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nf
Digitized by the Internet Archive
In 2013
http://archive.org/details/wonderlandofeasOObarn
The WONDERLAND of
THE EASTERN CONGO
OLATIVE Lig
oS TORONTO hap
N
MAY 25 1923
fe Ce veo
@, The rare Kivu Gorilla, shot by the Author
on the Virunga Mountains, and the boy Salim.
See p. 86
G7, ts WwW FF
The WONDERLAND of
‘HE EASTERN CONGO
The Region of the Snow-Crowned Volcanoes
the Pygmies the Giant Gorilla
and the Okapi
By T. ALEXANDER BARNS
V.BGS.,..F.Z.S.,.. FES,
With an Introduction by
SIR H. H. JOHNSTON |
GCMG, K.CB., D.Sc. Boo'd
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
London & New York
Prinied in Great Britain by
BOTOLPH PRINTING WORKS, |
GRATEFULLY DEDICATED
TO MY FRIEND AND PATRON
JAMES JOHN JOICEY, ESQ.
THE HILL MUSEUM OF LEPIDOPTERA
WITLEY
Acknowledgment for the use of quotations 15
made to Messrs. T. Fisher Unwin, Litd.,
the publishers of Mr. Cullen Gouldsbury’s
poems, ‘Songs out of Exile” and “ From
the Outposts.”
Preface
himself in this my first literary venture—even to the
extent of writing an introduction—I am not called
upon to contribute a preface of any considerable length.
A preface I understand to be the author’s own particular
page, where he may let his fancy roam, slang his publisher,
and generally kick his heels; do everything, in short, so
long as he propitiates his readers.
I may say at once that, being of a restless nature, and
writing not being my forte, I would have renounced the
composition of this book if I could honestly have done so.
You, my readers, may of course wish to know why I have
written it, if the work is uncongenial. One reason is that
I have a conscience which dubs me a shirker if I leave undone
something that is worth the doing; another, that although I
have reached middle age and have spent more than half
my life in the African wilds, I am still a little ambitious ;
and the third is the spur of the naturalist and artist, who
would wish to place before his public the beauties of this
African Wonderland which still lie hidden from so many.
I have attempted to weave into my writing something
ef the fascination and spell of Africa, which bred in the
solitudes of open plain and primeval forest, grip the traveller
from first to last—the true Breath from the Veldt. To aid
me in this I have quoted a number of verses from the poems
of Cullen Gouldsbury, the African Kipling—so rich in this
brooding spirit of the wild.
Vii
‘ S Sir Harry Johnston has been kind enough to interest
Preface
If I had my way I would have, at least, a round dozen
of coloured plates bound up with this volume, as I love {
colour and as many of the animals and scenes described in
this book are inspiring to an artist of wild-life. But to this
my publisher will not agree. |
When reading this record of my journey and what I |
accomplished, I would kindly ask the indulgent reader to _
remember that this was a ‘“‘ one man show.” By this I mean |
the expedition was organised and carried out entirely by
my wife and myself, and, unlike many similar undertakings, —
we had no assistants and little influential Government |
backing. We had to rely entirely on ourselves and on our |
own efforts to carry us over the 3,600 miles of African soil
across which we travelled.
The dedication of this book is justly due to Mr. James
J. Joicey for the financial aid he extended to the expedition
which was made on his behalf for entomological purposes ;
therefore—as two dedications are impossible—I here pay
my tribute to the steadfast courage and splendid comrade- _
ship of my wife, who accompanied me on this and many _
previous expeditions. |
As the cinematograph pictures I obtained en route, which
I had the honour of showing to the members of the Royal —
aki }
Geographical Society, evoked universal admiration, and as —
these may be considered as “‘screening’’ the book, it is —
therefore not too much to hope that my readers may also |
find this volume instructive and interesting. |
My thanks are due to Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., |
K.C.B., etc., for his encouraging introduction to this book
and to George Talbot, Esq., F.E.S., the Curator of the Hill”
Museum, for the trouble he has taken in revising my MS.,
Vili
G, Mrs. T. Alexander Barns.
qi, Showing
feeding togethe1
the
we
alth
on
of Insect Life in the
Iturl
Forest.
animal refuse. The Chavraves are
may be seen brutus, tividates, zoolina, and eupale.
and five Aci
Chavraxes
aeids in this one bunch
’
Chere are
Chavaxes a
voracious fee
forming a wonderful moss
nd /
ders.
no less than
1ic of colour.
{cvaeids
Here
12 large
Preface
for his collaboration in writing the chapter dealing with the
entomological results of the expedition, and for the arranging
of the illustrations of Lepidoptera.
THE AUTHOR.
SS. Guildford Castle (outward bound).
New Year’s Day, 1921.
Contents
CHAPTER
&
II.
THE KATANGA
LAKE TANGANYIKA .
THE WAHA AND BARUNDI
LAKE CHOHOA AND THE RUANDA .
LAKE KIVU. ;
THE VIRUNGA VOLCANOES
GORILLA HUNTING
THE RUCHURU AND RUINDI PLAINS
THE LIONS OF LAKE EDWARD.
THE RUWENZORI MOUNTAINS .
OKAPI HUNTING
WAMBUBA CANNIBALS
om LAST “SAFARI”
DOWN THE CONGO
ELEPHANTS. :
AFRICAN ENTOMOLOGY
CINEMATOGRAPHY
APPENDIX
INDEX .
Xi
107
125
146
166
181
212
224
248
258
205
281
as
S24
List of Illustrations
FACING
PAGE
KIVU GORILLA, SHOT BY THE AUTHOR AND THE BOY SALIM
MRS. T. ALEXANDER BARNS . ; : : } ro viii
INSECT LIFE IN ITURI FOREST. ‘ ath a
KIVU GORILLA, MOUNTED BY MESSRS. ROWLAND WARD. xvi
TRANSPORTING IRON TELEGRAPH POLES . ; ; 2
ALBINO NEGRO CHILDREN . : : : ; ‘ 3
MALE AND FEMALE VARANUS LIZARDS : ‘
RAPHIA PALMS 2 : ; ‘ ; ; a Ee é 5
KALAMBO FALLS . so : : ; : 52
CHASM AT FOOT OF KALAMBO FALLS . : ‘ ; PPS
THE “WHITE MAN’S TREE ” AT UJIJI ; : : oa oe
THE OLD MANGO TREE AND STONE . P Qty eae
GOTTORP SALT WORKS . : j : ; raven |
HUGE FISH FROM LAKE TANGANYIKA : ; : ie
WA-BISA WOMEN . ; oy oe
BASKETS FOR STORING GRAIN IN MARKET OF BAIRA_.___30
FORTRESS OF KASULU . . : ‘ : Seer
AUTHOR “TAKING” A NATIVE DANCE ; : : eae
KITEGA . é , : ‘ 7 ; ; ‘ é ae
MUGERA . : OSE 3
AUTHOR’S WIFE, MSINGA AND LIEUTENANT DEFAWE_.___35
WATUSI NATIVE MAKING A SEVEN FOOT JUMP j « . 38
COAST OF LAKE KIVU . : : ; : : : ae
BARUNDI HERD BOY . , : ‘ , : eee:
WATUSI CHIEFTAIN : ‘ : J P i , scA38
Xlli
List of Illustrations
A NEGRO MILLIONAIRE . ‘ ‘
AUDIENCE CHAMBER OF SULTAN MSINGA .
WATUSI WOMEN
DANSE DE LUXE
SULTAN MSINGA’S LEADING SINGER
WATUSI BOWMAN :
“ FLOWING RIVER OF LAVA ” d
LIP OF THE CRATER OF NINAGONGO .
DOUBLE ERUPTIVE SHAFT OF NINAGONGO, 1rgr10
ERUPTIVE SHAFT AS IT IS TO-DAY
EXTINCT VOLCANO OF KARISIMBI
ACTIVE VOLCANO OF NINAGONGO
AUTHOR ON LIP OF NINAGONGO CRATER .
COMMANDANT HOLLANTS’ AND AUTHOR’S CAMP
SKULL OF THE GORILLA IN FRONTISPIECE
VOLCANO OF MIKENO
FOREST OF SENECIOS AND BEARD-MOSS
HOME OF A SOLITARY ‘“‘OLD-MAN ” GORILLA
HEAD AND SHOULDERS OF A KIVU GORILLA .
MALE GORILLA SHOT BY AUTHOR
SUBSIDIARY CRATER OF NINAGONGO .
KIVU GORILLA SHOT BY AUTHOR
LAGOON CRATER ISLAND OF CHEGERA :
THE “ PETROLETTE ” BEING TOWED INTO KISENJI .
LAKE KIVU
BAHUTU DANCE
WHALE-HEADED STORK , : f ; ,
HIPPO’ SHOT ON LAKE EDWARD . ‘ : ; °
HEAD OF A BUFFALO
X1V
List of Illustrations
KASALI MOUNTAINS
THE FOSTER BROTHERS
TWO LIONS SHOT BY AUTHOR
LARVZ OF A WARBLE FLY
CLOUD OF KUNGU FLY .
MONSIEUR FOURGET EMBARKS
BULL BUFFALO OF THE CAPE TYPE
BULL BUFFALO
SUSPICIOUS
feta TENT” CAMP .
GIANT FERNS .
MALE WART-HOG
PEAKS OF RUWENZORI MOUNTAINS ;
CENTRAL MASSIF OF RUWENZORI MOUNTAINS .
WATERSHED OF RUWENZORI MOUNTAINS
CORNER OF THE ALPINE MOORS
HEATHER FIRE
OUR CAMP IN THE FOREST
WAMBUTE PYGMIES
AUTHOR, BEFORE LEAVING MBENI ‘
WAMBUTE PYGMY SUFFERING FROM LEPROSY .
PYGMY WOMEN AND CHILDREN
FEMALE WAMBUTE PYGMIES.
SKINS OF GORILLA AND OKAPI
WAMBUBA CANNIBALS COOKING MONKEY MEAT
PYGMIES SHOOTING WITH BOW AND ARROW
WAMBUBA CANNIBALS ;
BALEGA WOMEN FROM NEAR IRUMU .
ELEPHANTS’ TUSKS.
XV
wOPAGE
106
106
107
II4
II5
II5
118
IIg
IIg
122
123
126
127
134
135
138
139
148
149
156
156
157
160
161
176
176
177
182
182
List of Illustrations
A MOBIRA WOMAN .
WABALI NATIVES AT BATAMA
ITURI RIVER AT PENGHE
ATUBENGWELE, A WABALI CHIEF
MUBALI NATIVES IN CEREMONIAL COSTUME
WABALI WOMEN BEING WHIPPED
THE MAITRES DE DANSE
SPARTAN FEAT OF A MUBALI NATIVE...
WABALI DANCE IN PROGRESS
WABALI DANCE—ANOTHER VIEW.
AFRICAN BUGS
THE AARD-VARK
BEAUTIFUL DRACRENA TREE
CLOSE-SPOTTED HILL LEOPARD
TWO ELEPHANTS PASSING BEFORE THE CAMERA
TUSKLESS FEMALE ELEPHANT
WEST NYASALAND ELEPHANT
FINE OLD BULL ELEPHANT .
SKIN OF AN ELEPHANT .
ELEPHANT’S SKIN BEING TRANSPORTED
ELEPHANT PASSING THROUGH BAMBOOS
ELEPHANT ON SEMLIKI RIVER
HEAD AND TUSKS OF VERY LARGE ELEPHANT.
BELENOIS IN GRIP OF LARGE AFRICAN SUN-DEW
BELENOIS FEEDING
MAP
XVI
FACING
PAGE >
183.
‘I'M ‘ATITPeOIg Lor ri
dn jas se Shee E et ier ‘pre AA PUPTA
Sea 11 Joye ‘royIny ayy Xq sae see esis D
‘ . t' < ele
LYTU aT
POC PEE
7 YOIASOZT
-
TO MOTHER AFRICA
AFTER TEN YEARS
I was pretty young and foolish when I came,
The things I knew were fairly few and small—
I was eaten up with shame, but you took me just the same,
And you taught me, Mother Africa, to try and play the game
As men play it out beyond the City Wall.
* * * *
There ave millions who know nothing of your spell,
And yvevile you for your cruelty and pain—
“Out in Africa,” they say,
“Men are lost and thrown away.”
WE know better, Mother Africa! your childven come to stay,
And they never scale the City Wall again!
* * * *
In ten long years I’ve learned to love the chain
(Though, sometimes, every fetter’s bound to gall),
Though you’ve tutored me in pain,
If God grant me ten again,
You shall have them, Mother Africa, so long as you vemain
Untrammelled, and outside the City Wall.
Cullen Gouldsbury in “ From the Outposts.”’
XV1i
r
rs
———— eer = se
Introduction
By SIR HARRY JOHNSTON
OME time in the autumn, perhaps the late autumn,
S:: 1920 I was frequenting the map rooms and library
of the Royal Geographical Society in London, in
connection with an elaborate map that was being compiled
to illustrate the extent of Africa covered by the twin families
of the Bantu and the Semi-Bantu languages. On one such
occasion, when leaving the building for the prosaic quest
of lunch, I encountered the Society’s president. “‘ Hullo!
How fortunate! Just going to write or telegraph to you,
when I found out where you were. We've got up at very short
notice a meeting to hear a paper from an extraordinary man
—Barns is his name—who’s been exploring the regions you
and Sharpe used to know—Lake Edward, Ruwenzori, Congo
Forest, Northern Rhodesia, Tanganyika. I’ve just got hold
of Sharpe, though he’s very soon starting for Liberia, and here
you are! Wonderful, when most people are out of London !
No. It’s not in our programme. But I couldn’t
let such a chance slip. ... Remarkable films of African
scenery, with wild beasts wandering about quite indifferent
to the operator or his native followers; and really splendid
Slides of stationary subjects. You simply must come. . .
I shall ask you and Sharpe to propose and second the vote
of thanks. You won’t regret it.”
