THEOUGH FRENCH UBANGI 



57 



of two oval rings attached to opposite ends of a short 

 piece of string, which was itself weighted in the 

 centre with a piece of metal. The owner said it was 

 part of a bridle, which it obviously was not, and re- 

 fused to sell it ; but Mrs Talbot suggested that it 

 might be an instrument of torture for the ears, as 

 she had seen something similar among other tribes. 

 Amongst our purchases was a 

 small loom used for weaving 

 cloth, but this we did not see 

 used. 



We walked back to the boat 

 across the hills, and on our way 

 a mud-coloured snake with a cut- 

 away tail and dark diamond mark- 

 ings struck at one of the boys, 

 who deftly caught it in a cleft 

 stick — fortunately, for it was of a 

 kind to deal death in ten minutes. 



We had left all in peace, but to peace we did not 

 return, for washerman and cook had fallen out and 

 were engaged in a fight, which we interrupted. 

 Neither of the combatants wished to bring their case 

 into court, but Mr Talbot insisted on sitting on it 

 judicially. Iron, milk, knife, and blow were words 

 that came very frequently into the story, which, how- 

 ever, remained unintelligible to me. Whether Mr 

 Talbot understood the rio-hts of it or not I do not 

 know, but in summing up he refrained from reference 

 to the case in point, and merely gave utterance to 

 biblical maxims about not striking back, and then 

 ended with the assertion that he was master, and 

 reserved to himself all decisions as to right or wrong. 



Loom. 



