136 Up the Congo to Banza Nokki. 
The northern bank shows a stony projection called 
by Maxwell “ Fiddler’s Elbow it leads to the 
fourth reach, the second of the north-eastern series ; 
and the breadth of the stream, once more a moun¬ 
tain lake., cannot be less than two miles. 
I foresaw trouble in passing these settlements. 
Presently a snake-like war canoe with hawser-holes 
like eyes, crept out from the southern shore; 
a second fully manned lay in reserve, lurking 
along the land, and armed men crowned the rocks 
jutting into the stream. We were accosted by the 
first craft, in which upon the central place of 
honour sat Mpeso Birimba, a petty chief of Suko 
Nkongo; a pert rascal of the French factory, 
habited in a red cap, a green velvet waistcoat, and 
a hammock-shaped tippet of pine-apple fibre ; his 
sword was a short Sollingen blade. The visit had 
the sole object of mulcting me in rum and cloth, 
and my only wish was naturally to expend as little 
as possible in mere preliminaries. The name of 
Manbuku Prata was duly thrown at him with but 
little effect: these demands are never resisted by 
the slave-dealers. After much noise and cries of 
“ Mwendi ” (miser, skin-flint) on the part of the 
myrmidons, I was allowed to proceed, having given 
up a cloth twenty-four yards long, and I felt really 
grateful to the “ trade ” which had improved off 
all the other riverine settlements. Beyond this 
point we saw nothing but their distant smokes. 