I did not: nor, I think, did any one in the large audience
that heard Mr. Barns, that saw Mrs. Barns, and that beheld
the truly wonderful pictures of their cinematograph or the
X1X
Introduction
many remarkable lantern slides from their instantaneous and 1
timed photographs. |
We were given on this occasion the gist of the chapters
in this book which treat of the region about Lake Kivu, ‘ :
and between Kivu and Ruwenzori, special stress being laid |
on the wonderful gorilla of those regions (a distinct species), —
on the active and silent volcanoes of the Umufumbiro or |
Virunga region (between Lakes Kivu and Edward), and the
fringe of the mighty Congo Forest, along the Semliki River. |
But the author’s journey for his special collecting purposes }
seems to have begun early in 1919 (after the Great War had |
been closed by an armistice), at the Katanga frontier of |
Northern Rhodesia, to have continued across and up Lake |
Tanganyika to Ujiji, and thence overland through the valley | |
of the Malagarazi River and its north-western affluents, to ©
the lofty tablelands of Burundi. From Burundi he and his ~
plucky wife—as capable an African explorer and photographer |
as her husband—made their way to Lake Kivu, and thence © :
through the great volcanoes of Virunga to Lake Edward, —
especially along the almost unknown western coast of Lake
Edward (where the tameness of the elephants and other big _
game testified to an unvisited hunter’s paradise), whence —
they made their way to the Belgian post of Mbeni, on |
middle course of the Semliki. a
From Mbeni the author effected his climb up the slopall i
of the Ruwenzori range to an altitude of nearly 13,000 feet.
From Mbeni he and his wife explored the still mysterious a
Congo Forest, and made their way eventually across that
forest belt to Stanleyville on the Upper Congo, from”
Stanleyville by steamer nine hundred miles down
river to Stanley Pool, from Stanley Pool by railway to
po |
ee ee t= ~to=r ———
Introduction
| the Lower Congo, and thence to England by an ocean-
going steamer.
Not much of the country crossed was absolutely new to
! geography, to the white man’s knowledge in the twentieth
century. The only portions probably not hitherto traversed
by the white man were tracks between Lakes Kivu and
Edward, and portions of the route—or divagations from the
- route—between Avakubi (on the Ituri River) and the main
Congo at Stanleyville. But the whole journey was made
_ full of novelty by the actions of the author and his wife.
_ They have probably discovered many new species and even
genera of insects through their industry in collecting and
preserving ; they have thrown considerable light on the sub-
species or even distinct species of elephant inhabiting the
eastern half of the Belgian Congo right up to the vicinity
of Lake Albert; they have obtained a fine specimen of the
largest known species of gorilla (originally discovered by
Mr. Oscar Beringer) to the north of Lake Kivu and perhaps
within the watershed of Tanganyika; possibly within that
of the Nile.
Mr. Beringer’s magnificent specimen, which I believe is
the one exhibited at the British Museum (Natural History),
was obtained in the opening years of the twentieth century,
not long after the writer of this introductory chapter had
returned to England from the Uganda Protectorate and
from a visit to the adjoining region of the Belgian Congo.
Mr. Barns’s gorilla, obtained from the same district and at an
altitude of ten thousand feet, is perhaps a little lower in
stature, but clearly belongs to this new species, the Eastern
gorilla, Gorilla beringeri ; distinct from the gorilla of West
Central Africa (Luango, Gaboon, Cameroons and Ja River)
XX c
Introduction
in detail of skull proportions, in not having quite such long ©
canine teeth, in greater size of body and a greater growth |
and length of hair on the head. g
The first white man intelligently to appreciate the existence
of the chimpanzi and gorilla in West-central Africa, and
to distinguish between them, was the English sailor, Andre 4 )
Battel of Essex, who was stranded on the Angola coast abou |
1592 and carried away into Luango across the lower Congo —
by an army of raiding negroes. He reported the existence _
of two kinds of man-like apes in that region: the “‘ Engeco” —
(chimpanzi) and the “ Pongo” (gorilla), names which still
1613, but little heed was paid to these details for two hundre a |
and fifty years. e |
The existence and characters of the chimpanzi were |
realised in Europe towards the end of the eighteenth century, —
probably first by a naturalist in Wirtemberg. But the
name “ chimpanzi’”’ we owe to the Portuguese, who derived |
it from the Bantu language of the northern Luango count y |
where it is heard as chi-mpenze, chi-mpanzi to the present |
day. One of the several Hannos of Carthaginian history or.
legend apparently discovered the chimpanzi of the Sie a
Leone coastlands some five hundred years before the Christian '
era, at the conclusion of an exploring voyage along the North-
west Coast of Africa. But the skins brought back to Carthage |
were ascribed to “ wild men,”’ and the episode was forgotten
or passed over till the discovery of the gorilla in the mid- |
nineteenth century. Then it was erroneously assumed that
his Hanno had pushed his exploring voyages as far east as ]
the Cameroons, and his name for the chimpanzi (“ gorilla”.
—very likely derived from Fula or Wolof words meaning —
XXli
ae
Sa
Ee
Introduction
‘“‘wild man ’’) was bestowed on the larger ape, the “ gorilla,”’
first discovered in the Gaboon by American missionaries
about 1847.
But although, through Professor Owen’s examination of
the skulls sent home by these missionaries, the existence of
the gorilla was determined as a form distinct from the chim-
panzi in the coastlands of West Central Africa, north of the
Congo, the emphatic identity of this large ape was not pro-
perly appreciated till after the journeys of Paul du Chaillu
at the close of the ’fifties. Yet actually, before du Chaillu
brought home definite accounts of the gorilla, a female
gorilla was being (about 1855) exhibited through the English
countryside in a travelling menagerie ; and outside the walls
of an old farm-house in Berkshire was suspended a large
gorilla skull, not realised as what it was till a few years ago,
when it was figured in Country Life. The female gorilla of
the circus died about the time of Paul du Chaillu’s exciting
book and lectures of the early ’sixties, and was identified by
the superintendent of the Zoological Society.
The existence of a large species of chimpanzi in the Bahr-al-
ghazal region and the adjoining forests of North-east Congo-
land had been discovered by Schweinfurth in the early
‘seventies. Stanley, myself, the Baptist Missionary pioneers
_—especially Grenfell—reported the existence of some form
_ of chimpanzi on the Upper Congo (north bank) in the ’eighties.
— ee ——— et
- Livingstone in 1870 had noted the existence of the chim-
panzi (‘‘ Soko ’’) on the west side of Tanganyika in a form—
Anthropopithecus troglodytes marungensis—which may be only
_ a sub-species or variety of Schweinfurth’s chimpanzi. This
_chimpanzi of Marungu has been thought to extend its range
almost as far south as the vicinity of Lake Mweru. In the
XX11
Introduction
nineties, Grenfell photographed a very large chimpanzi 4 |
derived from the north side of Stanley Pool. It must have
been about five feet three inches in height. He also recorded |
subsequently in notes the existence of the chimpanzi in the ‘
regions north of the Upper Congo, but never to the south of
that river. >t
In 1890, Stanley, on his return from the Emin Pasha |
Relief Expedition, expressed his belief to the present writer = |
that there was a form of gorilla in the dense forests of North- # H
east Congoland; so that when I went out to Uganda in
1899, and crossed the Semliki into the Congo Forest in 1900,
I made inquiries of the Belgian officials, who thought them
most appropriate; for they actually had in their possession |
photographs of a gorilla killed in the vicinity of Avakubi a
on the Ituri River. }
Early in the twentieth century (1902, 1903?) Mr. Oscar
Beringer (an engineer, I believe, connected with the building Hi |
of the German railway to Tanganyika) penetrated the Kivu ©
region north of Tanganyika, and in the vicinity of the Virunga |
volcanoes obtained the magnificent specimen of the Eastern: |
gorilla now named after him. i
In 1905, George Grenfell stated in one of his private letters —
that in the district of Bwela, north of the Upper Congo and _
near the River Motima, he came across a group of gorillas |
seated in a tree, and that he killed one a little over four feet in ©
— (The incident is further described in my two volumes —
“ George Grenfell and the Congo.’’) Grenfell knew quite |
sees about the anthropoid apes to distinguish between
the gorilla and the chimpanzi; and from other scattered, ;
notes in his papers I gather that he considered there was a
gorilla district north of the Upper Congo from the Mongala :
XX1V 4
Introduction
River on the west to the Lower Aruwimi on the east. Captain
Guy Burrows, about 1900, photographed a gorilla said to have
been killed near the Stanley Falls, to the east of the main
; Congo.
The gorillas identified as the beringeri species, identical
with the large specimen in the British Museum and with
that illustrated so splendidly by Mr. Barns in this book,
come from a mountain region ranging from eight to ten
thousand feet in elevation. Are they specifically identical
with the types killed at Avakubi on the Ituri River and east
| of the Stanley Falls, where the altitude above sea level cannot
_ have been more than two thousand feet ? That is a question
not yet determined, just as we are not able to say whether
Grenfell’s gorilla of the northernmost Congo is distinct as a
| species, or even as a sub-species, from the Western gorillas of
_ the Sanga River, the Cameroons, Gaboon and Luango.
The Eastern gorilla illustrated in this book and further
represented by the very large specimen in the British Museum,
??
appears to be slightly more “human” in the lessened pro-
portionate size of its canine teeth and one or two modifications
_ of the skull, the arrangement of the head hair and prominence
| of the nose.* (The Neanderthal species of man who existed in
| central, western and southern Europe from five hundred
' thousand to one hundred thousand years ago (or even later)
had a nose very like an exaggeration of the gorilla type:
' depressed as regards bridge, but very prominent and bulging
| over and around the nostrils.)
The problem of the anthropoid apes in Africa at the
| present day may be stated thus :-—
* The features and appearance of the Western gorilla of the Gaboon are
admirably illustrated in the September Bulletin of the New York Zoological
| Society, and should be compared with those of the Eastern gorilla in this book.
XXV
Introduction
The gorilla is distributed (apparently with intervening —
gaps) between the elevated Virunga volcano region on the
east (almost on the frontiers of Western Uganda), and the 3 |
coast region of the Gaboon and the Cameroons on the west.
In the Cameroons, gorillas are found certainly as far north
as the middle Sanagd River, and in a southerly direction |
their range extends into the Luango coast country, north of |
the Lower Congo. o]
The chimpanzis in several species or sub-species are found _ |
in the southern part of the Bahr-al-ghazal province of the $
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and thence southward (through Unyoro ~ | |
and Western Uganda) along the western side of Tanganyika ; |
to the district of Marungu and possibly the vicinity of Lake © q
Mweru in S. lat. 8°. Certainly the gorilla and apparently — i: q
the chimpanzi, are not found west or south of the main stream |
of the Congo; the chimpanzi, however, is fairly abundant _
through the northern forested Congo basin to the Luango coast — :|
and the Cameroons. Chimpanzis are found in the eastern
and perhaps the western parts of Southern Nigeria. all
have never been reported from Dahomé, and their existence -
in the Gold Coast is not established. But they are still _
found in the Ivory Coast forests, in Liberia, Sierra Leone, —
and much of Senegambia up to the Gambia River. They !
are larger and superficially more gorilla-like in the eastern ;
half of their range than they are in West Africa. |
It would almost seem at one time as though their range if |
the Eastern Sudan brought them within the cognizance of
the ancient Egyptians, for chimpanzis were certainly known
to the Greeks in the Greek colonies of Mediterranean Egypt, _
whither they may have been brought as curiosities from the
Sudan. In the Tanagra collection of the British —_
XXVi
:
/
|
:
Introduction
may be seen several models of anthropoid apes, about five
hundred to six hundred B.c. in approximate date, which can
only have been derived from a study of the chimpanzi. One
of these—an ape riding an ox—is such a remarkable repro-
duction of the Schweinfurth chimpanzi that I cannot think
it can have had any other model. I imagine that this ape
must have been occasionally imported into Egypt from
possibly a farther north habitat than it at present possesses.
But in other directions we are left with a puzzle, for the
nearest fossil relations of the apes of Equatorial Africa are
only—so far—to be found in North-west India, in the foot-
hills of the Himalayas. Here, of Pliocene date, have been
found a few remains evidencing the existence in Northern
India of anthropoid apes allied to both chimpanzi and orang-
utan. From the little we know of it, the Palzopithecus of
North-west India found in lower Pliocene formations is
rather nearer the human ancestor than any of the anthropoid
remains of Europe.
These last have been found in Miocene and Pliocene forma-
tions in south-central France, southern Germany, Austria
and Italy. Professor Fraas, early in the twentieth century,
discovered skulls of a gibbon-like anthropoid ape of the
Oligocene period in Upper Egypt. Nothing living or fossil
so near to the human sub-family as the chimpanzi and gorilla
has, so far, been found outside Equatorial Africa, save these
few remains of a chimpanzi-like ape in North-west India.
Yet nothing human, living or fossil, has as yet been found in
Africa which cannot be included in two species of true
_ Man, Homo sapiens and Homo rhodesiensis, the Neanderthaloid
type recently found in northern Rhodesia. The more transi-
tional types between apes and men that have hitherto been
XXVIII
Introduction
brought to light have been found in Java; in the Sussex q
county of southern England; in France, Spain, southern }
Germany, and Austria. From a variety of other suggestions :
we may consider the most likely birthplace of man to have ~
been not any part of Africa and certainly no part of America ;
but some region of western Asia not far from the mythical
“Garden of Eden,’ midway in distance from the Java
to which Pithecanthropos strayed, and Sussex, whither
Eoanthropos penetrated before the Ice Ages developed both
the hideous man of Neanderthal and the modern species of a
Homo sapiens. bi
Arabia, which should serve as a connecting link in the ©
story of the mammalian and human peopling of Africa, has |
been many times blighted and scarred by the stupidly con-
ducted forces clumsily controlling this little planet. Seem-
ingly this peninsula is the remains of a vast region formerly _
extending farther into the Indian Ocean, which connected East
Africa with Persia, India, and Malaysia ; and southern India a
in the first half,of the Tertiary epoch was more or less con-
nected with Madagascar. But first, at the close of the Terti-
aries, a terrific outburst of volcanic energy covered a great ‘|
deal of the Arabian area with an impenetrable, all concealing — 4 i
lava flow (hiding from our knowledge the fossils in its rocks). |
And next came the abstraction of its rainfall and the creation — /
of its shifting and concealing sands. And lastly arose the |
Islamic ‘‘ faith,’”’ a cruel parody of Judaism and ciate ,
the worst form of knowledge-destroying religion that man _
has yet invented. Islamic fanaticism has abstracted Southern
Arabia from the examination of educated eyes. 4
Nevertheless, though Arabia, through climatic and human A
recalcitrancy has been reduced to a negation, we must assume .
