TO BOLOBO, 169: 
fortifications, however, remained to show through what a 
time of anxiety the station had passed.* 
There are three Europeans here, Lieut. Orban, the chief - 
of the station, and two commercial agents, a Frenchman 
and a Belgian. 
— Bolobo has one terrible disadvantage. Mosquitoes 
abound to such an incredible degree that after dark it is 
torture to have to sit at dinner, for they bite through 
your trousers and socks—your hands, too, are soon swollen 
and poisoned. Consequently all pleasant conversation at — 
Bolobo is impossible after the cloth has been withdrawn ; 
and you hasten off to bed to put a mosquito-curtain 
between yourself and your enemies. ‘There was one great 
and unaccustomed treat I enjoyed at Bolobo, which, after 
my long deprivation, seemed to compensate ‘for all other 
things ‘lacking—plenty of coffee and good goat’s milk. 
Food generally is scarce, and what there is consists of the. 
same unchanging fowls, goats, and kikwanga. 
March 6th.—This morning early, King Tbaka, ended 
by a numerous and distineushed suite, arrived to pay us a 
visit. After the palaver “of ceremony was over I asked 
permission to take his portrait, which was accorded, but 
he had not the slightest intention of sitting for it, and 
moved about at will. At length Orban hit on an excellent 
expedient for inducing the King to give me a chance of 
successfully portraying his features, and at the same time 
of exhibiting to me a curious native custom. So he pro- 
posed to Ibaka a solemn drinking bout of malafu. ‘“ Le 
Roi de Bolobo” willingly assented, and certain hirelings 
were told off to go and fetch some large jars of freshly- 
drawn palm-wine. 
Long, long ago, in the legends of the Ba-yansi,f a King 
of Bolobo was drinking malafu at his ease one day when 
* Since I left Bolobo, war actually took place, and the besieged 
garrison were only relieved by the opportune arrival of Mr. Stanley, 
who quelled the disturbances without firing a shot. 
7 This is one of the many local explanations of these curious 
drinking customs, but it will not suffice to explain them all, nor to 
account for their wide-spread existence in Western Africa. 
