354 AFRICA SPEAKS 



admiring subjects immediately surrounded them, to 

 ask about their sensations while riding in the white 

 man's "thunder wagon." 



After presenting the chiefs and the rest of the tribes- 

 men with gifts of salt, cloth, and trinkets, and trading 

 them out of a few bows and arrows, we paid a brief 

 visit to our friends at the Mission, then proceeded to 

 Faradje, where we received the first mail since leaving 

 Nairobi. At this small post no one was able to change 

 my large English notes, so we had to make a ninety- 

 mile round trip to Aba for that purpose. Aba is on 

 the main road to Rejaf and proved to be a trading 

 center and white settlement of some importance due 

 to its proximity to the rich Nile country of the loAver 

 Sudan and the fact that it benefits by regular steamer 

 communications on the mighty river. 



There are a great many chimpanzees in this district. 

 The young Belgian officer who invited us to his house 

 for refreshments had one of these apes for a pet and 

 spent most of the evening teUing us what a wonderfully 

 smart animal it was. 



Upon returning to Faradje, I was told it would be 

 impossible to continue westward on the main road to 

 Dungu, our informant saying it would be necessary 

 to make a short detour. After travehng about one 

 hundred fifty miles, during which we crossed tln^ee 

 large rivers, the N'zoro, the Kibah, and the Yebu, 

 which were swiftly running muddy torrents due to 

 the heavy rains, we commenced to wonder exactly 

 what was meant by "a short detour." We negotiated 

 these crossings with considerable difficulty, between 

 rivers plowing for miles through soft mud, but even- 

 tually reached the remote village of Shifowando. 



