In Afric’s Forest and Jungle 
then gave me a feather upon which he had strung 
three cowries, saying that there was another 
band down the river, but when the chief saw 
the feather and cowries he would allow me to 
pass without trouble. 
We parted quite pleasantly, shouting saluta¬ 
tions to each other as long as we were in hear¬ 
ing. Shouts and yells down the river, about an 
hour afterward, told us that we were approach¬ 
ing the other company. In a few moments more 
our eyes were greeted by a perfect pande¬ 
monium. In a large clearing on the bank of the 
river were scores of half-naked men running 
about, dancing, leaping, yelling and utterly 
crazed by alcohol. Although the spectacle was 
so appalling, I thought it best to go straight for 
them. At first they regarded us with drunken 
surprise, then began to clamber into the canoe. 
While the messenger was gone to deliver the 
symbolical letter to their leader whose tent was 
near the bank, 1 was occupied in trying to keep 
them out of the canoe where my wife and the 
two children were. They were beginning to get 
angry, and it looked as if a display of violence 
was imminent, when a man leaped from the bank 
into the canoe, seized my hand and shook it with, 
drunken hilarity, making, at the same time, many 
268 
