1 88 A VISIT TO THE MONBUTTU. 



fishing, in hunting the hippopotamus and crocodile, and, to a 

 very small extent, in agriculture. Of course there was no trace 

 of cattle ; neither were dogs to be seen. As the inhabitants 

 had retired, leaving us their empty huts, it was impossible to 

 learn anything further about them or to get any information 

 about the country. Our zoological gains were also small, 

 being confined to some handsome spiders and a graceful prickly 

 mole. 



The elevation of the ground on the other side of the Nedada 

 somewhat changed the aspect of the country, and though the 

 steppe continued for some time, the appearance of bog iron 

 proved that we were on the ascent. As soon as we reached 

 the Zinwe brook, and descended to its " gallery " wood, we saw 

 harbingers of another vegetation in the pretty fronds of the 

 Raphia palm. The steppe shrank in proportion as the brooks 

 and threads of water became more numerous, and the vegeta- 

 tion developed an astounding luxuriance. As far as the Numa 

 rivulet, it had been confined to the bottom-lands, but from 

 that rivulet onwards another feature made its appearance. The 

 whole of this region must have been formerly cultivated, to 

 judge from abandoned banana plantations and manioc grown 

 up as high as trees. When the villages were deserted, the 

 fields ran wild, and became covered with a multitude of plants, 

 which grew up vigorously in the loosened soil, and filled up all 

 the intervals, so that one has now the rare pleasure of march- 

 ing along a narrow path between uninterrupted walls of vege- 

 tation, in which cultivated plants rival in luxuriance the proper 

 children of the woods. In the midst of this mass of trees and 

 plants, small clearings were formed, full of huts and sheds, and 

 here groups of women were following their household occupa- 

 tions, generally surrounded by numerous children, in which the 

 Monbuttu seem to be particularly rich. Three stones placed 

 upright formed the hearth ; a big-bellied pot bubbled over the 

 fire, but what it contained — whether the fatty larvse of beetles 

 or monkey flesh — we were not able to learn. Large numbers 

 of extraordinarily small fowls, mostly white, paraded round 

 the huts in the banana and manioc plantations, and here and 

 there a liver-coloured dog of the small Zande breed yelped ; 

 on all sides the song of birds resounded : an idyll in the land of 



