul- 

 tivated, and covered with thick grass and bush for 

 a few hundred feet. Above this there is a very 

 dense population, and an enormous amount of culti- 

 vation ; banana shambas stretch for miles and miles 

 along the hill-sides, and there are numerous fields of 

 beans and mealies. The natives are fine, well-set- 

 up people of a very independent character, according 

 to the reports of the Belgians, who have as yet very 

 little authority over them. Almost all of them have 

 the unsightly habit of filing their teeth to sharp 

 points, which is generally supposed to be a sign of 

 cannibalism. There is no doubt that cannibalism is 

 still exceedingly common in those regions, but there 

 are few things about which it is more difficult to get 

 direct information from the natives themselves, unless 

 it is by actual personal experience. Luckily for our- 

 selves, both Carruthers and I are of a lean habit, 

 and, made even more so by attacks of fever, we 

 offered no temptation to even the least fastidious 

 anthropophagist. 



Bobandana is well perched upon a hill a few 

 hundred feet above the lake, and it well deserves its 

 other name — Kilima-Mungu — the hill of the Deity — 

 by which it is commonly known among the natives. 

 Looking north, beyond the head of the lake, we saw 



