28 JO URNE Y A CR OSS THE GREA T P YGM Y FORES T 



called Arabs. There I came upon a great number of pygmies, who came 

 to see me. They told me that, unknown to myself, they had been watch- 

 ing me for five days, peering through the growth of the primeval forest 

 at our caravan. They appeared to be very frightened, and even when 

 speaking covered their faces. I slept at this village, and in the morning 

 I asked the chief to allow me to photograph the dwarfs. He brought 

 ten or fifteen of them together, and I was enabled to secure a snapshot. 

 I could not give a time exposure, as the pygmies would not stand still. 

 Then with great difficulty I tried to measure them, and I found not one 

 of them over four feet in height. All were fully developed. The women 

 were somewhat slighter than the men, but were equally well formed. 

 I was amazed at their sturdiness. Their arms and chests were splendidly 

 developed, as much so as in a good specimen of an Englishman. These 

 men have long beards half way down the chest, which imparts to them 

 a strange appearance. They are very timid and cannot look a stranger 

 in the face. Their eyes are constantly shifting as in the case of monkeys. 

 They are fairly intelligent. I had a long talk with the chief, and he con- 

 versed intelligently about the extent of the forest and the number of his 

 tribe. 1 asked him several times about the Belgians, but to these ques- 

 tions he made no reply. Except for a tiny strip of bark cloth, men and 

 women are quite nude. They are armed with bows and arrows — the 

 latter tipped with deadly poison — and carry small spears. They are en- 

 tirely nomadic, sheltering at night in small huts two to three feet in 

 height. They never go outside the forest. During the whole time I was 

 with them they were perfectly friendly. 



" There are no Europeans in any part of the forest, but there are a few 

 villages containing three or four houses, which are known as auxiliary 

 Belgian stations. They are occupied by so-called Arabs, who have been 

 placed there by the Belgians. In parts I found a fairly good track, per- 

 haps a couple of feet wide, overhung and crossed by boughs and enor- 

 mous creepers, but. generally speaking, it was easier to cut our way right 

 through the tropical growth. In places the darkness was very great. 

 Once I tried to photograph my tent at midday, but even with nearly 

 half an hour's exposure the attempt was a failure. Occasionally I came 

 upon a very small natural clearing, but generally speaking the growth 

 was very dense and it was like advanced twilight. In many places it 

 was impossible to read even at noon. I walked during the three weeks 

 I was going through the forest, as, although I had a donkey with me, if 

 I had ridden him I should have continually been pulled off by the 

 creepers. We had several narrow T escapes from falling trees. On one 

 occasion my two boys and myself, who were at the head of the party, 

 had just passed under an enormous tree when it fell w T ith a crash between 

 us and the rest of the carriers. Had we passed two seconds later it 

 would have fallen on us. I measured one tree which had fallen across 

 the track and found it to be 20 feet in circumference. The deathlike 

 stillness of the forest was continually broken by reports like thunder as 

 these giant trees fell crashing to the ground. At night-time these reports 

 were most startling. The forest is literally alive with elephants, leopards, 

 wild pigs, buffalo, and antelope. Fires at night kept off any leopards 



