66 After Big Game in Central Africa 



object of not encumbering during the day the place 

 which we occupy, and to keep the flies, which are 

 attracted by the meat, at a distance. There is not 

 the least danger in leaving the meat outside during 

 the day, vultures rarely daring to touch it when men 

 are in camp and carnivora being hidden in their lairs. 



More than once it has happened that upon noise- 

 lessly returning to camp during the excessive heat 

 of the day I have found the sentries, of whom there 

 were always two or three, fast asleep, with twenty 

 racks loaded with meat at their side. But at 

 Niarugwe Camp we had not only the animals to 

 fear : we had to beware also of Mafsitis : so we always 

 left on guard at least six men armed with Martini 

 rifles. In case of alarm, they had only to close the 

 stockade " door." As bullets could leave the en- 

 closure, but clubs and assagais could not enter, 

 nothing was to be feared inside. The " door," of 

 which I have just spoken, is very simple and a 

 perfect protection. The camp enclosure is broken 

 by an opening, at each side of which two posts are 

 driven into the ground. A thick branch of a 

 tree, provided with thorns, as long and as thick as 

 the little finger, is then cut. It is dragged to the 

 entrance, and the trunk is pulled violently from the 

 inside between the two posts and fastened in such a 

 way that the thorns are piled up at the entry, making 

 it the most impregnable part of the fortification. 



Two hundred yards from the edge of our part of 

 the forest flows the Kapoche, where we obtain drink- 

 ing water. The river is much swollen at this time 



