242 DOWN THE CONGO TO THE COAST 



The words of the chorus are ' A — a — a ' twice 

 repeated, and are accompanied by two tremendous 

 strokes with the paddles. Sometimes we saw 

 another canoe ahead of us, and a furious race would 

 ensue ; if we won, the victory was celebrated in 

 song for the rest of the day. 



At Kasongo the width of the river is hardly as 

 much as half a mile ; but it increases rapidly, and 

 at Nyangwe it is more than a mile from bank to 

 bank. In this part of its course the banks are 

 steep, and covered with a dense tangle of bushes 

 and long grass. Twenty years ago, when the country 

 was in the occupation of the Arabs, Nyangwe was 

 an enormous place with a population of about 

 100,000 people. Now the Arabs have almost 

 completely vanished, and the population is perhaps 

 a twentieth of that number ; but traces of the Arab 

 influence can be seen there and in all the villages 

 along that part of the river. The houses are square 

 mud huts, with a verandah on one or more sides, 

 and many of the people affect a sort of semi-Arab 

 costume. 



Canoes going upstream creep laboriously along 

 the banks or wherever the current is slowest ; but 

 we went royally down mid-stream when the course 

 was straight, or, as was more generally the case, 

 in the swift water under the outside bank of a 

 curve. There was always something to be on the 

 look-out for — a village in the distance, or a crocodile, 

 or a flock of geese and ducks on a sand-bank, or 



