THE NEST OF THE GORILLA. 489 



enough to place it on the unbent mass in front. This high stepping fatigues 

 like walking on deep snow. Here and there holes appear, which we could 

 not sound with a stick six feet long ; they gave the impression that anywhere 

 one might plump through and finish the chapter. Where the water is shallow 

 the lotus, or sacred lily, sends its roots to the bottom, and spreads its broad 

 leaves over the floating bridge, so as to make believe that the mat is its own ; 

 but the grass referred to is the real felting and supporting agent, for it often 

 performs duty as a bridge where no lilies grow. The bridge is called by 

 the Manyema ' kintefwetefwe ,' as if he who first coined it was grasping 

 for breath after plunging over a mile of it. 



" Between each district of Manyema large belts of the primeval forest still 

 stand. Into these the sun, though vertical, cannot penetrate, except by send- 

 ing down at mid-day thin pencils of rays into the gloom. The rain-water 

 stands for months in stagnant pools made by the feet of elephants ; and the 

 dead leaves decay on the damp soil, and make the water of the numerous 

 rivulets of the colour of strong tea. The climbing plants, from the size of 

 whip-cord to that of a man-of-war's hawsers, are so numerous, the ancient 

 path is the only passage. When one of the giant trees falls across the road, 

 it forms a wall breast-high to be climbed over, and the mass of tangled ropes 

 brought down makes cutting a path round it a work of time. 



" The shelter of the forest from the sun makes it pleasant, but the roots 

 of trees high out of the soil across the path keep the eyes, ox-like, on the 

 ground. The trees are so high that a good ox-gun shot does no harm to 

 parrots or guinea-fowls on their tops ; and they are often so closely planted, 

 that I have heard gorillas, here called ' sokos,' growling about fifty yards off, 

 without getting a glimpse of them. His nest is a poor contrivance; it exhibits 

 no more architectural skill than the nest of our cushat dove. Here the ' soko' 

 sits in pelting rain, with his hands over his head. The natives give him a 

 good character, and from what I have seen he deserves it; but they call his 

 nest his house, and laugh at him for being such a fool as to build a house, 

 and not go beneath it for shelter. 



" Bad water and frequent wettings told on us all, by choleraic symptoms 

 and loss of flesh. Meanwhile the news of cheap ivory caused a sort of Cali- 

 fornian gold fever at Ujiji, and we were soon overtaken by a horde, num- 

 bering six hundred muskets, all eager for the precious tusks. These had been 

 left by the Manyema in the interminable forests, where the animals had been 

 slain. The natives knew where they lay, and, if treated civilly, readily 

 brought them, many half-rotten, or gnawed by a certain rodent to sharpen 

 his teeth, as London rats do on leaden pipes. I had already, on this jour- 

 ney, two severe lessons, that travelling in an unhealthy climate in the rainy 

 season is killing work. By getting drenched to the skin once too often in 

 Marunga I had pneumonia, the illness to which I have referred, and that was 



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