XXViil
Introduction
_ from the little we know about it that as late as forty or fifty
_ thousand years ago it was still a well-watered region, serving
as a route between Syria, India, Persia and Africa, across
_ which travelled the giraffes, the anthropoid apes, the buffaloes,
many of the antelopes, the zebras and asses, and the early
types of Homo sapiens. Another path for the peopling of
_ Africa in the Pliocene and Pleistocene was the land connection
across the Mediterranean, the Italian land-route, which down
_ to some twenty to thirty thousand years ago cut the Mediter-
_ ranean in two and linked up Malta, Tripoli and Tunis with
Sicily and Italy.
At no very remote period and well within the human era,
_ the mammals of Algeria, Morocco and Tunis resembled very
_ strongly those of Eastern and South Africa at the present
day. Much of the Sahara was then a shallow sea, but there
was the broad belt of land, the Tasili-Tibesti plateaux and
mountains, which connected Algeria and Tunis with the Central
Sudan. Across this diagonal mountainous area travelled
to east and south the white rhinoceros, the African elephant,
several of the antelopes, the buffalo with enormous horns
fourteen feet long (Bubalis antiquus), the eland and the
_ hyena. An even more important route in the advance of
_ the modern mammalian fauna over East and South Africa
was the valley of the Nile and the mountainous region east
of it, once directly connected with Arabia across the Red
_ Sea Rift valley. From Egypt and Abyssinia came contingents
_ of big and remarkable beasts, and probably the Negro and
_ Negroid types of man to journey southward to another great
scene of expansion: Trans-Zambezian Africa and Southern
Angola.
South Africa, where, for the past hundred years, and more
XX1x
Introduction
furiously than ever since the Great War, the British,German, __
and the Boer settlers have been exterminating with reckless __
blood-lust a most magnificent mammalian fauna; South a
Africa, outside the forests of the Central region, offered a e |
singular resemblance in its extravagant mammalian forms to
the beasts of prehistoric Algeria, and of Abyssinia, Somaliland,
and equatorial East Africa. Vestiges of this wealth were
encountered by the author of this book and have been seen | |
by many of those who from the days. of Speke and Grant
onwards have penetrated East Africa up to the borders of |
the Congo forests. 4
Not a few of the beasts and birds, living and extinct,
which have been found in North Africa, Abyssinia, the
eastern Sudan, Somaliland, and equatorial East Africa down |
to the sixth degree of S. latitude, are not only absent entirely 4 |
from the central basin of the Congo but do not reappear till the _
Zambezi has been crossed and the South African sphere has _
been entered. A somewhat similar gap in distribution may
be noted in the Americas where there may be great resem- 7
blances between the existing mammalian fauna of South |
America and that of pre-Glacial North America, with very ii
little (to-day) in the way of living or fossil forms in Central q
America to connect them, the fauna not having cared to linger i.
long in the attenuated connecting parts. : | 1
But in Central Africa there has been no lack of space for the _
q
maintenance of the southward-tending beasts and birds: aT
we can only assume that the rather narrow connecting belt
between north and south in East Africa has been caused by |
the existence of a vast recent lake over the inner Congo basa |
Similarly, to account for the present distribution of beasts, ~
birds, reptiles and fresh-water fish between North Africa 6
xxx
Introduction
and the Sudan and northern equatorial zone, we are obliged
to assume that in prehistoric, but not very distant times,
much of the Sahara and Libyan deserts were covered by a
! wide expanse of shallow sea, or by fresh-water lakes many
times larger in area than the Victoria Nyanza and Lake Chad.
_ There is some local evidence to support this assumption.
Along the Eastern route, from Syria and Arabia, through
Egypt and Abyssinia we may surmise justifiably that the
anthropoid apes came to east equatorial Africa, and thence
crossed the continent in the forms of the chimpanzi, to extend
their range through its vast western forests. The gorilla,
perhaps arriving later, only penetrated westward to the
proximity of the Niger delta. :
The okapi likewise passed from Egypt (its nearest relations
are found fossil in Greece and Asia Minor) to the north-
eastern Congo forests, but has not—as has the Hylocherus
genus of swine—been found west of the Mubangi affluent of
the Congo.
The fossil remains of anequine like the zebra have been
found in Algeria, but no wild ass or zebra has been located in
the Sahara or Libyan deserts; or anywhere west of the main
Nile, as far south as the Semliki River and the north end of
Tanganyika. The range of the zebra, in two or more species,
skirts the south end of Tanganyika and in general the southern
limits of the Congo basin, and penetrates into Angola, south
of the Kwanza River. The range of the rhinoceroses in the
southern half of Africa is very much that of the zebras except,
of course, that within the last hundred years the white
rhinoceros has been virtually exterminated in Trans-Zambezian
Africa by the British-Boer white man. But xorth of the
equator both forms of the rhinoceros may be found west
XXxl
Introduction _ |
of the main Nile; and the black rhinoceros extends its range i
—seemingly—into Eastern Nigeria (though not to the west |
of the Niger) ; and according to the Roman records, was once
very abundant south of the Sahara, round Lake Chad. 4
The vast forests of Central Congoland, south and west 5)
of the main stream, are to-day very different from the Northern _ |
Congo basin, the Cameroons, and the Tanganyika region in |
their mammalian fauna, different in what they lack rather |
than in what they possess. They are apparently without /|
anthropoid apes, giraffe or okapi, water chevrotain, and most |
of the antelopes, the Hylocherus pig, rhinoceros, zebra or :
the Mants edentates (except the wide-spread Manis temmuincht),
and seemingly lack the aardvark.
The reason for this poverty in mammalian fauna seems ~
to have been that within Pliocene and Pleistocene times, —
when the rest of Africa was being peopled with the mammals
and birds of Europe and Asia, the Central Congo basin was
a vast fresh-water lake of which Lakes Leopold II and Man-
tumba are tiny residuary fragments. This question has been |
treated at some length in my work on Grenfell’s explorations,
so it is not necessary to descant further on it here. |
Similarly, and also within the human period, much of
the Sahara and Libyan deserts was under water; so that the ~
routes by which tropical Africa received its modern mammals _
and its early types of man from the Mediterranean lands
and from Western Asia were virtually restricted to the elevated
strip of the Tasili-Tibesti highlands from Algeria to Darfur, _
and the mountainous country east of the Nile, from Egypt —
to Abyssinia and East Africa. Much of the Bahr-al-ghazal
basin between Wadai and the vicinity of the Mountain Nile aI
was a vast shallow lake. e |
XXX
Introduction
_ Both these routes converged to what is, perhaps, the most
_ interesting region of all Africa at the present day : the country
_ known as the Albertine Rift Valley, through which in the
_ north flows the Semliki River to join Lake Albert, while
_ beyond Lake Edward the now elevated Lake Kivu sends
_ its waters southward-into Tanganyika to join the Congo
system. Clearly, at no very distant interval of time, volcanic
_ disturbances (now made evident in the active and passive
volcanoes of Virunga) had not raised Kivu two thousand
feet above the level of Tanganyika; and Livingstone’s
theory might then have been true, that Tanganyika was the
farthest source of the Nile, with its waters flowing northwards to
the Albert Nyanza over the bed of the Semliki. But with the
bending upwards of this Rift valley, Tanganyika became long
isolated (its tribute to the Congo is even now intermittent
and liable to interruption). When first discovered by Burton
and Livingstone, Tanganyika may have been in one of its
phases of isolation with its stagnant, rising water turning to
salinity. Its aquatic fauna is very peculiar, suggesting long
separation from the Nile basin, yet no great degree of con-
nection with Congo waters. Tanganyika is a Rift Valley
lake, probably of considerable age and quite different to the
broad and—in comparison—very shallow Victoria Nyanza.
Tanganyika has depths of four thousand seven hundred feet ;
the Victoria has no greater depth than about two hundred
and forty feet. Tanganyika lies on the eastern frontier of
forested Africa, of the region which extends with some inter-
tuptions and lessening of its rich and peculiar fauna west-
wards across equatorial Africa to the mouth of the Gambia
in West Africa. Faunistically speaking, the west and north
coasts of Tanganyika are in West Africa, the south and east
XXXili
Introduction
coasts in East Africa. Lakes Kivu and Edward are similarly _
on the border line. Lake Albert is virtually East African.
But east of the Albert, and north and east of the Victoria
Nyanza there still persist areas and patches of “‘ West African” |
forest, with the grey parrot, the large corytheola plantain-
eater, and many other West African bird types, the Bongo _
tragelaph, the Potto lemur, and numerous West African '
species of bats, rodents, hyraxes and Manis edentates. These _
patches of forest with their ““ West African” beasts, birds, |
reptiles, spiders, and insects really remain as relics of ale :
forest belt that in the Tertiary epoch passed continua
across lands now arid or sunk in the sea between equatorial _
Africa and India. In the Pleistocene a lessening in rainfall ;
or a lowering in temperature created the distinction between
prairieland and forest belt; and the great fauna of Europe ~
and the Mediterranean basin passed through eastern equatorial ~
Africa where the forest was weakest, down to the praingy
lands and grassy plateaux of the South. 4
The Albertine Rift Valley, so much the special sphere of
Mr. Barns’s research, is just one of those districts where the
change of fauna and flora is most abruptly contrasted : for |
he has stood where I have stood, facing north; and almost
descrying from the same standpoint on the left hand the |
abrupt ending of the dense forest with skulls of the small
red forest buffalo in the herbage; and on the right, grassy I
plains with only an occasional borassus palm or low-growing ©
acacia tree, teeming with East African antelopes, big-horned _
Cape buffalos, zebras and rhinoceroses.
He has likewise seen and known the Hamitic aristocracy
of these open grass countries, abruptly verging on the fores
XXXIV
Introduction
In the abundant populations—spared for a time, at any rate,
from the ghastly infection of sleeping sickness, because much
of their country rises above the levels affected by the tsetse
_fly—may be seen the Negro peasantry and cultivators and
the aristocracy of tall, handsome Bahima or Batusi. This
superior caste is mainly of Negro race (when truth is told),
but is obviously descended from something that was not
Negro, once—ancient Egyptian, Gala, Somal, ‘‘ Fuzzie-wuzzie,”
from the north and north-east. These Hamites, who are
further remarkable for speaking the purest and most highly
developed Bantu languages, seem more especially to have
carried out an invasion of the Albertine Rift Valley between
western Uganda and the edge of the Congo Forest about
two thousand years ago; and to have pushed their invasion
southward to the north end of Tanganyika, and in an attenu-
ated form both west and east of Tanganyika; till, growing
ever more “negro” in physique (yet often retaining a fine
cast of countenance) they founded states north of Nyasa and
west of Tanganyika. They even pushed the influence of
their blood, intelligence, and mental vigour into the southern
_ part of the Congo basin—the land of Lunda—may even have
pushed on south till they brought some racial influence of
the Hamite in face-features and intelligence to the southern
_ Bantu, and so survived here and there among the Hererd,
the Karafia and the Zulu.
_ But in Western Uganda, in Toro, Ankole, Ruanda, Karagwe
and Burundi, they still remain as a distinct and sovereign
caste. The hair is tightly crinkled but (when allowed to grow)
_ is long and abundant, and the facial features are not those of
|
the negro but of the handsome Gala, Somali, and Ancient
_ Egyptian. H. H. JOHNSTON.
AXXV
THE WONDERLAND OF THE
FASTERN CONGO
CHAPTER I
FROM THE KATANGA COPPER BELT TO LAKE TANGANYIKA
| “Cape to Caivo! Steamer to steamer!
Rail and wire from South to North...
Men guffawed at the Master Schemer,
Fools waxed loud in their foolish wrath...
But the project held, and the words went forth,
Sister-nations hurried to aid,
Stung by the dream of a dumb, dead Dreamer,
Men toiled on till the rails were laid.”’
Rhodes’s Dream. Verse IV.
} T may be truly said that a second Rand is developing
i itself in the Katanga. This highly mineralised area,
j where are to be found green mountains of copper,
fields of tin, gold and diamonds, will, I venture to predict,
ome day become second to none in the whole of Africa. Like
‘the Ituri gold district, of the north-east Congo, its poten-
‘ialities are unlimited.
_ The Katanga Copper Mines, which are at present exploited
oy a company styled L’Union Mimere du Haut Katanga,
ire very rich and numerous, too numerous it is said for
his one company to work ; it being now considered necessary
© grant concessions to a new financial group to exploit
hose mines to the west of the Lualaba Valley.
New ways of communication have now been devised to
each this rich district, principal amongst which is the Lobito
| I B
The Eastern Congo
Bay Railway, which is again being pushed forward with
new energy and capital. In all likelihood the junction with —
the Cape to Cairo Railway will occur at a small place called —
Fungarumi, high up on the Lufira-Lualaba Watershed. ©
Stands, at this place, are already reaching a high figure in |
consequence. Apart from the Cape Railway, the Katanga _
can now be reached mechanically by rail and steamer from |
Boma up the Congo and Lualaba Rivers to Bukama, also
by rail and steamer via Dar-es-Salaam and Kigoma, across
Lake Tanganyika to Albertville and thence to Kabalo and :
up the Lualaba River. g
The natives working on the mines are recruited from all
over South Central Africa : principally of late from Portuguese |
Angola; these natives make first-class workmen after |
month’s training with pick and shovel. Ke
The mine “boys” are thoroughly well looked after,
especially as regards food—there being a daily ration on a
liberal scale fixed by Government, which includes a good
palm-oil. This fixed rationing of natives besides being an
inducement to good work—it being proverbial that a hungry
negro is good for nothing at all—gives a great impetus to’
trade, and a as more than 60, 000 natives are employed annue lh
can be gained of the amount of produce reqnitas to feee ‘
them and the extent of the market. |
Elisabethville, the capital of the Katanga Concession, i |
a remarkably well laid out town of over 1,600 inhabitants
only ten days by train from Cape Town. Since the adven
of the railway this place has made rapid progress and nov
contains many fine buildings, and good hotels with ever
. :
‘peor s,Aoq 9uo stajod yoeq = ‘aury o11e-0}-adeg ayy 10;
eytAuesuey oye] 0} salog ydeisalay, uoly suniodsuriy ‘Dp
ee
-
The father and mother
e right and left respectively.
G, Albino Negro Children.
are to be seen to th
The Katanga
modern luxury. The Vice-Governor’s palace is a really
beautiful building, reminding one of some villa on the
Riviera.
