366 AFKICA SPEAKS 



We had been Kving on an exclusive chicken and egg 

 menu for a long time, so when the first opportunity 

 presented itself I bought a goat, paying its owner more 

 money than he had ever seen before — twenty francs 

 — less than eighty cents! 



Toward noon one day we passed an old man and a 

 young woman. The man was carrying a spear while 

 the woman followed behind with a heavy basket on 

 her head. After going a short distance, one of the 

 trucks stopped on account of a gasoHne pipe breaking, 

 so we spent a httle time there making repairs and 

 having lunch. While the boys were placing the cook's 

 boxes back on the truck, the graybeard and the young 

 girl came walking along. She was carrying the same 

 basket on her head, and also the man's spear, while 

 he had a small bundle wrapped in leaves, cradled in 

 his arms. As he neared us a broad grin overspread 

 his ebon face and at the same time he gently swung 

 his burden to and fro. Stepping up I lifted the leaves, 

 to find beneath a newborn babe. The mother had 

 given it birth since we had passed them a short time 

 before and was now continuing the interrupted journey, 

 while its father, or her father as the case may be, carried 

 the infant. 



We had noticed for several days the abundance of 

 children; they were everywhere, of all sizes and both 

 sexes. There is surely no race suicide in the French 

 Congo and the question naturally arises of what will 

 develop in regard to this population in the years to 

 come. The white man prevents tribal warfare and his 

 doctors lessen the death rate. If this condition con- 

 tinues for a few decades, the Dark Continent will be 

 swarming with a black horde. 



