346 AFRICA SPEAKS 



victim he quite frankly answered that some of the pa- 

 tients lived, but that most of them died, and added 

 that such things as sickness and snake bites were an 

 affair of God — that if God wanted people to Hve he 

 would cure them; if not, they would die. 



Now the district chief, Asanga, and his subchiefs, 

 Akusu, Wavango, and Aimba, came to me and said 

 that they were tired of life in the clearing and wanted 

 to go back to the hunting trails. It had rained so 

 much that our work was not yet completed, so by prom- 

 ising them presents I got their pledge to stay a few 

 more days. It is hard to talk to them, for no one speaks 

 their language but themselves. My interpreter spoke to 

 them in a mixture of Ifi and Momvu which they under- 

 stand. Some writer has claimed that they speak the 

 same language as the Momvu, but in this clearing there 

 were both Ifi and Momvu, and the Momvu insist that 

 their language and that of the Ifi are entirely difi'erent. 



However, we got along fairly well, and while I had 

 them collected together I asked questions about their 

 ways of hving. 



Their whole fife is founded on a system which has 

 no money or other medium of exchange, and this 

 affects their social customs as well as all other matters. 

 The old chief assured me that they do not want money, 

 that they have no use for it, for they are happy now 

 and want to stay as they are. The Momvu and other 

 tribes Hving on the forest edge handle a few francs, 

 and also use sheep and goats as a medium of exchange. 

 The pygmies have no stock nor property of any kind, 

 save their spears, bows, arrows, knives, drums, pipes, 

 cooking pots, and a few skins. No man can store 

 wealth, for there is none. 