The town stands on the headwaters of the Lufubu River,
an affluent of the Luapula. Good big game shooting is
to be had in the vicinity and good motor roads run out in
all directions. Lake Mweru can be reached by motor car
_or by cycle in one day and the lake is likely to become an
| attraction to visitors in the near future.
Likasi, on the northern slope of the Lufira Valley, one
of the copper mines to be opened up within the last three
| years, has now become a net-work of railways and sidings
|—a branch from the main line to the new township having
| been completed in the latter part of 1918. A large con-
\centrating plant was in course of erection when I left and
‘\a mountain of copper and another of limestone flux were
i\being blasted away. Smelters will come later, then the
}\copper ore from the mines to the north will be treated at
‘\this new centre instead of at Elisabethville, as at
\present.
"| The climate of the Katanga highlands, which have a
jmean elevation of about 3,800 feet above sea level, is perhaps
jumsurpassable. The country is splendidly wooded and well
Watered, and the absence of agricultural enterprise is there-
“jfore striking. There are not a dozen farms in the neigh-
}pourhood of any importance and yet there is an unlimited
arket for every description of produce. Certainly the
“yjoil is heavy clay for the most part but very rich when
properly ‘“‘ worked.”’ The Government will be well advised
ff they encourage agriculture and stock raising in all its
ranches and so keep in the country the very large sums
3
The Eastern Congo
that go out annually for meat and produce, the food supply 7
of the whole of the Katanga being obtained, with few ex-
ceptions, from Rhodesia and South Africa. The Lufira
and Lufubu Valleys are admirably suited for agriculture —
and the Manika Plateau is a splendid cattle country free —
of “fly,” with a rich pasture, well-watered and in every ~
way suitable for stock. Moreover, the tsetse fly, where —
found, does not run in large belts and is on the decrease. —
The fact is the country has not yet been sufficiently —
advertised. The independent Europeans now to be found ~
there—Greek and Italian traders and Jews of many nation -
alities—are the wrong class for agricultural enterprise. These —
bloodsuckers are engaged in all manner of mining contracts —
and shady commerce, whereby they fleece both white and
black. The best class of settler should be advertised for
and given every encouragement by the Government. |
The Comité Spécial du Katanga grant farms on cheap anc
easy terms, but so far these have only been taken up by |
contractors and others as a side-line or place for a countn
residence. There is a quick fortune to be made near these | |
mines by the hard-working man with a modest capital, either
in trading or mixed farming, and both the Union Miniére and }
the Comité Spécial will welcome any such and give all the
assistance in their power. When I left the district in May,
Ig19, and before the franc went down in value, the follo ing
prices ruled in Elisabethville: beef 3f. 50c. per kilo; mutte ii
5f. ooc. per kilo; pork 5f. ooc. per kilo; onions 2f. 5o0c. D ; |
kilo; potatoes from rf. ooc. to 2f. ooc. per kilo; tomate e 5
rf. 50c. per kilo; cabbages if. ooc. each; lemons 50¢.
each; pumpkins and vegetable marrows rf. ooc. to If. 50¢.
each; lettuces four for rf. ooc.; milk rf. 50c. per pint.
urds.
©
@, Male and female Varanus Liz
ee
ee
South Congoland.
in
bank 1
Palms on the river
@, Raphia
|
The Katanga
bottle; eggs of. ooc. per dozen; butter 3f. 50c. to 4f. ooc.
per Ib.
The foregoing gives an outline of the conditions prevailing
in the Congo Copper Belt which we were to leave behind us
on our long northward journey.
The trip from Elisabethville along the lately completed
line to Bukama on the Lualaba River will take the traveller
some forty hours, including the wait of an hour or more at
Kambove. After leaving the latter place there is a gradual
rise to the more open country around Chilongo, on the
southern end of the Manika Plateau, where the climate is
cold and invigorating, standing as it does on the watershed
between the Lufira and Lualaba Valleys at an elevation of
nearly 5,000 feet above sea-level. From here the descent
into the Lualaba Valley begins, at first passing through
immense open plains and then again into the thick forest as
before. On reaching the Kalule and Kalengwe Rivers close
to the Lualaba the scenery is enthralling, and so helps one >
to forget the danger, or what feels like danger, attendant
upon the crossing of the shaky trestle wooden bridges that
Span some of the gorges and cataracts. These timber bridges
are of so bad a design that some of the engine-drivers refuse
_ to take the big American engines across them. However,
_ they are to be replaced by iron structures as soon as the
_ Material is available.
- The mail train arrives at Bukama in the night. This
place is of an uninteresting nature, hot and feverish to a
marked degree, with no accommodation for travellers and
‘no fresh food obtainable. This is unfortunate, as one usually
_ has to wait here several days for a river steamer. The
| Lualaba River at Bukama being found to be too shallow
5
The Eastern Congo
for the 150-ton paddle steamers that ply between here and ©
Kongolo, the Katanga Railway authorities are contemplating
extending the line to Kiabo, on the eastern side of Lake
Kissale. Why this was not done in the first place remains a
mystery, to be accounted for, no doubt, by the very cursory
construction and surveying methods which show themselves
elsewhere along this line.
The rainy season having been an unusually poor one and
the river very low in consequence, we were lucky to catch,
in the first week in June, the last steamer to reach Bukama
for that season. As we had been “eating our heads off” —
at this beastly place for four days, without fresh food of ©
any kind, we hailed with the greatest delight the little stern- ~
wheeler the Baron Janssen, and as she was to sail the following 4
day we were soon aboard. The food supplied proved to be ©
excellent, but the lower deck, where our cabin was situated, —
like so many of the Belgian river steamers, left a good deal ©
to be desired in the way of cleanliness. It was littered with —
the ordure of negro men, women, and children, being crowded ~
with these noisy people themselves, together with their — : .
accompanying livestock. The African traveller, however, }
soon becomes inured to sights, sounds, and smells that are —
only dreamt of in nightmares by ordinary mortals, so we
gave the lower deck a wide berth after stowing away our 7
baggage, and were soon taking the fresh air above an A
interesting ourselves in the passing scenery. A
Shortly after leaving Bukama the Lualaba flows into a |
chain of small lakes named respectively Kabele, Upemba, |
Kissale, Lusambo, and Kalamba, the biggest of which is —
Kissale. When about to enter the first of these lakes we ©
passed another steamer stuck fast on a sand bank in mid- a
P :
ee ee
my
The Katanga
stream ; it had been there for six days. This mishap, I was
told, was due as much to the proverbial intemperance of
the river captain as to the nature of the river itself.
Like all African river steamers, the Baron Janssen uses
wood for her boilers, so it was not until the operation of
“wooding ’’ was accomplished by piling up every available
space on the steamer with logs from a wood station on
the banks that we got fairly under way, nightfall finding us
nearing Lake Kisale, close to which the captain tied up for
the night.
Until one comes out into the open waters of this lake
the view is dull and uninteresting, bounded as it is by papyrus
swamps, but here many interesting birds and water-plants
are to be seen. Then again on leaving the lake the papyrus
swamp is replaced by lacustrine plains which form low but
solid banks to the river, where herds of elephant, buffalo,
and other game are seen. Farther downstream as we approach
Ankora the banks are forested with splendid palms of several
kinds, principally of the oil (Elais), borassus, and ivory-
nut species. As these are mirrored in the dark and
winding river the whole makes a panorama of exceeding
beauty.
Some seven years ago this region was the centre of a
thriving palm-oil industry and was thickly populated by the
Baluba natives engaged in cultivating the Elais palm and
extracting the thick oil to be obtained from the fruit, but
with the advent of what may be termed the sleeping sickness
epidemic which ravaged Central Africa in the last decade,
these natives were exterminated, the district being now
practically deserted and given over to immense herds of
elephant and buffalo, who roam there unchallenged.
7
The Eastern Congo
The fourth and last day of our voyage, which brought
us into Kabalo, took us past Ankora, the administrative
centre of the district on the mouth of the Luvua River which
flows out of the north end of Lake Mweru. The small _
town of Kabalo being built amidst marshy surroundings
is uninviting and mosquito ridden; it forms the terminus
of the short section of railway completed during the war,
connecting the Upper Congo River (or Lualaba) with Albert-
ville on Lake Tanganyika. The bi-weekly mail train leaves
Kabalo at 6 a.m. and reaching Albertville at sundown,
takes twelve hours to do the hundred and sixty-five miles.
Half way along its length, this line follows the Lukuga
River very closely, and much beautiful and wild river
scenery is passed. There appeared to be no change in the
surrounding bush, all the trees and shrubs in the open
forest were old friends, familiar to me farther south in
Northern Rhodesia and the Chambezi Valley.
Our little train puffed into Albertville at sundown to-
wards the end of June, 1919. Fortunately for us, as at
Kabalo, there is a limited accommodation for travellers
which consists of wooden huts, near the railway, belonging
to the Compagnie des Grands Lacs, for the use of which
five francs per day is charged.
Albertville, which is partly built on a narrow strip of
foreshore and partly above on the high sandstone cliffs,
lies almost on the sixth degree south of the equator, and
close up to the only outlet of the Tanganyika waters, where
the Lukuga River has its source. The volume of water
which flows through this gap in the western wall of the
lake, changes according to the seasons, but of recent years
there has been no large overflow, its tendency being to
8
ee
2 Seen aeey ae neg
: 2 ow
The Katanga
diminish rather than to increase. There are at present
several shallow channels wandering through the expanse
of sand and reeds which front the mouth of this river, but
a great many years ago, judging by the water-worn cuttings
in the soft sandstone, it was very much otherwise, for then
the overflow must have been of imposing dimensions and
considerable depth.
Although Albertville has now only eight white inhabitants,
it was during the German East Campaign that it assumed
some importance as a base of operations for the Tanganyika
Naval Expedition. It was from here that the little motor
gunboats set out to smash up the Hermann von Wissmann and
so clear the way for the advance across the lake and up the
Tabora Railway from Kigoma. For this purpose engines
and rolling stock were taken across from Albertville. Here
also the Naval Expedition launched the King George,
originally the Congo Governor’s yacht. This boat was taken
to pieces at Kabalo, railed to Albertville, put together
again there and floated in the record time of seven
days.
As is well known this expedition was in charge of Com-
mander Spicer-Simpson, who was especially reverenced by the
local tribesmen on account of his wearing kilts. These savages
never having seen a white man in this garb before, put
him down as something exceptional in the way of a ‘‘ White
God,” giving him the name of Chifungatumbo, which means
literally, the “man who wears a stomach cloth.” The
Commander was known by this name up and down the
length of Tanganyika—such is fame in Africa!
A few hours’ steaming to the north of Albertville, lies
Lake Toa, where the Belgian Military Aerodrome was
9
The Eastern Congo
situated and from which place the first hydroplane on Lake _
Tanganyika set forth to bomb the Germans at Kigoma. |
There were many set backs before the hydroplane could ‘
be put into flying trim, with the result that Kigoma was
found to be evacuated when the first flight over the harbour |
was made. |
oy
rs
“i
7,
eet oe pepts
IO
CHAPTER II
LAKE TANGANYIKA ; KIGOMA AND UJIJI AND OUR START FOR
THE NORTH
“ Partly for the sake of gold
At the Rainbow’s End,
Glamour of old tales told
At the gloom of day.
Partly, too, for the peace
Wide spaces lend,
Sought we the soft release
Of the Far Away.”
The Pioneers. Verse I.
YING between the third and ninth parallels of
latitude south of the equator, Lake Tanganyika
is the longest lake in Africa, being four hundred miles
in length, and an average of thirty miles in breadth. It
stands, surrounded by great mountain ranges which form
a vast abyss, at 2,756 feet above sea level. Its greatest
depth has never yet been fathomed but it is most certainly
well over four thousand seven hundred feet. The ‘“ dogs of
war ’’ seem to have taken away some of its mystery and
charm, but not one whit of its interest for the naturalist.
The votaries of destruction intent on their foul work have
no time to spare for nature-study, excepting in so far as
it concerns their stomachs. Thus it is that Tanganyika
still offers a rich harvest for the collector and many of its
problems still await solution. Although it lies in the centre
of the great African rift-valley and is surrounded on three
sides by other large and small lakes, it remains isolated
and unconnected with all save Lake Kivu, and this connec-
tion has occurred only in comparatively recent times. Owing
II
The Eastern Congo
to the fish-fauna of this lake presenting similarities to marine
forms, the idea was current that Tanganyika represented
an old Jurassic sea. This theory was expounded by Mr.
J. E. S. Moore (known to many old Africans as Jelly-fish
Moore, on account of his connection with the collecting of
the Tanganyika jelly-fish)—in his books ‘‘ The Tanganyika
Problem ’”’ and ‘‘ To the Mountains of the Moon’’; it has,
however, since been found to be wrong. The large number q
of endemic genera of fish-fauna to be found in this lake
compared to other lakes, is due to its undisturbed and
isolated position, and in no way to its supposed connec-
tion with the sea.
One of the wonders of this lake and probably the least
known or heard about, owing to its inaccessible position
at the south end, is the Kalambo Falls. The Kalambo
River, which before the Great War formed part of the |
boundary~ between Northern Rhodesia and German East |
Africa, is a broad and swift mountain torrent for the most
part, which hurls itself practically from one of the lower
ledges of the Nyassa-Tanganyika plateau, in one drop over |
a vast cliff, into the great gulf of Tanganyika. The fallis |
said to be the second highest in the world and is calculated |
to be seventeen hundred feet high. Owing to a sharp curve |
in the cliff face, little can be seen of the stupendous fall from
above. To obtain a good view it is necessary to make a
detour round the cliff, climb down some distance, and then ~
to approach the fall from below. This I accomplished, and
moreover reached the foot of the fall, where I obtained some
very fine photographs and exposed a hundred feet of cine- |
matograph film. 7
The foot of the falls is a paradise for the naturalist and _
12
lt
@ The Kalambo Falls at the south end of
Lake Tanganyika, said to be 1,700 feet high
and the second highest waterfall in the world.
4 Rt
" *
a
u
og it orl ‘
er rere bat)
; 4 1 ld
ee '
@, The Chasm at the foot of the Kalambo Falls.
A rainbow can be seen on the rising mist.
