152 A NATURALIST' IN MID-AFRICA. 



lower lip is placed at this ( u a" in figure) and 

 the fingers over the holes, and they thus extract 

 an agreeable little tune. 



They have the curious posture dance, very 

 common in West Africa, which consists of wriggling 

 the body and arms while keeping time to the music 

 with the feet. 



The spears are of two kinds, one with a long 

 and heavy blade, while that of the other is quite 

 short. I only saw bows and arrows in the plains, 

 and these were of a very w T eak and feeble descrip- 

 tion. They use calabashes and also rough earthen- 

 ware. 



In the low grounds of the Semliki valley there 

 is plenty of maize, millet and sweet potatoes, 

 as well as numerous patches of bananas. A large 

 proportion of the mountain valleys are covered 

 with plantations of bananas and the bark-cloth 

 fig, but the main food seems to be Arum and beans 

 of various kinds, which may be seen even at 7,000 

 feet. 



They are certainly industrious so far as one can 

 judge, but it is very difficult to get to know much 

 about them. This is on account of their extreme 

 fear of strangers. They had been raided about 

 three or four times in the five months preceding 

 my visit by Kabbarega, Karakwanzi and Kasa- 

 gama. 



The effect of this constant marauding has been 

 to develop a natural instinct in the race to fly to 



