Wambuba Cannibals 



obtained several skins of that rare and beautiful Golden 

 Monkey the CercopitJicciis kaiidti* 



As we made our way down into the valley I added yet 

 another specimen to my collection; this time it was a large 

 genet, the Genctia victoria; (another discovery of Sir H. H. 

 Johnston) which was brought after me by a breathless runner 

 from one of the villages near by, having been caught that 

 morning in a trap ; another native who followed me had an 

 okapi skin belt he wished to dispose of. The Semliki natives 

 appear to be great trappers for they were always bringing 

 me trapped animals, especially the black and white Colobus 

 monkey which seems to be more easily snared than others. 

 The trap used in most cases is a small hutch-like enclosure 

 with a falling trap door, which the animal sets off itself when 

 grasping the bait within. 



The trapping propensity of these natives was answerable 

 for a very nasty experience that occurred to me a short while 

 before when out collecting. On this .occasion I was quite 

 alone and seeing a valuable butterfly which I chased along a 

 narrow track I fell with a crash into a hidden game pit. 

 Fortunately for me the pit was not staked at the bottom as 

 some of them are, or I should have been impaled. The sen- 

 sation when seeing the ground breaking up about one, as one 

 goes down clutching at the thin grass covering, is to be classed 

 with nightmares. This pit-fall with the inside of which I 

 made such a painful acquaintance was eight feet deep, six 



* Belgians have reported to me the existence of a pure white monkey in 

 such widely separated districts as Lake Kivu and Lake Leopold II ; this is 

 possibly the Wliite Mangabey {Cercocebus jamrachi) which was first discovered 

 near Lake Mweru. A photograph shown me of two dead white monkeys and 

 one live young one, from Lake Leopold II, rather confirms this as they looked 

 like mangabeys ; their heads were black and the rest of the body white, with 

 ver>' long tails. 



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