Lake Tanganyika
botanist. High above on the red cliff-face are the nesting-
places of marabou storks and many other birds, the lower
buttresses being painted a vivid green by the many species
of curious mosses and plants. Amongst these, growing in
great profusion, was an elegant species of tania, the foliage of
which was in perpetual agitation, caused by air pressure
produced by the falling mass of water. When the sun is out
a beautiful rainbow forms on the rising mist, enhancing the
loveliness of this delectable spot. Like some few other places
that I know, it was difficult for me to tear myself away,
such was its fascination.
It is said that there is what the missionaries hereabouts
call a high priest of the falls, who is credited with having
to visit the foot of the falls once a year and drink its waters ;
but I guessed that the “priest’’ would turn out to be a
smelly old native in bark-cloth, so I refrained from seeking
him. In a place of such entrancing beauty and visited by
comparatively few white men, one would like to think that
the ‘‘ madding crowd,” with their continual striving after
place and power, could be quite forgotten for a time at least.
But no; for as one turns round from the very brink of the
falls, one’s attention is attracted by the ruins of a German
military outpost. A rude shock indeed; and one moves
away in disgust !
Violent tornadoes are of frequent occurrence on Lake
Tanganyika, but more so in the daytime than at night;
thus it was that we found ourselves, with our baggage stowed
away, on the good Belgian ship the ss. Baron Dhanis,
standing out for the open lake one hour after sundown, and
Albertville a smudge in the gathering gloom. Our course
lay N.N.E. for Kigoma Bay, a distance of eighty miles.
13
The Eastern Congo
The lake being in restful mood, we passed a comfortable
night, waking next morning to find Cape Bangwe right ahead
and the sun just rising above it. In a little inlet before
reaching the bay proper lies the Baron von Gotzen, sunk there
by the Germans; she is a steamer of about one thousand
tons and had just been completed when war broke out.
When we passed by, her gunwales were just showing above
water, as a result of the efforts of Belgian engineers. Whether
they salved her eventually I never heard..
Kigoma Bay is the finest harbour on the lake. Just
before war broke out the Germans had been busy improving
it with stone wharves, slip-ways and other facilities for the
handling of cargoes and repairing of ships. A huge hotel
built more on the lines of a fortress, as was the Germans’
wont, was also in course of construction. This massive
building at the time of our visit had been completed, together
with other works in the harbour, by the Belgians, and was
in use as a hospital. All buildings and works in the harbour
are of such a substantial and costly nature that one cannot
help wondering what were they all for; where were the big
freights to come from, and where destined, and what were — |
they to consist of ?
Three miles away from Kigoma and connected with it
by a good motor road made by the Belgians, lies the old
Arab town of Ujiji, famous as the meeting-place of Living-
stone and Stanley in 1871. One is rather astonished to
remember that this is only forty-nine years ago, and what
rapid strides have been made in the opening up of the
African interior since then! It is easy as one stands here
to conjure up the meeting of the two travel-worn men, both
rather dilapidated, with clothes very much the worse for
14
‘rZgr ur Aouimof sqeiowsu sty 1037 ‘oudyssutAry punoyz AgpurysS
o1oymM “eytAuesuvy eyey uo ‘iil ye ,,oo1L sue ONUAA,, UL ‘D
Po ee ee EP
5 is
Livin ecsv OM...
<5 7 4 REEL EL SY :
ee ae |
Sintec na
G, The old Mango Tree and the Stone erected in Commemora-
tion of the Meeting of Livingstone and Stanley in 1871.
Lake Tanganyika
wear, and probably unshaven, but in the eyes of each, in
their own particular way, lurking the indomitable spirit of
~ the Anglo-Saxon.
The old mango tree, growing at the place where they
met, is known to the natives as the ‘“‘ White Man’s Tree” ;
underneath it the Belgians have caused to be made a solid
block of masonry and cement with the words “ LIVINGSTONE
STANLEY. 1871’ engraven on it. This.spot is now some
hundreds of yards away from the water’s edge, but in 1871
it might be described as “on the bank close to the shore,”
thus telling of the sinking or drying-up process of Lake
Tanganyika. Moreover, this drying-up process is inevitably
going on all over Africa, more noticeable in some places than
in others, but not slowly anywhere, due in no small measure
to the continual deforestation that takes place year after
year throughout the continent.
With a population of twenty-four thousand, Swahilis and
coast natives, Ujiji has always been a great Arab trading
centre, principally for slaves and ivory in years gone by.
It is an exceedingly interesting old town with a maze of
streets and picturesque Arab houses half hidden amongst
the thick foliage of mango and palm. It is interesting to
remember that the first steamer on Lake Tanganyika was
launched by missionaries in 1884. The town came under
German rule in 1890 and was occupied without resistance
by the Belgians on July 2oth, 1916.
Shortly after our arrival at Kigoma news was received
that Peace had been signed, which event was duly celebrated
in a general holiday, firing of guns, blowing of whistles,
and a probable ending of sore heads. The death-blow, many
of us must hope, to German aspirations over Lake Tanganyika.
T5
The Eastern Congo
Almost every class of Belgian that I met on my travels _
took an intelligent interest in my entomological work, a
great deal more so than could possibly have been the case
nation of shop-
intent mainly on our money-grabbing, and worse
still, giving little or no attention to the beauties of nature. _
Thus it was that I received the generous assistance of both —
ce
in an English colony; for truly we are a
keepers,’
individuals and the Government in the carrying forward of
the expedition to that part of German East Africa occupied
by the Belgian forces—the Ruanda and Urundi.
To travel through the heart of these districts, I con-
sidered that a good starting place would be the Ruchugi
River, which joins the Malagarasi River near the station and
salt mines of Gottorp ; some six hours’ journey from Kigoma.
Now, the real difficulties of all such expeditions as the
one I was making, are (1) the porters and (2) their food.
Without reliable carriers and headmen in a country such
as this, any expedition might well fail. Realising this,
I approached General Malfert, the Governor of the con-
quered territory. He was much interested in my under-
taking, and very kindly caused letters to be sent to the
different ‘‘ Chefs de Territoire” to aid me in every possible
way, thus at once removing a great load from my shoulders.
At the same time, I was warned that there were certain
risks attendant upon travelling with my wife in a country
that was still in rather an unsettled state after the war;
these of course had to be accepted. I may say here at once,
that, owing to this kind action on the part of the Governor,
I never experienced the slightest difficulty with any natives —
during the whole time I travelled in this region, and it might
well have been otherwise !
16
~ ems
OES TKS,
~ ~~
Lake Tanganyika
- Thus, the many arrangements having been completed and
the varied stores and provisions packed into fifty-six-pound
loads ready for the “‘ safari,’’ we boarded the special carriage
put at our disposal by the kindness of Captain Camus and
were on our way to Gottorp, where the first gang of carriers
were to meet us.
The Kigoma-Tabora line, which was completed in 1912,
comes out on to Lake Tanganyika through one of the few
breaks in its eastern ramparts. As we travelled along it,
we were struck by the neatness and finish of the permanent
way; the metals being beautifully laid, mile after mile.
Where there was a straight stretch of several miles, one
looked along the converging lines of gleaming metals with-
out a break to mar their exactness—beautifully done and
in sharp contrast to other African railways that I know.
The stations too were trim but solid buildings. This pleasing
effect was no doubt due to the finishing touches put to the
_ railway by the Belgian engineers, who have been busy on
_ it ever since its partial destruction by the Germans in their
_ retreat. On this account I was extremely glad to hear of
the decision that the Belgians are to have an interest in
_ it, in the form of a special freightage and I believe other
advantages. Leaving Kigoma at half-past four in the after-
noon, taking with us pleasant memories of the kindness
_and hospitality we received there, not to mention several
_ kinds of cooked and uncooked food showered on us for the
journey, we arrived at Gottorp about ten o’clock in pitch
darkness. After unloading our baggage by a dim lamp
held by a little Belgian, we were faced with the prospect
of a rather uncomfortable night, perhaps in some out-house
oF other, as the station building appeared to be unlit and
17 C
The Eastern Congo
forbidding. However, we stood and waited with our boys ~
and baggage around us for the little soldier with the lamp,
who was busy talking to the engine driver. His talk was —
soon over, however, and his little bright face turning to —
us asked us in broken English to “step this way” and
he would make us as comfortable as possible, and telling —
us he had had a message by telephone from a friend of his
in Kigoma to expect us, and that he had some hot coffee
ready. Before we left Gottorp we were fast friends with |
this little man and a more delightful companion I never
wish to meet; nothing was too much trouble; he would
insist upon doing everything, and made us thoroughly at
home in his best room. Perhaps one day “ Petit Albert”
may read this and know how much we appreciated his
kindly nature.
On the other side of the Malagarasi River are the Gottorp
salt works, and a large factory erected by a German company
for the evaporating process. There are several salt springs
on the concession but the only one in use is found to be
sufficient to meet the present demand. The brine is pumped —
into reservoirs and then run off into shallow boiling pans —
to be evaporated. The demand, which is increasing, for —
this fine white salt is already extensive, and a very handsome —
annual profit is made. Although at this time it was in the
hands of the Belgians, it has, I believe, to be handed over
to the original German concessionaires.
Whilst waiting at Gottorp for our porters, it was necessary —
to start to train the four raw natives whom I had engaged -
as insect collectors. I had attempted to train two such
during my stay at Kigoma, with the result that I lost both
my nets and cyanide bottles in the complete disappearance
18 |
avraun ‘ven sa”
4
@, The Gottorp Salt Works. The Evaporated Salt can
be seen standing in heaps ready for packing into the
long leaf-covered packages which can be seen on the left.
G, One of the huge Fishes which are common in Lake
Tanganyika. This one probably weighs 150 to 160 lb.
2. ns ————— ee - —s ea ss > _
—h———————————————_erae
G, Wa-bisa Women from the borders of the S.E. Congo. White
and blue beads are threaded into their hair. The two
women to the left have miniature tin cups inserted in
the holes in their lips in place of the usual wooden discs.
|
——
|
Lake Tanganyika
of the two men, after I had sent them off collecting. They
may have eaten the cyanide—thinking it was jam—for all
I know (and I hope so), but I have a shrewd idea that the
explanation lies in the attraction fishing has for all natives.
They were in all probability induced by their smaller relatives
to use or lend out my butterfly nets to catch whitebait in
the harbour, result: torn nets and bad consciences. On
this occasion I took good care to get the boys away from
their homes before I gave my nets and bottles over to their
tender care. They were Swahili natives and an unpromising
medium for inoculation with the collecting germ. After
many weeks’ patient training I had two passable collectors
and then only on the ticket system, i.e. giving them a ticket
with thirty spaces, one space for each day of the month,
so that on days that they worked well they would have one
space marked, and on days when they were lazy or spoilt
the insects by careless handling no marks at all. So we
got along, but I never made anything of the other two, and
just when the two best boys were becoming thoroughly
_ proficient, they wanted to go back home and I had to set
about instructing others. The patience of entomologists is
proverbial, of course, but still there are limits and I often
reached it with my “ bug-boys.”
Not finding much of interest entomologically at Gottorp,
and our wild Waha porters having turned up from Kasulu
that evening, we prepared to set out the following day for
our long march to Lake Kivu and the land of the Pigmies.
In the morning I lined up our fifty porters for their rations
(or in the Swahili language ‘‘ posho’’) and liked the look
of them at once. Like my old friends the Awemba of south
| Tanganyika, whom the Waha4 closely resemble, they were
19
The Eastern Congo
of fine physique with good features and laughing faces.
Dressed simply in loosely hung goat skins, spear in hand,
they were the best type of savage man—“ half devil and half
child.”” I got on splendidly with them from the first and
as we were travelling to their homes in the mountain district
of the higher Malagarasi, they shouldered their loads with
light hearts to the accompaniment of blasts on a cow horn.
~We now said good-bye to “ Petit Albert ’’ with much regret
and many hand-shakes, facing the future with light hearts,
whatever might befall.
As really so much depends on one’s cook and personal
boys in Africa, and as we had selected them with some
care out of many applicants at Kigoma, I will give a short
account of them. There were three, one always miraculously
neat and clean under all circumstances, even though he
slept in a cow-shed or on a mud-heap; how he managed
it no one ever knew. Occasionally one meets white men
who have the knack, usually fair-haired men, but I may
say at once I have not this knack, for I’m usually the un-
tidiest man in the “ safari.’” This number one was a Muganda
boy from Kampala, very intelligent, plucky, short, fat,
rather light-skinned, always glum, with no sense of humour
at all, good at cooking, waiting at table or anything else,
Such was my “boy” Salim—a great lad! He thought |
himself a cut above anyone else in the “Safari” and un- ©
doubtedly he was. 7
Next came Amerikani, my wife’s “boy.” He had a ~
great deal to recommend him excepting his face, for he was
most frightfully ugly, with the appearance of having had
his face trodden on when a child, but happily it was a merry
face with a laughing twinkle in his piggy eyes. He was a
20 |
— eae “22 al
Lake Tanganyika
Congo native from the Lukuga River, of medium height,
lean and hungry but full of frightful energy, instilled into
him no doubt by a former Belgian mistress for whom he
worked in his youth. He also was a good cook but a better
“ dhobi-boy ’’ (washerman). Salim and he never agreed on
any subject !
Then lastly came the cook, who was always last and the
worst cook of the lot, unless he was thoroughly roused from
his usual lethargy by dire threats, and then he could be
really good and produce tasty dishes out of nothing at all.
He had the knack of starting to cook a meal at the last
moment, with the result that anyone paying a visit to the
“kitchen ’’ just before meals would find him surrounded
by a multitude of pots, pans, plates and cups, thrown down
anywhere in his hurry to make room for other things he
was preparing, and food, feathers, peel and every other kind
of imaginable article lying around in disorder. The cook’s
name was Masambuka, a Muganda boy, always lazy and
always dirty. There you have them—an _ inconsequent
band of happy-go-luckies, with much that was likeable
about them.
21
CHAPTER III
AMONGST THE WAHA AND BARUNDI—UP THE VALLEY OF THE
MALAGARASI TO LAKE CHOHOA
Fifty or sixty heathen souls with half a hundred loads—
A gibbering, dusky throng that rolis along the Northern Roads—
A tattered hawmock, and the vesi—we know it, stick and stone,
We who have left the pleasant West in yearning for our own.”
The Caravan. Verse I.
