332 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



village was not far from N'soro, and as he subjugated the 

 country to his front, he pushed his villages farther out 

 till he was now four miles to the south-east of the river 

 Ambia. Sometimes on my road I came across small hamlets 

 where captive Mombuttu women were working in the fields. 

 They are of a low type and wear the pelele in the upper 

 lip, and no covering except bunches of leaves. 



When I crossed the Ambia, it was very full and about 

 twenty yards wide ; it must fall into the Ira not many miles 

 above the Arebi river. 



I was sorry not to see the Chief of Magombo, but on my 

 arrival he was away in pursuit of his usual occupation of 

 fighting the Mombuttus. Throughout this country he has a 

 great reputation as a fighting man. The chief of a small 

 village on the Ira called Gudima, showed me a little mound 

 close to the river, where Magombo had stood to direct a battle 

 with the Logo. It was marked by an upright post, from the 

 top of which there hung a circle plaited out of cane that 

 gave one the idea of a wreath woven by the delicate fingers 

 of romance; one pictured the little figure of Magornbo 

 (for he is a small man) standing here directing the battle, 

 handling with military instinct the rough fighting material at 

 his command in what was, perhaps, the supreme effort of his 

 life. And what is more, the simple monument stands a 

 witness to the capacity for veneration in the people who 

 had placed it there, a rare quality to find in the nature of the 

 black man. 



The village of Magombo is situated on a plateau that 

 must be the highest point in this part of the Congo. From 

 the top there is a glorious view. A mass of rugged hills 



