62 
In the Heart of Africa 
over mouths in order to hide any indiscretion. Then, after the 
merriment had passed, the delinquents v/ould gaze quite gravely 
at the gramophone horn, until a suspicious twitching at the 
corners of the mouth rendered a fresh manoeuvring of hands 
necessary. 
The crowd continued to grow denser round the instrument, 
for the safety of which I was beginning to become nervous, 
when his serene highness suddenly hurled his long staff into 
the arena, making the splinters fly, and ending the seance. 
The Sultan being also desirous of seeing the white men do 
some ' shooting, an iron pot was placed on a stake and set up 
at a distance of 150 metres. As I, as well as others of my com¬ 
pany, were successful in hitting this tolerably easy mark several 
times in succession, the plaudits from the crowd were great, and 
innumerable hands were stretched out in congratulation. 
The Sultan, fearing that he would be beaten if he tried 
his skill from the same point, approached within fifty paces of 
the mark. His efforts were not exactly brilliant, yet every 
company-captain would have been delighted with the faultless 
way in which he made ready and the precision with which he 
carried out all the movements; he was like an infantry man at 
the rifle butts. 
The Sultan made me a further present of several objects of 
native industry. Yet the purchase of ethnographical material 
met with obstinate opposition. However, after some persuasion, 
Msinga gave his permission for goods to be bartered, and forth¬ 
with the whole population hastened from all quarters to enrich 
themselves by high prices for their wares. It was principally 
through Wiese’s efforts that we were enabled to get together a 
Ruanda collection such as has never before been seen in Europe. 
At Niansa we received a visit from Father Class and Father 
Dufays, of the mission station of the White Fathers, who came 
along in company with Dr. Czekanowski. Long years of inti¬ 
mate intercourse with the natives enabled them to give us much 
valuable information relative to the inhabitants of Ruanda. 
The day before they had paid us a very delicate attention in 
