Okapi Hunting 



and inclined to get on the nerves ; moreover, the old chief 

 Moera reckoned, and quite rightly, that we had brought 

 trouble to his village, so he was as fed up with us as we were 

 with him — ^we were irritable and so was he ! A fruitful 

 cause of irritation (to my wife at any rate) was the ever- 

 lasting chattering and shouting that went on in the village 

 court-house over which Moera presided, being close to our 

 camp, it worried her a good deal. She sent out a native 

 therefore on one or two occasions with instructions that the 

 hubbub should cease, and that the cases were to be tried 

 with less noise. I being away on a certain occasion when 

 the row going on was past bearing, owing to the introduction 

 of pombe or native beer into the deliberations, and Moera 

 reluctant to stop the noise, she decided to take the matter 

 into her own hands, and as the reader may judge, to some 

 purpose, for going to the entrance of the place she harangued 

 old Moera and his assembled savages in bad Swahili, but 

 with such good brandishings of a lighted fire-stick she held 

 that she cowed the lot of them, emphasising her wrath by 

 throwing the stick into the middle of what were, for aught 

 I know, the most important witnesses and village elders. 

 After this we had some peace, if we omit the early morning 

 hours before the village he-goat went forth to graze, and the 

 beating I had to administer to two natives who threw banana 

 skins on our tent, and the row we had with the cook for stealing 

 the salt, and his eventual desertion, when he left us to the 

 mercy of my insect collecting " boy " who had then perforce 

 to act as cook, and last, but not least, the nerve-racking 

 tapping of the bark-cloth makers. 



About this time, and on to this slightly unhappy horizon, 

 came a half caste Pygmy-Arab to cheer us up — his name 



159 



