238 FROM THE NTGER TO THE NILE 



The villages are well ordered and consist of two rows of 

 huts ; these are thatched to the ground and the roofs are 

 high and pointed. 



For protection from raids they scatter their plantations 

 of maize and maniocs among the long grass, using the many 

 knolls that are dotted over the country as look-out posts ; 

 these are 15 ft. in height, probably old ant-hills. 



The Bou-Bous are a large race and inhabit the country 

 to the north of Mobbai ; many of their chiefs are powerful, 

 and some refuse to have anything to do with the white man. 

 The Sultan of Bangassu still raids them for slaves, and 

 cannibalism exists in the interior of their country. 



We were now on the fringe of the Congo forest region and 

 looked forward to its exploration. After the long time spent 

 collecting in the bush country, we had enjoyed the more 

 difficult search after the wilder life of the hills, and now the 

 vast, mysterious forest appealed to our imagination, pro- 

 mising to open up fresh fields for our enterprise. 



Accordingly on December 9 we set out for the forest from 

 Banzyville, both going towards the south-west but taking 

 different paths. For five hours 1 marched through a more 

 or less enclosed and hilly country, the path often crossing 

 little streams where the wood grows in greater luxuriance. 

 The region is well populated with Sungo villages, some of 

 which are large. I stopped for the night at Buaddo, a fair- 

 sized Leti village. It consists of two lines of conical huts, 

 fifty yards apart, and down the centre of the way at intervals 

 there are oblong sun-shelters, open all round, for sitting in 

 during the day. The seats are low trestles in the form of 

 stretchers, with tops of split bamboos. 



