A Journey Through the Congo State 157 



MAJOR POWELL-COTTON WITH TWO OF HIS PYGMY TRACKERS 



noticed on the opposite bank two minia- 

 ture houses built close to the edge and 

 resembling in every feature the huts of 

 the villagers. The old chief was loth to 

 explain the object of these houses, but at 

 length I was told that they were erected 

 for the shade of his predecessor, who was 

 told that he must recompense them for 

 their labors by guarding the passage of 

 those crossing the river. From that time, 

 whenever a caravan was seen to approach 

 the bank a little food would be carried 

 down to the ghost-houses as a warning 

 that the shade's protection was needed 

 for the caravan about to cross. 



the; great forest 



The great Ituri forest, rendered fa- 

 mous by Stanley's remarkable journey 

 across it, differed greatly from the dismal 

 miasmic place of my imagination, where 

 unhealthy mists and perpetual twilight 

 reigned supreme. Far from shutting out 

 the sunshine, the lofty dome of interlaced 

 branches above our heads only served to 

 soften the pitiless heat of the equatorial 

 sun. Myriads of little sunbeams filtered 



through the leaves, to settle on the under- 

 growth in bright patches of light, where 

 the butterflies and birds loved to flit to 

 and fro. In the morning, it is true, the 

 foliage would often be heavy with dew- 

 drops and gossamer, but before eight the 

 sunbeams had lifted the mists from the 

 dense undergrowth, the giant trees, and 

 the graceful creepers that flung their fan- 

 tastic coils and festoons from branch to 

 branch and from tree to tree. It was in 

 the early morning that one felt the hush 

 of the great forest, whose impressive 

 stillness was only broken by the crackling 

 of the sticks under the feet of our cara- 

 van. Here and there in the forest are 

 little natural glades, called by the natives 

 "eddos," some watered by sluggish 

 marshy streams that almost lose them- 

 selves in the rich grass, while in others 

 the waters rush and tumble over the clear 

 quartz sand-beds and among moss-grown 

 boulders. Dark tunnels, worn through 

 the undergrowth by generations of beasts, 

 on their way to water, lead down to these 

 rifts in the dense vegetation ; for it is 

 here that the beasts of the forest, from 



