102 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



majority remained, restless and uneasy, like a nervous 

 dog who does not know whether to fly or to attack. 

 Mr Talbot glanced round to see what was so affecting 

 them, and it was evident that our appearance worried 

 him ; however, the dance was resumed, its chief theme 

 being for one man to chase another away from the 

 circle, which he did with bent body and crafty leopard- 

 like tread, till the victim turned and pursued his 

 aggressor back again. This remarkable movement 

 was performed with so much intensity that an eerie 

 feeling of dread crept over us. The game might at 

 any moment cease to be a game, and one swift spring 

 and a blow with the g-reat club would end all for the 

 man who had his back to his foe. It was no new 

 sensation, that terror of the pounce and chase, and 

 in a flash memory had carried me back to old hide- 

 and-seek days, and the sloping bank of grass dotted 

 with great clumps of rhododendron where we used 

 to play. How long the abstraction lasted I do not 

 know, but when it lifted an uncomfortable feeling 

 was borne in on me that the Banana were less intent 

 upon their dance than they were upon us. 



A large open space was the scene of the gathering, 

 and close by was a big tree, under which we stood. 

 Behind us was a tiny pond, to which the natives some- 

 times repaired to suck its water through a long rush 

 the height of a stick. Behind that again lay the river, 

 concealed from view by thin bush. Instinctively I 

 glanced round to assure myself there was nothing 

 between us and it. There was nothing, but every now 

 and again a man who went to drink did not return. 

 It was absurd to indulge suspicions ; there was no 

 reason to fear hostility, and indeed every sign denoted 



