30 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



boy's description, a gorilla. In the thick foliage it 

 was impossible to get a clear view, and I could only 

 see that it was some creature of large dimensions, 

 to be so near the top of a tree like that. I therefore 

 raised my rifle to my shoulder, took steady aim, and 

 prepared to fire. I had been unsuccessful in killing 

 the wild pig, and I thought at any rate monkey would 

 be better than nothing, and it would not have been the 

 first time that we had been reduced to that. I had 

 very nearly pulled the trigger indeed, my finger was 

 actually upon it when my boy, who was still carefully 

 studying the creature up the tree, suddenly pulled my 

 arm and said, ' Don't fire it's a man 1 ' I almost 

 dropped my gun, so great was my astonishment. Could 

 it possibly be so? Yes, there he was ; I could now 

 clearly distinguish him. He had discovered us, had 

 heard my boy speak to me, and while with breathless 

 horror we stood there gazing, the little man ran along 

 the branch on which ^ve stood, and jumping from 

 tree to tree, soon disappeared. It was a Pygmy, and 

 how nearly had he paid the penalty of climbing trees ! 

 What the result would have been if I had killed him 

 I cannot say, for, as I found out afterwards, he was 

 not alone, and had he been shot the whole tribe would 

 have been down upon us, and with their deadly little 

 weapons would soon have put an end to us. But now 

 my boy was literally shaking with fear. ' We have 

 seen a Pygmy, we have seen a Pygmy ; we shall now 

 see sorrow.' It was an old idea of the Watoro that 

 the Pygmies were Bachwezi (devils), and they always 

 spoke of them with bated breath, and declared that 

 no. one ever saw one and lived to tell the story.; that 

 to see one was to die. I laughed at him and told 