S our caravan needed some adjustment as regards
the work to be allotted to each individual, etc., a short
trek of only a few miles was accomplished on the first
day, to an abandoned German station named the Rushugi Post.
It is usual on a lengthy expedition such as I was making
to have a white subordinate to help in these matters, but
we had none, so that the task my wife and myself set our-
selves was no light one. To begin with, there were from
seventy to eighty people, all very hungry, who had to be
fed and at times their ailments attended to. There was
the packing and unpacking of loads and selecting of suitable
camp sites; there was the water and wood supply to be
seen to; the native insect collectors to be sent out in the
most favourable directions, their killing bottles, boxes, pins
and nets to be attended to and their and our captures to
be put away each night and notes made concerning them, ~
and a diary written up ; added to this there were photographs
and kinematographs to be taken and developed and atten- .
tion given to the apparatus and accessories, also there was
the correspondence and posting of insects and films to England. ba
In the dry weather all was plain sailing, but on approaching ‘ 5
22
The Waha and Barundi
the equatorial regions where a more or less heavy storm
was an almost daily occurrence, these tasks became very
burdensome to both of us; this was especially the case
with the evening work of “ papering”’ the insects. In
regions where the insect-fauna was very rich, as many as
one hundred insects had to be put in envelopes after a long
and tiring day, and notes made about them, frequently
occupying me far into the night. The heat, mosquitoes,
sandflies and other pests were then very trying, taxing one’s
patience to the utmost.
The foregoing and other particulars which I give later
on in this book, will enable the reader to gain some idea
of the work that was before us as we left civilisation behind
and proceeded on our way up the valley of the Malagarasi.
This river, which has many sources in the high mountain
ranges of the north-eastern littoral of Lake Tanganyika,
sweeps round in a great curve and after draining the low-
lying marshes north-west of Tabora, crosses the Tabora-
Kigoma Line and flows into the lake some twenty-five miles
south of Ujiji. For two days after leaving Rushugi we passed
through a dry, stony and uninviting country until we reached
the plains bordering the Sabaka River, the haunt of large
game of many kinds and an abiding place of many lions
and tsetse fly. The banks of this river being well wooded
with tropical foliage, I stayed to collect for two days and then
pushed on to Kasulu “‘ boma,’’* a matter of six hours. As
the track here was well padded down, this was one of the
few occasions on which my wife was able to use her bicycle,
which was fortunate as the day was an intensely hot one,
* “Boma” is a Swahili word meaning “ fort,” ‘‘ stronghold,” ‘“‘ fortified
camp.”
23
The Eastern Congo
and the way long and “fly” infested. One of our wild
Waha porters accompanied her, to whom a bicycle was
a great novelty. This black gentleman amused us con-
siderably, for he would insist on holding her back wheel
whilst my wife mounted. Being unaware at first that the
wheel was so held, she was astonished to find that her bicycle
would not go when she got on, but when she got off to look
nothing appeared to be wrong. This sort of thing occurred
once or twice until, happening to look round sharply, she
discovered the native holding on like grim death to the back
tyre, while she attempted to start off in the usual way.
Towards evening, very wearily, we mounted the steep
ascent to the Kasulu fortress. The first view one gains
of this astonishing structure from the ridge to the south
gives an impression of unreality, especially when one sees
it at a distance with the sun behind it; one expects it to
fade away into the mists of the valley from which it rises.
Built in white-washed cement and stone, like a medieval
castle, on a prominence which rises abruptly from the
surrounding country, it embodies the German military method
of colonisation. In direct contrast to these imposing structures
which may be found throughout late German East Africa,
are the unpretentious, often homely, “‘ bomas’”’ to be found
just across the boundary in Northern Rhodesia or Uganda,
telling of a more paternal and withal more fearless method
—in other words the British method—that scorns to build
even so much as a palisade against attack. j
Kasulu, which is in the Ujiji district, was at the time
of our visit one of the principal centres of supply for the
Belgian army of occupation stationed at Ujiji and Kigoma. +
Mr. Pieters, who was the officer in charge, was in the habit
24
The Waha and Barundi
of sending down large drafts of the big horned cattle every
month to keep it supplied. The native soldiers under him
were a smart lot of men, and as they were in full dress for
inspection one morning, I ‘“‘ took”’ them on the kine-camera,
also a ‘““mob”’ of the big cattle. We spent three days
within the castle keep, while I collected round about. Not
finding much of interest, however, we were soon away
again and saying good-bye to our hospitable friends. They
had given us many good things and helped to map out my
future route.
We were now at an elevation of about 3,600 feet above
sea level, and having left the low lying central basin of the
_Malagarasi and its “fly”’ infested bush behind us, were
journeying through the high, down-like mountains that
enclose it on this side. As Mr. Pieters described it to us,
the country gets “worse and worse’”’ or rather, more
mountainous and still more mountainous the farther north
one goes, until it culminates in one of nature’s greatest
efforts, the Virunga or Mfumbiro volcanic range, north-east
of Lake Kivu.
| The country through which we were passing was under
the sway of a Watusi sub-chief (or “ chef-lieu,” to use the
French word) named Kalimba, who is responsible to, and
placed there by, the King of Ruanda, into whose country
_ we had now entered. The high downs on either side of
us were dotted with small farms and banana-groves, enclosed
by hedges of dwarf euphorbias and caustic milk-weeds.
_ The soil hereabouts, and as far as the Malagarasi River, is
_ of a deep rich red colour overlaying a solid ironstone forma-
. tion, and supports a very rich pasture of short grass on which
, the numberless herds of large horned cattle wax fat. Before
25
The Eastern Congo |
reaching the higher waters of the Malagarasi our road took 4
a large native market in full swing—a market made by the —
natives for the natives, all of whom were out-and-out savages”
and very interesting to watch. There must have been quite ~
a thousand of them; clothes were conspicuous by their ©
absence; dilapidated European hats there were none (a —
sure sign this, that you had got away at last from the beaten /
track) and they were bartering such a varied collection of |
things that a list is worth giving, if only as an indication ©
of the richness of the country. There were sheep, goats, |
chickens, eggs, butter, milk, bananas, banana-beer, baskets, —
beans, bark-cloth, palm-oil, native soap (made from palm- il
oil and burnt banana skins), sweet potatoes, tomatoes, flour, |
dried and fresh beef, goat, sheep and cow hides, monkey- —
nuts, salt, gourds and native pottery. There were many ©
other things too numerous to mention. We bought chickens, —
- eggs, butter, beans, capstan: and a large quantity of df
food for the “safari,” brought in by Kalimba’s son. a
The following day’s march took us down to the banks |
of the Malagarasi River where we camped, after passing
many miles of rich undulating open country, thickly popula :
and well watered by perennial streams.
On crossing the Malagarasi into the Urundi district el oa
country changes somewhat. The scrub is of a sturdier
growth and large stretches of bamboo are met with and
game is again plentiful. The red soil is replaced by one r
of a greyish colour and more friable in texture. The purple | \
veronica here assumes tree-like proportions, forming mint i
forests of great beauty, and just before reaching Kihofi we» c
passed the largest forest of wild bananas I have ever seen. M4 -
26 |
The Waha and Barundi
_ Kihofi, where it was necessary to obtain fresh porters, a
most uninviting place in itself, nevertheless stands facing
_ the most wonderful mountain scenery, which forms the escarp-
ment of the Nkoma plateau. We had seen these imposing
buttresses from afar and now knew that we had arrived at
_the beginning of Mr. Pieters’s “‘ worse and worse.’ What
the end would be did not bear contemplation. Kihofi is
a post of minor importance and is probably abandoned ere
this, but it proved very useful as a stage on our northward
journey. Having called on the “ sous-officier’”’ to make
myself and my work known to him, he very kindly asked
us to dinner, which contrary to the usual Belgian meal was
_ the worst we had ever attended, his cook’s “‘ steak-Americain ”’
nearly laying us out flat. Now “ steak-Americain’’ may be
all very well if put up by a good chef in Europe or America,
but in a country where tape-worm is endemic and cooks
| never clean, this dish was something to shun like the plague ;
‘moreover it was smeared with raw eggs which put the finishing
touch in more ways than one. I am sorry to say that after
saying good night we were thankful to get outside and escape
‘to our camp.
_ After waiting here two more days, our Barundi porters
came in and with them “the smell.’’ This smell of rancid
butter and cow’s urine was never to leave us night nor day
for many weeks, and eventually permeated everything we
had, including our beds. Now, as is well known to all
_Ruandaites, both the Barundi and the Wahutu are cattle-
mad; they have no money but cattle, and like misers and
their gold, they will die for them if necessary. The two
_ faces (under the despotic rule of the King of the Ruanda
_ Who may be said to have a claim on all livestock)—are the
27
—— $I
The Eastern Congo
owners of countless thousands of cattle, and the be-all and |
end-all of their existence can be summed up in the one |
word—cattle. They will eat it (any part raw or cooked, —
including the hide), sleep it, sing it, steal it. g
In spite of the beef they eat and the milk they drink
the Barundi natives, unlike the Wahutu of the Ruanda,
through some physical disability or degeneracy have no
stamina and are quite unable to do any hard manual labour.
They were tried by the Germans on railway construction
with disastrous results. Many died and the rest ran away, —
taking with them all the telegraph wire they could lay their
hands on, to make into anklets and bangles. })
So much for the Barundi who composed our new caravan ;
so many smelly devils with low types of countenance and |
nasty ways, not a square yard of cloth between them but |
each carrying a long spear.
The first day out from Kihofi took us up the bare fal 7
of the great Nyakasu escarpment which had threatened _
our path for so long. Next to the Virunga volcanoes and |
the Ruwenzori range this proved to be the stiffest ascent —
we were to encounter on our travels. It brought us up
on to a high grassy plateau where the air was so intensely :
invigorating that fatigue was forgotten and movement became _
a positive delight. The view was so extensive and of such _
a beautiful nature—fold on fold of grassy downs and ridges
in a sea of blue haze—that I for one felt that I stood on top
of the world and gazed over its edge. From this smal
plateau we made a gradual descent along its northern exten
sion into the Nkoma Mountains where we camped for tht _
night by one of the numberless sparkling burns that intersec )
this wonderful country in all directions. These streams
28
The Waha and Barundi
although one of the most delightful features of Burundi,
hide the satyr’s face of Africa behind the smiling mask,
for the Barundi have the disgusting superstition that their
dead must be placed in a running stream, under a waterfall
for preference, to allow their spirits to be carried away on
its waters. Thus, almost all the rivers are polluted in this
way and the utmost care has to be exercised in obtaining
and boiling the water for drinking purposes. We continually
saw skulls and bones lying about and always close to the
river beds. We were unable to account for this, until one
day when out collecting butterflies I came on two gruesome
bundles tied up in rotting mats and bark-cloth, with parts of
arms and legs poking out, placed beneath a pretty waterfall.
I then made inquiries and elicited the foregoing facts. I
lighted on another of these gruesome objects in worse case
farther along our way and the combination upset us for
many days; it was difficult for imaginative white people
to disassociate the washing-water or hot tea (although we
drank coffee continuously after this), from the thought of
lehat might have been reposing in it.
| On nearing Kitega we crossed over the watershed from
the Tanganyika region into that of the Victoria-Nyanza
Basin. Across the same treeless wind-swept downs and
"ridges but characterised by no typical mountain range to
_ mark the divide.
| At Kitega, which the Belgians have made their centre
for the administration of this portion of late German East
‘Africa, we were received with the utmost kindness (in the
| absence of the Resident), by Mr. Gernaert-Willmar and were
siven a just-completed office building in which to make our
| _ tuarters, The village—or town if you may call it such—
29
The Eastern Congo 4
was a place of some consequence to the Germans, as it
contains, apart from one of the huge German fortresses,
some good stone residential buildings. The Belgians LV
still further improved the place by the addition of the fin
building which we occupied. Glass being unobtainable
mica squares were used in the construction of the windows
obtained I am told from the mica mines near Karema, on
the south-eastern coast of Lake Tanganyika, at a cost of fifty —
centimes per square of eight inches by five inches. Kitega, —
which overlooks the higher Ruwuwu (or Ruvubu) Valle
is now connected by a good motor-road, through the inter
vening mountainous country, with Usumbura on Lake Tag
ganyika and is situated some third of the way along ti
old caravan route to the Victoria-Nyanza. As it stanc
at close on six thousand feet above sea level the climall
leaves nothing to be desired and the nights are cold. ! |
The Independence of the Belgian Congo being celebrated
on the twenty-first of July, the Belgians took advantag
of the first occasion of the celebration of this féte in i 7
German East Africa, by organising an enormous gathering ae
of the native inhabitants from all parts of the Ruanda 4 .
Urundi. This proved a great success and resulted in ~ 7
week’s festivities, enlivened with dances, gymkanas and t
drinking of much banana-beer. From photographs show } 4 |
me by the Belgians at Kitega and judging by the fact a
there were upwards of twenty thousand natives and 3 al.
the big chiefs of the two districts present, the specta
must have been an DOSES one. The native military bal an
known to many as “the latest Belgian atrocity,’ was |
up from Kigoma and no doubt helped to enliven the |
ceedings still more. The Resident killed two birds vi i
30
@, Baskets of various kinds for sale on the Native Market
of Baira. The closed baskets are for storing grain,
the round open ones for sifting and carrying it.
@, The Fortress of Kasulu, in the Urundi
District. Built by the Germans, and about
to be completed when war broke out.
@, The Author “ taking’”’ a Nativ
See
-
e Dance with the cine-camer
a.
The Waha and Barundi
one stone, for towards the end of the festivities he assembled
all the chiefs in the court house and gave them a few lessons
on their new duties under Belgian rule.
That we arrived a week too late for this unique display
is a matter of the greatest regret to me, for the opportunity
to take moving pictures of such an event is never likely
to pass my way again.
We were late in getting away from Kitega with our new
lot of porters, and perforce had to travel to the Mugera
)Mission, our first halt, in the heat of the day. After the
|dusty track and the really stiff climb up to this Mission
‘station, we were delighted to reach the shade of the many
‘beautiful trees planted there. Mugera, which stands on
‘the summit of a mountain six thousand five hundred feet
high, is one of the oldest missions in this part of the country,
being established there by the White Fathers as far back
' the year 1900. The Fathers, se de such delightful
OOO ——— ee
usual provided with the best they had in the way of fresh
ood, which included in this instance oranges and two fat
mesticated rabbits, and so we passed on, carrying with us
hat jovial “‘ well met”’ kind of feeling, the secret of which
“Les Péres Blancs’’ seem to hold.
