THE LOWER CONGO—BANANA POINT TO VIVI. 39 
There were also on this upper plateau, which might be 
called the fashionable part of Vivi, an observatory, a 
shower-bath, a pigeon-house, and the usual domestic 
offices. From the verandah that runs along the shady. 
side of Stanley’s house a most beautiful view of the Lower 
Congo, with its woody islands, its swirling rapids, and 
noble downs may be obtained. Here, also, are placed 
many comfortable seats and chairs, and in the warm 
afternoon hours it is pleasant to rest here, half dreamily, 
with a nice book from the well-furnished library, and let 
one’s eyes wander from its pages to the sun-steeped: 
landscape below the hill. From this raised square two 
broad flights of steps lead down to an oblong space of 
ground with a long garden in the centre, round which are 
placed houses for white men, kitchens, stores, piggeries, 
fowl-houses, and finally, apart from all the rest, a powder 
magazine. Beyond these, and generally below, for the 
“white” part of Vivi occupies the summit of the hill, all 
the settlements and little tidy cabins of the Zanzibaris, 
the Krumen, and the Kabindas are placed, each race 
forming, as it were, a little colony by itself. This “native 
town” is scrupulously clean, and some of the little 
compounds belonging to the headmen, or to those whose 
married condition entitles them toa more excluded way 
of living, are really very pretty and bright, with their 
tiny plantations, and flocks of chickens and Muscovy 
ducks. In any direction, if you want to leave Vivi, you 
must go down. The prettiest walk lies towards the 
little brook. Thence, at sunrise and towards sunset, the 
women wend their way with their pitchers balanced on 
the head, to bring water for their households. Lower 
down the stream, near where the road to Isangila crosses 
it, is the washing-place where, under the shelter of a few 
well-placed umbrageous trees, the women spend the noon- 
time over the linen. It is here that all the gossip is 
exchanged among the coloured ladies ; and it is here that, 
if your “boy” obtains a few minutes’ leave, he comes to 
revel in the scandal of black society. | 
Life at Vivi had a certain monotony, and one day 
