250 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



enthusiastic cheers and many of the boys and girls plunged 

 into the river and saluted by beating the water with the 

 palms of their hands. 



At a small village six miles above Yakoma, where we 

 spent the night, crowds came and gazed at us in wonder, 

 but perhaps John cooking our dinner was the object of the 

 greatest curiosity. We had no difficulty in getting food in 

 this part. The people are very well off, for the country is 

 wonderfully rich, yielding iron, fish, palm oil, and plenty of 

 manioc, sweet potatoes and plantains. 



At Kassamba, another two days farther on, we had our 

 first experience of the free-and-easy manners of Congo chiefs. 

 Here the chief, without being invited, came and sat himself 

 down with us and immediately began begging for cloth ; on 

 seeing tobacco on the table he produced a pipe, and when 

 we did not take his strong hint he asked for some. He had 

 nothing to say for himself, but simply sat on, with the object, 

 I believe, of showing his people what friendly terms he was 

 on with the white man. His unpleasant familiarity was in 

 great contrast to the courtly bearing of chiefs in Nigeria. 

 Kassamba, however, mended his manners afterwards, for he 

 " dashed " us with a goat, some fish and a big jar of beer. 



We found interpreting rather a difficulty at this time, for 

 none of us knew Bangala, which is the language everywhere 

 used in the Congo, but Jose picked it up very quickly and 

 Gosling started with great pains making a vocabulary. 

 Both it and the Sungo language are easy to learn, for they 

 are not rich in words and there are no numbers over a hundred. 



The next day we left for the Voro Rapids. Kassamba 

 accompanied us in our boats with a splendid lot of polers, 



