TO BOLOBO. 1795 
although the red buffalo’s skulls and horns may be con- 
stantly seen in the villages, I never heard of the people 
taking the trouble to hunt it; they seem rather to content 
themselves with gathering these relics whenever they 
meet with them, doubtless after the feast of some lion or 
leopard, and depositing them among the _half-sacred 
curiosities of their villages.* 
The lion, leopard, striped hyena, black-backed jackal, 
and civet cat are known here, aud the gorilla, or some 
kindred anthropoid ape, is described by the natives as 
inhabiting the northern or western bank of the Congo. 
The red river-hog,f which the natives call by the same 
name as their domestic pig—Neulu—is very common, and 
although often killed and eaten by the natives, does not 
seem to shun their villages. I even have reason to believe 
that in parts it lives in the same half-domesticated state 
as noticed by Schweinfurth among the Nyam-nyams. 
Iron seems to be largely-worked in the interior, and the 
Ba-yansi of Bolobo shape it into many beautiful knives, 
axes, and spear heads. Copper they also possess, largely, 
but I cannot say whether it is locally found and melted. 
The natives speak of a kind of topaz which they call 
“™Monkoli.” It is described as either pale blue or yellow 
in colour, and abundantly found in the interior of the 
country. 
* In Ki-yansi, the name for buffalo is ng’ombu, a classic term in 
most Bantu tongues for “ox.” ‘lhe Ba-yansi have no domestic cattle. 
+ Sus poreus. 
