The Eastern Congo 



owners of countless thousands of cattle, and the be-all and 

 end-all of their existence can be summed up in the one 

 word — cattle. They will eat it (any part raw or cooked, 

 including the hide), sleep it, sing it, steal it. 



In spite of the beef they eat and the milk they drink 

 the Barundi natives, unlike the Wahutu of the Ruanda, 

 through some physical disability or degeneracy have no 

 stamina and are quite unable to do any hard manual labour. 

 They were tried by the Germans on railway construction 

 with disastrous results. Many died and the rest ran away, 

 taking with them all the telegraph wire they could lay their 

 hands on, to make into anklets and bangles. 



So much for the Barundi who composed our new caravan ; 

 so many smelly devils with low types of countenance and 

 nasty ways, not a square yard of cloth between them but 

 each carrying a long spear. 



The first day out from Kihofi took us up the bare face 

 of the great Nyakasu escarpment which had threatened 

 our path for so long. Next to the Virunga volcanoes and 

 the Ruwenzori range this proved to be the stiffest ascent 

 we were to encounter on our travels. It brought us up 

 on to a high grassy plateau where the air was so intensely 

 invigorating that fatigue was forgotten and movement became 

 a positive delight. The view was so extensive and of such 

 a beautiful nature — fold on fold of grassy downs and ridges 

 in a sea of blue haze — that I for one felt that I stood on top 

 of the world and gazed over its edge. From this small 

 plateau we made a gradual descent along its northern exten- 

 sion into the Nkoma Mountains where we camped for the 

 night by one of the numberless sparkUng bums that intersect 

 this wonderful country in all directions. These streams, 



28 