We made many friends amongst the Belgians and the
ast on the list, Mr. Gernaert-Willmar, the ‘‘ Administra-
ur’ of Kitega, rather felt his responsibility regarding my
31
oO
The Eastern Congo
expedition travelling through his district. There being a ~
lady in the case he wished to make our journey as safe —
and pleasant as possible, and so hit on the brilliant idea of —
putting the commissariat and other arrangements for our ©
‘safari’? to Lake Chohoa in the hands of a very smart —
black corporal from one of the Congo regiments. Knowing ©
the country well by reason of his having been through it
during the war, this soldier was in jail for some offence: —
stealing a goat or something of the sort—so Mr. Willmar ©
decided to let him out and reduce his sentence on the under- |
standing that he did well for us. I was to report his behaviour
on reaching our destination. This arrangement worked very |
well, the corporal doing everything in his power to procure —
good guides and porters and to keep the whole “ safari”
well supplied with foodstuffs from the local sultans en route.
He took especial pains that we should have a good daily
supply of fresh milk. Therefore, the day after leaving
Mugera we were not greatly astonished when the milk supply |
was heralded in by two cows and a calf being driven full
tilt into camp, and “ operations’’ begun on them close to’
our tent. Much to everybody’s amusement and to the great
danger of camp furniture, ‘‘ operations”’ consisted of firstly
catching your cows and then with gentle persuasion inducing —
them to give their milk by fanning away the flies and rubbing
their backs. The calf of one of them had died, causing her __
to be very refractory in consequence, only being brought },
to reason by giving her a sight and smell of the skin of hei n
dead offspring stuffed with straw. With this weird specimer |
of native taxidermy the owner followed her, making i |
clucking sound at intervals, resulting in the comfortin —
of the cow and inducing her to stand quietly to be milkec \,
32
—
—
-.
The Waha and Barundi
~ Most of the Belgian officials when travelling in the district
carry a big gourd or demi-john with them, which they have
filled with milk in the morning and carried on the head of
-a porter. The milk, which is very rich, is partly churned
in this way, and towards evening it is only necessary to
’ give the vessel an extra shake to obtain a good quantity
of butter. We, however, could never get milk in sufficient
quantities to do this, as the Barundi will only part with
_ fresh milk under pressure, preferring to let the calves have
~ any surplus over and above their daily wants.
| Like the Wahenga of Lake Nyasa, the Barundi become
| immensely attached to their cattle (and no wonder, as they
are such fine beasts), but also like the Wahenga they carry
) this liking a bit too far for the European, by using cow’s
: | urine for cleaning out their milking and other utensils.
y _ Arms are carried, but seldom used, in this part of the
country, either for defence or sport. That they would be
i | wanted badly and in a hurry or not at all, was the thought
i! that came to me as our caravan wound in and out through
‘| the steep passes and over the ridges of this treeless country.
i For capping many a ridge were to be observed groups of
ef truculent-looking savages, leaning on their long spears.
S| As a matter of fact the Barundi are a very peace-loving
* people Yet sometimes (as was the case not many months
gl ‘ago, when the Belgians had to execute a Watusi chief in
wd | this self-same district for the murder of some forty people,
of be ‘including two mail carriers) it would seem as if, under the
i’ ‘rule of an unscrupulous Watusi sultan, they might prove
iif very dangerous to travellers through their country.
ort | In this case the natives, I think, were more interested
i! im us than badly disposed; we were in any case well
33 D
=
The Eastern Congo
armed with five rifles, and a load of ammunition, not to }
mention our two policemen. ;
As mentioned previously the Barundi do not make good —
porters; thus it was that the fourth day out from Kitega, ©
and having crossed the Ruvubu River, we had to obtain
a fresh lot to take us on our way. To ourselves, as well z
as the carriers, these long steep-sided downs became very 3
fatiguing; so as a rule we made camp at midday, spending ©
the afternoon in collecting insects and recuperating for the ;
following day’s trek. My collecting boys were now, after a |
month’s training, beginning to prove useful and often brought — 1g
me something new and interesting, anything good being
rewarded with a small amount of tobacco as an encourage- —
ment. Thus the days passed in hard physical exercise which —
toughened our muscles for the many hundreds of miles we |
had yet to go, and presently brought us to Lake Chohoa, —
within the boundary of that highly interesting riverine district —
situated directly between Lake Kivu and the Victoria-Nyanza. :
Before closing this chapter, however, and for the infor-
mation of would-be travellers in the region we had just
traversed, let me offer a note of warning to anyone attempting -
to pass through Central Urundi in the rains. Nothing more
inhospitable or depressing can well be found than these j
vast and monotonous steppes in the rainy season, and to
be caught in a heavy storm on the summit of one of these
great wind-swept downs, away from shelter of any kind,,
might well lead to disaster. The only time to make the
trip is between the months of May and August, and then)
the help of the Government is necessary or one is indeed
likely to find oneself stranded without a single porter, all
having disappeared in the night. |
34
@, Kitega, the administrative centre of Barundi. Another
great German Fortress can be seen in the background.
G, Mugera, a mission station of the White Fathers.
@, The Author’s Wife, Msinga, and Lieutenant Defawe. Standing behind the
Sultan will be seen his two eldest sons, wearing fez caps. With the exception of
the little man who stands close to Msinga, and who is a Batwa (or forest-
dwarf), all are the aristocratic Watusi who are described in this Chapter.
CHAPTER IV
LAKE CHOHOA AND THE RUANDA—THE WATUSI AND THEIR
KING, JUHI MSINGA
“ Hemmed about by swamp and bushland, barrieved by mighty lakes,
Dwelt the Benangandu Chieftains in their tangled, matted brakes—
Autocrats who swayed thei people not by knife or fire alone,
Not alone by mutilation or the sacrificial stone,
But in virtue of theiy Kingshipb—Chieftains to the very bone.”’
The Crocodile Kings. Verse I.
E had now reached that unmapped region of small
lakes which lies between the Akanyaru and Kagera
Rivers. So little known was it at the outbreak of
war in 1914, that the Belgian army in its advance from the
north two years later, being without a map to go on, com-
pletely lost itself amongst the many ramifications of these
lakes. The Germans themselves were in no better case,
with the result that the two forces became engaged in a
game of hide-and-seek to find the best way out of it. Our
friend, the Italian Father-Superior of the Kaninya Mission
- on Lake Chohoa, had the novel experience of entertaining,
on the same day, first the German commanding officer
and then a few hours later the Belgian commander, neither
aware of each other’s proximity or the whereabouts of the
force which each opposed. I don’t suppose that either
officer will ever know that they nearly butted into each
other, unless they happen to read these lines.
__ For some weeks past I had been very doubtful of the
accuracy of the Ordnance Survey (1916) maps of German
East Africa that I had with me. I now found out how
absolutely wrong and misleading they were. I trust that
|
35
The Eastern Congo
it is not too much to hope that the Belgians, who now have
command of the country and are not likely to forget their
experiences here during the war, will carry out a well-organised
survey of this interesting region.
Lake Chohoa, in conjunction with the larger lake of ©
Mohazi, may be considered as the submerged part of a valley |
without an outlet, which would account no doubt for its _
dearth of large fish, for the largest fish to be found in this |
lake does not exceed five or six inches. There are hippo —
in the north-eastern extremity, which they seem to favour,
but no crocodiles anywhere in the lake. Water-fowl are
abundant and the pythons both here and in the papyrus _
swamps of the Akanyaru assume huge dimensions and are |
very commonly seen. A large specimen killed by one of |
the Fathers, who showed me its photograph, measured twenty-_
three feet eight inches long with the exceptional circum- |
ference of thirty-nine inches; the Father assured me that |
this monster was so old and sluggish that the native children
from a village near-by were playing around and patting it
when he arrived on the scene. The Barundi have a strange
superstition regarding these animals and never kill them,
believing that to do so will bring down vengeance upon”
those who do, by all their children becoming sterile.
I was once privileged to witness some years ago on the
Luangwa River in Northern Rhodesia, a fight between ar
adult male bushbuck and a heavy nineteen-foot python |
that the great snake, in a rash moment induced by hunge .
36 (ie 4
Lake Chohoa and the Ruanda
had bitten off rather more than he could chew. When I
came upon the scene, attracted by the commotion in the
grass, the bushbuck was exhausted with its struggles but not
crushed, and judging by the flattened grass all around, the
fight had been going on for some time. The python had a
firm grip with its teeth of the fleshy part of the buck’s leg,
from which blood was flowing and had freely sprinkled the
grass round about. The bushbuck had escaped so far owing
to the fact that there was no tree or bush within reach on
to which the python could get a purchase for the squeezing
process—this I put down to the instinct of the antelope
who had seemingly manceuvred away from them. Neither
the one nor the other took any notice of me as I stood and
watched, completely fascinated by the sight. So the struggle
went on, the python continually flopping the heavy part
of his coils over and around the bushbuck, which lay side-
ways on the ground; the buck, however, always managed
to slip away from beneath them. As I had had a long and
tiring day elephant hunting and was still many miles from
camp I had perforce to leave, so I set the bushbuck free by
shooting the python—the plucky little beast limped away
in sorry plight but with every chance of recovery.
From what natives have told me, also borne out by my
own observations, I am of the opinion that a python first
attracts the curiosity of its prey by wriggling the end of
its tail in one place, then striking with its head and throwing
the weight of its body on the unsuspecting prey from behind.
The “ fascinating”’ or “ hypnotising”’ theory is all very
well for birds and some of the small mammals, but there
is no hypnotising of such redoubtable opponents as bush-
buck or the larger ichneumons or civets—it must therefore
37
The Eastern Congo
be some such sudden onslaught as the one I have
suggested.
Entomologically I found the neighbourhood of Lake
Chohoa very interesting but as I arrived there at the end of
the dry season when insect life is more or less dormant, I
did not succeed in making so good a collection as I might
otherwise have done. As the regions through which we
had now passed—rather contrary to expectations, I admit—
had not proved very rich in insect fauna, I decided to reach
Lake Kivu with as little delay as possible. To this end
I paid off our old carriers and with the help of the White
Fathers obtained a fresh lot of men to take us to Nyanza,
four days’ journey away, the residence of Juhi, Sultan of
Ruanda. Having arranged the day previous for canoes
to be in readiness at the crossing of the Akanyaru, we turned
due west from Kaninya Mission and reached the east bank
of that river as the first storm of the rainy season was about
to break. The Akanyaru River, which here flows south
to north through a hilly country covered with sparse bush,
joins the Kagera below Kigali and is overgrown on both |
banks by many square miles of papyrus beds, through which ~
our caravan pushed its way with considerable difficulty.
Heat, engendered by the fermenting morass below and the —
sun above, became very trying to the temper, especially so —
as the bent papyrus stems were either tripping one up or
poking into one’s ribs. Clear water was presently reached |
but proved to be no more than a breathing space sixty yards _
wide at the outside, after which we again had to plunge into —
the fevered swamp. After a while we came through and
mounting the high west bank, were able to look back over
the sea of papyrus through which our carriers were still
38
waa
|
i
ha
o
,
~
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9 Isnze@M V D
FFOTYL
“ure
Lake Chohoa and the Ruanda
“struggling cheerfully. The following day we reached another
Roman Catholic Mission called Isawi, where we were very
kindly put up for the night. Here my boy, Salim, was
taken very ill with pneumonia, and as we wished to push
on to Nyanza he had to be left in the Mission hospital mean-
while.
After leaving the short mountain forest, or scrub to use
a more appropriate term, of the Akanyaru Valley, one
ascends again to the steppe region on its western side, in
every respect similar to that through which we had been
travelling, north of Kitega.
We had sent on word to the Belgian ‘‘ Chef de Terri-
toire’’ at Nyanza, notifying him of our expected arrival
that day but we were quite unprepared for the reception
that awaited us. Towards three o’clock in the afternoon,
having accomplished the twenty miles’ trek that separates
[sawi from Nyanza or “ Niansa,’”’ we arrived—dressed in
our oldest and shabbiest attire—in front of the ‘‘ boma,”
expecting to find only Lieutenant Defawe, the official in
charge of the district and adviser to Msinga. Lieutenant
Defawe was certainly there and he came out to meet us
but with him were the Resident, Major van den Eede, two
judges of the High Court, Messieurs Delauney and Vos,
and a “ Procureur de Roi’”’ whose name I forget. We were
delighted to hear that they had kindly waited lunch for us,
to which we did ample justice, for we were fearfully hungry
after the long march. It turned out that they were adjusting
war compensation cases. They all proved to be the happiest
of companions, so we spent several merry evenings together.
_ The day after our arrival we were to meet Sultan Msinga,
King of the Watusi, so before I go further it would be as
39
The Eastern Congo
well to give my readers an outline of the history of
this singular race, of whom Msinga was the chief
representative.
Broadly speaking the Ruanda (when speaking of
“ Ruanda’”’ I mean the Burundi district as well) is inhabited
by two classes of negroes, namely the Barundi, Bahutu and
dwarf Batwa, who are the slave tribes or working classes ;
and the Watusi, who are the aristocratic or ruling class which
never works. The Watusi are a tall race, many of the men
being seven feet high and even more. They are the original
conquerors of the country and came down from the north,
most probably being contemporary with the coming of the
Masai to East Africa, bringing with them the forerunners
of the countless herds of horned stock to be found in the
Ruanda to-day. Hamitic in origin and of the same stock
as the Bahima of Uganda, these natives present a most
graceful and dignified appearance and moreover possess
the rare qualities of honesty and truthfulness, so seldom
found amongst the inhabitants of Africa to-day, with
high foreheads, oval faces, and clean-cut features of Egyptian
cast. We never tired of watching them. To see a group
of these fine fellows talking and laughing together was
a real pleasure, which could never be the case with the
snub-nosed Bantu tribes. Other points of interest about —
(3
them were their beautifully shaped hands and feet and their
satiny skins, often bronze in colour. Their hair too, although
typically woolly, is given special attention, being coifed
in bizarre though symmetrical patterns, often with a comb
stuck in it or a single string of pearl-beads through it or
round it, giving them the smartest appearance. As most
of them are extremely tall and well proportioned, their diet
40
'
(a
s |
7
‘ie |
eg at a
Lake Chohoa and the Ruanda
of bananas and milk, of which they eat and drink inordinate
quantities, would seen to be the ideal food.
