74 A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
Between the river Bundi and the Lulu lay a dismal 
region. One might say, fancifully, that it was under the 
enchantment of some ill-disposed wizard who had cast a 
spell over everything ; perhaps the evil genius of Africa | 
trying to discourage the penetration of white men into his 
secrets. The grass is tall, sometimes eight and nine feet 
high. When it is dry it cuts you like a razor. It slashes 
you across the face and over the backs of your hands. 
The blades intercross and bar your way like hostile sabres ; 
they insultingly whip off your helmet; they fetter your 
legs and interlace themselves round your ankles ; but, 
like most African difficulties, they lose much of their 
resisting power if boldly encountered, Squeeze your hat 
on tightly, lower your head, put your hands in your 
pockets, and charge through them, and they will yield 
before you. But evidently the wicked genius, seeing this 
does not deter us, calls another agent to his aid. Xbout 
midday, the sky being fairly serene, I notice near the 
horizon little masses of blue-grey cloud, but, as they are 
blowing away from us, I think them unworthy of atten- 
tion ; until my men, who better know the tokens of African 
weather than I, look at them and say “rain,” and although 
I hope they may be wrong, gradually those little masses 
of cloud creep round the horizon, lifting themselves up bit 
by bit, and soon the whole heaven becomes covered with a 
pall of awful black cloud. We have arrived at a little 
camping-place under some shade, and here, in spite of my 
ideas of the connection between trees and lightning, my 
carriers advise me to stop. The rain had already begun 
to hiss down, but fortunately my tent was soon pitched, 
and my luggage brought under shelter. The ground, 
however, was very dank, and oppressed by the- cloomy 
sky, I felt disposed to be miserable, especially as clouds of 
horrible mosquitoes tormented me continually, and sadly 
inflamed my hands with their bites. However, with that 
adroitness which most uncivilised races possess of quickly 
lighting a fire, my men had soon made a splendid and 
comforting blaze out of the fragments of wet timber that 
lay around, and I presently had water boiling and a 
