DOWN THE LOGONE RIVEE 



X 



107 



leather, shaped like a football pad ; also small 

 bags of reed or rush, which had belonged to women 

 now dead. Each woman owns one, and if she were 

 to part with it she would 

 die, for her life is woven 

 into its meshes. 



It was lucky that the 

 people were so well dis- 

 posed to us, for Kukaua 

 tried their nerve to the 

 uttermost. When clean- 

 ing the guns he moved 

 the catch from safety, 

 and, not having troubled 

 to unload, in due course 

 forgot, and suddenly let 

 it off by accident. By 

 the mercy of Providence 

 the boys had just come 

 out of my tent, where 



they had been making the bed, and the shot went 

 harmlessly through its canvas ; but the accident might 

 have been very serious and have brought a swarm of 

 armed Banana upon us. From that moment Kukaua 

 was degraded from his status of gun-boy and became 

 a mere labourer. Aji succeeded him in that high 

 office, and, feeling that more was now expected of 

 him, he became a Mahommedan. 



Our canoeing days were very delightful, and as we 

 paddled down stream we saw innumerable birds and 

 beasts. The sandbanks were a living mass of birds — 

 egrets, plovers, waders, crowned-cranes, jabirus, peli- 

 cans of many kinds, some with lovely flesh - pink 



Woman's Bag. 



