The Eastern Congo 



previously, came to salute me ; to him I explained my mission 

 through Moera, but at first I wanted to know why they 

 hadn't killed me an okapi. The reply was that " many white 

 men had come seeking the kwapi and that now there were 

 few in the forest " — this I believe was true. 



The Pygmy camp as I found it was just a collection of 

 leaf bowers made by arching branches into round shelters 

 about three to four feet high, some of which Moera informed 

 me were for the women and others for the men ; this no 

 doubt bears out the recorded promiscuity practised in their 

 matrimonial affairs. Almost all these little people were 

 Ught brown in colour as if living in the dense shade of the 

 forest had paled their skins ; they also had the appearance — 

 especially the children — of being ill-nourished and hungry. 

 On making a tour of the camp and looking into all the " huts," 

 I was unable to find a single utensil, neither cooking pot nor 

 gourd. There was one primitive kind of iron axe and a few 

 earthenware pipe-bowls, some with long reed stems, others 

 were stuck into the midrib of a green banana leaf four feet 

 in length, through which they doubtless obtained a very 

 cool smoke — that was all. All the male Pygmies, men and 

 children, had small round bows and numberless arrows, 

 some of the latter having broad iron heads with feathered 

 shafts (some of them poisoned with a paste was of the 

 deadly Strophanthus seeds), whilst others were merely finely 

 pointed raphia splinters flighted with shaped pieces of 

 dried leaf. Most of the men had round skin pads at- 

 tached to their left wrists, made apparently in some cases 

 from the dried and stuffed scrota of various animals, to 

 protect the arm from the bow-string and in which to carry 

 their poison. I saw no spears and but few small knives, 



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