II 7 
In the Volcanic Region 
of all the spirits; the souls of all the dead go to him, and he 
allots them a permanent dwelling in the volcanoes. With Gongo 
live also the spirit Liangombe, his mother (Nina Liangombe), his 
father (Bawinga), and his grandfather (Njundo). Liangombe 
controls the souls of those who have wrought evil; he binds them 
and beats them. Namlagira and Mikeno are the sons of Gongo. 
Namlagira is said to have dwelt with his brother at first, but was 
driven out by him because he carried fire along, and thereby 
annihilated the water that existed on the mountain. Namlagira 
is stated, also, to have been at deadly feud with his father, 
Gongo. For a long time an indecisive battle raged, but Nam¬ 
lagira succeeded at length in cutting off Gongo’s head at one 
blow, and that accounts for the flattened top of the mountain. 
According to a communication made to me by Captain von 
Beringe, from which I quote, every one of these spirits possesses 
his own priest, who lives at the foot of the mountain, receives 
the devotees, and communicates to them the spirit’s will. The 
captain was informed that the position of such a priest was a 
very lucrative one. 
We had hardly returned to camp when dusk fell, and heavy 
rain set in. So we had to make the slippery descent on the 
following morning with a temperature of only eight degrees. 
The peaks of Karissimbi and Mikeno, however, rose up re¬ 
splendent through the veil of mist that hung over the valley 
and stood out in strong relief against the blood-red rays of the 
rising sun, gleaming and glistening in the newly-fallen snow. 
At the beginning of September, Raven, Wiese and I, who 
had been joined by Grawert and Knecht, set out for the exten¬ 
sive district lying in front of the southern volcanoes, which is 
connected with them geologically. 
On the next day, following a winding path, we reached the 
bamboo forests. Roaming for the first time in these forests has 
a peculiar charm of its own for a new-comer. These immense 
grasses which throw up their stalks, as thick as one’s arm, to a 
height of seventeen metres, and which differ so utterly from our 
own vegetation, create such a strange impression that, at first. 
