A Journey Through the Congo State 159 



A FOREST GIANT, WITH TENT BETWEEN TWO EMBEDDED ROOTS 



men, and many of the women seem to 

 have inherited a certain Arab grace of 

 form. The Babila, another tribe with 

 which I came in contact, although short 

 of stature, are a sturdy, healthy-looking 

 race, while the pygmies certainly show 

 no signs of physical degeneration. But 

 the native from the plain, or the white 

 man, usually suffers severely after a few 

 months' residence in the damp atmos- 

 phere of the forest, rheumatism, dysen- 

 tery, and bilious fevers being the most 

 common complaints. 



The soil of the forest is so rich in leaf 

 mold that it produces two to three crops 

 a year. Like the natives, the villagers are 

 in the habit of continually changing their 

 cultivation from one spot to another, 

 although here it necessitates a great deal 

 of labor. The underwood and saplings 

 are first all cut down, and then attention 

 is turned to the smaller trees, which are 

 felled some 8 feet from the base, and 

 left to cumber the ground where they 

 fall. By this time the underwood is suf- 

 ficiently dry to help in the destruction of 



the larger trees that are alone left stand- 

 ing. Piling it around the trunks, the 

 natives set it alight in order to burn the 

 bark, and thus kill the trees, which 

 eventually stretch out their gaunt arms 

 over crops of banana, millet, rice, maize, 

 sweet potatoes, and manioc. 



Grass in the forest can only be found 

 in the eddos, and in the clearings made 

 by the natives for their gardens. For 

 this reason there are no cows, and the 

 few imported sheep and goats that man- 

 age to withstand the hardships of the 

 march through the forest to the villages 

 are cherished by the owners as their most 

 precious possessions. Among the little 

 flock that followed us on our journey, the 

 death-rate in the forest was over 50 per 

 cent, and this in spite of every care. 

 Night after night, a platform strewn 

 with leaves was built for them, with a 

 roof as shelter, and during the march 

 each animal had a nose-bag with a few 

 potatoes in the bottom, to prevent them 

 getting hungry or eating poisonous leaves 

 from the undergrowth. 



