492 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



explorations by following the course of the river, no matter 

 where it might lead him. Besides, they were safer on the river 

 than on the land, as they could keep beyond the range of the 

 arrows of the venomous cannibals through whose country they 

 were passing, and avoid ambushes and sudden surprises. 



As they floated down with the current, from the villages below 

 rang out the strange war-cries, " Ooh-hu-hu ! Ooh-hu-hu !" and 

 the savages decamped into the bush, leaving everything they 

 possessed in situ. This was only to lure the travelers to their 

 destruction, for had they been tempted to land and capture their 

 goats and black pigs, they would no doubt have rushed from the 

 bushes on the unwary. But they were not to be thus tempted to 

 felony and destruction, and quietly floated down past them. 



One day, while stealthily passing a large and apparently 

 wealthy village, a little child, coming down the high banks to 

 fetch water, suddenly lifting her head, saw them close to the 

 landing, and screamed out, " Mama, the Wasambye ! the Wasain- 

 bye are coming!" 



The Wasambye are a tribe with whom these people were at 

 war, and the child mistook the travelers for an attacking party 

 of their dreaded enemies. The" people who, it seemed, were 

 holding a market-, scattered immediately, the women screaming, 

 "Wasambye! Wasambye!" and the banana stalks and bushes 

 shaking violently as everybody in a panic flew into the jungle, 

 like a herd of wild buffaloes. 



They passed three or four other villages near there, but the 

 inhabitants simply responded to their attempts at intercourse by 

 protruding their heads from the bushes and shouting " Ooh-hu- 

 hu ! Ooh-hu-hu! Ooh-hu-hu!" 



Stanley relates the remarkable fact that among many of the 

 tribes in this part of Africa the rite of circumcision is practiced 

 in the same manner that it was among the ancient Israelites, and 

 apparently as a similar religious rite ; but he could not ascertain 

 how the ceremony originated. Those who performed it only 

 knew that it had always been so. The circumcised tribes, like 

 the Israelites, were "a peculiar people," having but little 



