OUR JOURNEY UP THE UBANGUI 233 



however, to whom we shall come presently, no doubt are the 

 true Sungo. [ i 



From Luma onwards the banks are very thickly popu- 

 lated, and at a Blakka town called Tungbo, three days from 

 Mobbai, the children literally swarmed. As we passed we 

 were surrounded by the whole village who tried to stop the 

 boat, begging me to stay and shoot them some meat, for 

 Gosling two days previously had given them a taste for it by 

 shooting three bufEalo on an island not far below the town. 

 They hung on like leeches and followed us for at least a mile, 

 swimming alongside, laughing and chaffing. These people 

 are not hunters, so meat is much prized by them and will buy 

 anything. 



As things afterwards turned out, it would have been as 

 well had I stopped at this friendly town instead of pushing on 

 and landing as we did late at night at a small Blakka village 

 on'the right bank some 400 yards inland. It was dirty and 

 ill-kept ; the only place for my tent, clear of the long grass 

 which surrounded the village, was an open space close to the 

 huts. From the very commencement things did not promise 

 well, for while my men were pitching the tent the angry 

 villagers gathered round and tried to stop the work, saying 

 they did not want to have a white man sleeping in their 

 village. After some altercation and struggles the natives 

 were driven ofi and retired into their houses ; but only a short 

 time elapsed before more serious trouble broke out. When 

 the men went into the village to ask for wood they were 

 answered by showers of stones from the huts. This put their 

 blood up, and they started paying their assaila'nts back in 

 their own kind ; then a lively scene followed and heads were 



