240 
In the Heart of Africa 
mess-room. It is much cooler inside them than in the tents, 
and the heat and blinding glare of the sun are never felt so keenly 
as, when at the end of a march, one emerges from the shade of 
the native forest and enters the clearing around the serai and 
its village. 
At all these stations one meets “ Arabises,'' as they are called 
by the Congolese, or “ Wangwana" (the Educated Ones), as they 
call themselves in the Kisuaheli tongue. Ethnographically they 
represent a quite inextricable mixtum compositum of Arabs, 
east coast and inland negroes, Manjema from west of Tan- 
ganjika, and natives from the eastern districts of the Congo 
State. They are offspring and descendants of those slave and 
ivory hunters with whom the Belgians had to wage such fierce 
battle, remains of Tippoo Tib’s hordes of the Aruwimi-Ituri 
district, the Ngarruwas and Kilonga-Longas—the oldest of 
whom still remember Stanley well. Of course there are others, 
too, who have come to the Congo in later years in the train 
of the Arabian dealers. They speak Kisuaheli, richly inter¬ 
spersed with native and Arab expressions, sometimes called 
Kin gw ana "—the language of the Wangwana. In any case, 
the designation Arabises is a fitting one. They wear long 
Arabian garments and turbans. Many of them show the strong 
admixture of Arabian blood very plainly, though one seldom 
meets pure Arabs. There are, doubtless, some shady customers 
amongst them, and it is certain that, besides their lawful business, 
they carry on extensive smuggling in rubber and ivory over the 
German and English boundaries—after all, a peaceful and 
innocent occupation compared to that of the days of their youth, 
when, before the establishment of European rule, the Congo 
was a land full of horrors. Their official activity is limited to 
keeping the stations and the roads in order, and in providing 
the Europeans and carriers passing through with provisions and 
stores. Manioc and sweet potatoes are principally cultivated in 
the clearings, also rice and maize. The Wangwana did not grow 
bananas to any extent; they complained that the elephants made 
too much havoc amongst them. 
