A CHRISTMAS DINNER 2?i 



by night, and it is a pretty sight after dark to see a 

 score or more of brilliant lights gliding over the 

 lake. 



Christmas fell during our stay at Uvira, and 

 * Noel ' was celebrated by a banquet, in which con- 

 forts 7nddicaux played a prominent part. In a party 

 of eight Europeans there were representatives of 

 six different nationalities, and towards the small 

 hours of Christmas morning, when the * Schnick ' 

 had made a few journeys round the table, the con- 

 versation was a polyglot mixture of at least eight 

 different languages. It is to be recorded with sorrow 

 that that dreadful engine, the gramophone, had 

 penetrated even to the farthest end of Tanganyika. 

 But (to be honest) either because the vulgar tunes 

 of Brussels are less offensive than those of London, 

 or because one's senses had become blunted by the 

 climate — or it may have been an effect of the ' Schnick ' 

 — the wheezy ' music ' was not quite so objection- 

 able as it generally is ; and the singing by the Swiss 

 member of the party of the ' Ranz des vaches ' was 

 the best thing that had happened for many long 

 months. 



After we had waited for a week or more, some 

 battered relics of canoes were fished up from the 

 bottom of the lake ; we crammed lemons into the 

 holes to stop the leaks, and left Uvira and our 

 hospitable hosts. Generally our crew punted the 

 canoes with long poles, and we followed every curve 

 of the shore, but when we came to a very deep bay 



