DOWN THE NILE; THE GIANT ELAND 511 



some slivers of wood and boiled our tea; and our two 

 meals, breakfast and dinner, were taken at a table in the 

 open, under a tree. 



We had with us seven black soldiers of the Belgian 

 native troops, under a corporal; they came from every 

 quarter of the Congo, but several of them could speak 

 Swahili, the lingua franca of middle Africa, and so Kermit 

 could talk freely with them. These black soldiers be- 



The return to Redjaf, Belgian a.skari in the rear 

 From a photograph by Kermil Roosevelt 



haved excellently, and the attitude, both toward them and 

 toward us, of the natives in the various villages we came 

 across was totally incompatible with any theory that these 

 natives had suffered from any maltreatment; they behaved 

 just like the natives in British territory. There had to be 

 the usual parleys with the chiefs of the villages to obtain 

 food for the soldiers (we carried the posho for our own 

 men), and ample payment was given for what was brought 

 in; and in the only two cases where the natives thought 

 themselves aggrieved by the soldiers, they at once brought 

 the matter before us. One soldier had taken a big gourd 



