EXPLORATION OF THE KIBALI 341 



amount of work in the post, such as sweeping, carrpng 

 water, or cutting up rubber. For this work she receives 

 one franc per month, or its equivalent in cloth, &c. 



Every Saturday it is a usual sight to see strings of women 

 from the neighbouring villages coming into the post, carrying- 

 bunches of plantains or small baskets of sweet potatoes, to be 

 sold to the soldiers and other permanent hands. 



Then when Sunday comes there are often large gatherings 

 of chiefs, all dressed in their best clothes, who have come in 

 to pay their respects and to talk with the Chef de Poste. 

 It is certainly an interesting sight to watch the chiefs and 

 their headmen sitting in front of the Official's house, talking 

 and laughing with the white man to their hearts' content, 

 sometimes, perhaps, airing a little grievance which is soon 

 satisfactorily settled, at others telling him the reason, may be, 

 of some custom existing in their tribe. Then a glass of claret 

 is given to every chief, after which they take their departure. 



The Bangala language, which is spoken by all the chiefs, 

 and in many cases by the natives too, has to be spoken by 

 every white man who enters the service of the Congo State. 

 The effect of this has been far-reaching in establishing a 

 better understanding between the native and the European, 

 besides giving to the officials an intimate knowledge of what 

 is going on in the country, and making the oppression of 

 natives at the hands of their chiefs a much more difficult 

 thing than it was formerly. It is, in the first place, to this 

 system of knowing the language that the Belgians owe the 

 strides they have made within the last ten years in opening 

 up the country. 



The obstacles that have had to be overcome were very 



