72 
V. JANUARY TO JUNE, 1914 
At the house of Mr. Cadier, a missionary, we ate 
monkey flesh for the first time, for Mr. Cadier is a great 
sportsman. With me, on the contrary, the blacks are 
far from pleased, because I use my rifle so little. On 
one of my journeys we passed a cayman, asleep on a 
tree which was growing out of the water, and when I 
merely watched it instead of shooting it the cup of 
their indignation ran over. “ Nothing ever happens 
with you,” the crew exclaimed through their spokes- 
man. “ If we were with Mr. Cadier, he would long ago 
have shot us a couple of monkeys and some birds so 
that we could have some meat. But you pass close by 
a cayman and never even touch your shooter ! ” I 
willingly put up with the reproach. Birds which circle 
above the water I never like shooting ; monkeys are 
perfectly safe from my weapon. One can often bring 
down or wound three or four in succession and yet 
never secure their bodies. They get caught among the 
thick branches or fall into the undergrowth which 
covers an impenetrable swamp ; and if one finds the 
body, one often finds also a poor little baby monkey, 
which clings, with lamentations, to its dying mother. 
My chief reason for keeping a gun is to be able to shoot 
snakes, which swarm on the grass around my house, 
and the birds of prey which plunder the nests of the 
weaver bird in the pahn trees in front of it. 
On our return journey we met a herd of fifteen 
hippos, who soon plunged into the water on our 
approach, but a quite young one remained amusing 
itself on the sandbank, and would not obey its mother 
when she called to it. 