Conditions have changed very little in Ruanda since the
country first became definitely known to explorers some
thirty years ago. It still remains the greatest and one of
the last realms to be governed autocratically by a negro king,
whose word is law and who can command immediate and
unquestionable obedience from any one of his three million
subjects.
It is a thousand pities but nevertheless undeniable that
_ this great domain must disintegrate before the advance of
_ western civilisation. Even now signs of this are by no means
_ wanting, for together with the Kabare district on the Uganda
side it forms the richest cattle country in Africa to-day,
_ and will be bound to prove of immense value to the world’s
_ food supply. The opening up of this rich country will,
__ however, be retarded to a great extent by the fact that the
Belgians (who have more than enough to manage in their
own colony) hold it under mandate from the League of
Nations. It is thus connected commercially with the west
instead of the east coast of Africa to which it geographically
_ and ethnographically belongs, and unless the railway pro-
jected by the Germans is carried into the heart of the district,
either from Tabora or Bukoba, it may be some time before
the Ruanda feel the menace of the outer world. In any
event, and before long, the unsullied nature and untrammelled
existence of both Watusi and Wahutu alike must fall before
a yapping and intriguing throng of money-grubbers.
Now, Juhi Msinga* to give him his correct title, and the
*The meaning of Juhi is, metaphorically, the one who cannot cross the
_ Malagarasi River or see Niragongo Volcano and live—an attribute of all the
Kings of Ruanda successively,
41
The Eastern Congo
policy he followed in the past, have many detractors. He has
been described as heartless and cruel and is said to have done
away with several of his brothers to obtain the throne. This |
is partly true, no doubt, but in those days it was a case of
the best man wins and if he did crucify one or two robbers
it was probably no more than they deserved. I have a.
shrewd idea that these stories are kept up by missionaries, -
who are chagrined at their non-success in Christianising the
king and his Watusi subjects. I am given to understand
the Government itself rather opposes this course, as.
Christianity means the abolition of polygamy, with the in-
evitable result in this case that the Watusi race would lose |
its power and break up the existing order of things which
runs so smoothly, and which the Government have an interest
in keeping alive. I personally hold the opinion that the
missionising of the Watusi would completely spoil them
bringing many evils in its train. |
Sultan Msinga, whose clan—the Bega—is the most fearec
amongst the Watusi, stands very little short of seven fee
in height. Although at first his appearance is unprepossessin:
owing to his defective eyesight and protruding teeth, w
found him intelligent and possessing the same likeable qualitie
common to all the Watusi. Towards the end of our nin
days’ stay at Niansa we got to know the man and his thre
strapping sons quite well, and our first impression of hi
still remains the same, that he has many amiable qualiti
and is especially amenable to good influences. My wil
being one of the very few white women he had seen, interesti!_
him immensely, and he never tired of closely examini{
anything she happened to be wearing, sometimes to t? —
extent of embarrassment.
42
A NEGRO MILLIONAIRE
@, Juhi Msinga, the Supreme Chief of the Ruanda, one
of the greatest of African Potentates. His signature
(and stamp), which are seen below, may one
day be much sought after by Kings of Finance.
age
Kg RE
G, The Audience Chamber of Sultan Msinga.
The first photograph of Watusi Women to be
published in England. Sultan Msinga in the centre ;
his mother has her face covered; the other women
are the principal members of his harem, and _ all
have their legs loaded with coils of fibre rings.
wee eee
——
ee
—
Lake Chohoa and the Ruanda
It is well known that Msinga’s mother has a great deal
to do with all matters connected with the upholding of the
reigning dynasty ; she is and always has been the “ political
wire-puller,” no important step being taken without her
advice. We were therefore interested and pleased to know
that Lieutenant Defawe in conjunction with Msinga had
arranged for us to make her acquaintance, together with
Msinga’s principal wives. Now, it will be found on reading
books of travel by authors who have visited Niansa that
none of them has even so much as seen a Watusi woman,
let alone the Sultan’s mother and harem; we were therefore
accorded a privilege which has been extended to very few.
The fact that these ladies had previously seen only one other
white woman in all their lives, no doubt acted as an induce-
ment to the breaking of their rule of seclusion.
On the day arranged for the visit, Major van den Eede
(the Resident of Ruanda), Lieutenant Defawe, my wife and
myself proceeded to the Sultan’s enclosure, a maze of palisaded
_ houses and compounds, through which we were guided to
the bematted seraglio. These women practically confine
themselves to dark and windowless houses, the one in which
we found the mother and Sultanas being no exception, for
it was darkened not only by smoke but with curiously-shaped
mats directly across the entrance. After a few minutes,
and when our eyes became accustomed to the dim light,
we were able to make out the tall forms of five women squatting
on chairs, who greeted us pleasantly with smiles and hand-
shakes. The mother struck one as being exceptionally tall
and graceful although elderly; her height was enhanced
_ by a bead tiara, having two slender horns standing up on
_ either side of the head, perhaps ten to twelve inches in length ;
43
The Eastern Congo ;
her legs were encased from ankle to knee in roll upon allt
of plaited fibre rings, a good eight inches deep. The Sultanas
were similarly ornamented but not to such an extent. As _
we could not speak their language and had to use Lieutenant |
Defawe as an interpreter, we got on very well considering, | }
many questions being asked and answered on both sides.
In return for the present of beads that we had brought along, ;
we were now presented with four neatly woven little baskets _
at the making of which the Watusi women excel, but as
these baskets are difficult to obtain and were the first that |
had come our way, this pleased us immensely. With many i
handshakes we now retired, glad to have had the opportunity | ij
of seeing the Watusi women, but glad, too, to get out of the {
stifling atmosphere within their hut. i
Both Msinga and his adviser Lieutenant Defawe must —
have taken quite a liking to us, for they did all in their power r
to interest and amuse us during our stay with them. Having !
a cinematograph camera with me I expressed a wish to take —
some pictures of Watusi dances and sports, especially the
high-jump, at which I had heard they could beat all records. —
No sooner said than done, and the word went round that on
a certain day, Msinga required the attendance of his best
dancers and young warriors to a dance-tournament. Bott
my wife and myself looked forward to the day with thc
greatest enthusiasm, feeling sure our friends the Watus-
would do justice to the occasion. The day selected turne:
out to be perfect: sunny yet refreshingly cool at this si
thousand feet altitude. |
All was in readiness as we entered the great courtyar
facing the Sultan’s highly-arched residence—even to bee
and cigarettes placed at our disposal by Msinga himsel
44
Se
—————— ——$<————S=——— ———————
—
———— —
Lake Chohoa and the Ruanda
We took our seats and the word was given that the throng
of natives standing without might enter the enclosure, re-
| sulting in a stream of two to three thousand natives pouring
in and seating themselves on either side of it, forming, no
doubt, a highly critical as well as a picturesque audience.
All eyes were now turned on the entrance at the far end of
the enclosure through which there presently appeared a
line of Batwa natives, each carrying a long-handled hoe.
The whole string of them having advanced to the centre
of the arena, a dance began accompanied by a weird dirge,
in which at intervals individuals left the line and throwing
their hoes high in the air caught them as they came down—
a highly dangerous proceeding to the uninitiated; this was
the “ Dance of the Hoes.’”’ Next on the list came a selection
by the Batwa Drum Band, very good of its kind; here also
at intervals some of the performers advanced alone and
danced with their drums, man and drum becoming a species
of human whirligig. As Msinga rather fancies himself as
a drummer, he took a hand, giving usa solo. Then came the
“star turn’”’ and “ danse de luxe’”’; every dancer a chief’s
son well trained, beautifully dressed in shining white head-
dress of long hair and white-tanned skin aprons neatly
tasselled ; and wearing metal rings around their ankles.
There were twenty, perhaps more, and entering the en-
closure danced towards us in perfect time. Then, lining up
in two rows, to a weird wild melody sung by an old man and
accompanied by the sound of their ringing anklets, they
danced with that complete abandon and fierceness in which
the heart of the real savage delights. These two dances
ended all too soon, with a salute and obesiance to Msinga
and the delighted spectators.
45
The Eastern Congo
We now moved to a flat grassy space without the en-—
closure to witness a display of archery, throwing the lance
and the famous high-jumping. Here my wife provided tea — |
and cakes but this was a “‘ wash-out ’’ as far as Msinga was
concerned, for he never eats in public. 2
Both the Watusi and Batwa are good shots with the |
bow and arrow, being able to hit a small mark at a hundred |
paces. Holding the bow diagonally in front of them and
stretching it to its utmost by a forward and downward move- |
ment of the body, they let fly as the bow is brought down. |
The high-jump was the most interesting part of this enter- |
tainment, the Watusi who took part in it clearing with a |!
straight jump a good seven feet six inches from a low “ take —
off’’ of hard clay. After seeing this performance my wife |)
had little hesitation in placing herself, when asked, beneath |
the cross-stick to be jumped over; this was done with feet —
and to spare, also a jump was made over three natives |
standing in a row, one in front of another. . |
With some bouts of wrestling the day came to an :
end, and having thanked Msinga most heartily for the |
splendid time he had given us, we walked back to camp to”
attend once again to the packing of loads and to a hundred 7
and one other things, in preparation for our march to Lake |
Kivu. | | 1
46
s chapter.
@, The ‘“‘ Danse de Luxe”’ described in thi
who _ provides
dancing.
the
for
Leading Singer,
melody
only
G, The Sultan’s
the
sss nic
BESS San MRE a ae ARAB
Se eecesctassesninstmeeonoe
ae
ae
“*
aes
gan
a
as a
Gg, A Watusi Bowman about to shoot his Arrow.
(or Dwarfs) from the Bugoie [orests,
to be seen standing on the right of the picture.
surrounded by Watusi Natives, behind the
Two
near Lake Kivu,
Batwa
are
Msinga stands,
drawn
Bow.
Yuin
x
sbaneite
£. Uli baiwneabebeene
| CHAPTER V
| TO LAKE KIVU AND THE VOLCANIC REGION
|
“ The song of the ships ts far to heavy, the hum of the world ts dead,
| And lotus-life in a drowsy year our bentson instead ;
Why should we push the world along, live in a whirl of flame,
When the Pace of the Ox is steady and strong and the end ts gust the same ?”’
| OTH Msinga and Lieutenant Defawe had been so kind to
| B: that it was with genuine regret that our farewells
were said on the morning of our departure from Niansa.
| We were, moreover, given a great send-off by the Sultan
himself and the majority of his male relatives. Two of
his own body-guard, under his special instructions, were
attached to our “safari’’ as guides and escort.
Previously we had given Msinga as good a present as
_ our means would allow, this being returned on his part by
a gift of three pieces of fine Batwa pottery which were
_ packed away with our other mementoes. Thus ended a
_memorable occasion, and we “hit the track’’ for pastures
| new.
_ For several years it had been my dearest wish to visit
Lake Kivu and the wonderful volcanoes to the north, but
| up till now no opportunity had presented itself. So it was
| with the keenest pleasure that I set forth to cover the four
| days’ journey to Rubengera on the eastern littoral of the
lake, and at this time a small Belgian outpost situated about
half way down its length. The country between Niansa
and the summits of the Kivu watershed is drained by a
Swift river of good size named the Njawarongo, another
affluent of the Kagera. The pasture of this valley is the
47
The Eastern Congo
richest and closest I have ever seen, the district being noted —
for the immense white-horned red cattle it produces. Herds |
of these splendid beasts were frequently to be seen in charge |
of Wahutu herdsmen, wearing their novel rain-cloaks made |
of basket-work and banana leaves. *
Overlooking the Njawarongo River stands a deserted
German mission station, which we reached on the second
day out from Niansa. A pretty place with good buildings, ©
but like all abandoned homes in Africa very depressing even —
to the passing traveller.
The following day took us up the steep western slope of
the Njawarongo Valley, and again on to the immense elevated —
downs that here mark the watershed between Nile and
Congo. From here we overlooked the rift-valley or valley
of the great lakes, with Lake Kivu far below us but as yet —
hidden from view by the twists and turns of the narrow
valley down which we were making our way.
The Germans have gone to much trouble and expenditure ;
of labour in making a graded road winding down to the lake
round precipices and over ravines, in a wonderful way. Thi
road, although overgrown and in. bad repair, was a grea’
boon to us. One is quite astonished to find the cutting
and gradings so well done. It would indeed be possibl —
with the addition of iron bridges and culverts to lay a ligh
railway along it. |
Lake Kivu, when we did see it—although only a fe
miles away—was so hazy that the lake itself and Kwijy
Island seemed to merge into the horizon. We had, in fac
been looking at it for some time without knowing it. Lat’
on, however, as we descended to Rubengera this haze liftec
the lake changed from pale to a deeper blue and its mai
48
ee ——— -
Lake Kivu
islands and sharp promontories stood out clear and green
in the morning light.
Rubengera, which is one hour-and-a-half’s journey from
- the small bay of Msaho, held little of interest for us. There-
_ fore after staying one night with some missionaries who had
_ just arrived there, we pushed on to Murunda, seven hours’
_ march to the north. This place we found to be a well-built
_ mission, founded by the White Fathers and in charge of two
black padres. It lies in the midst of fine mountain scenery
and close to the southern extension of the Bugoie Forest,
known locally as Kasiba.
For the past seven weeks we had been travelling through
an almost treeless country, rich neither in flora nor fauna.
_ The getting of firewood even was a continual source of worry,
f
and used as we had become to the forest region, by many years’
residence in it, we were more than pleased to see trees around
us again and to know that this question was at least shelved
, for the time being. The fact that a large and unexplored
| forest stood close by, holding possibly rare animals and
=-
t
A | |
, imsects was, in our eyes, also an added attraction to the
district in which we now found ourselves.
Owing to its inaccessibility, the Kasiba Forest has seldom
, , been visited by travellers and bordering as it does the un-
] |known country of the Bugoie dwarfs, was likely to prove
1
; |
i
ite
oo |
interesting both entomologically and by reason of the fact
that it was said to be the home of the Kivu gorilla and also
what appeared to be (from a photograph shown me by a
_ White Father) a new species of chimpanzi.
Deciding, therefore, to pay this forest a visit, I set about
the task of finding guides. Still having Msinga’s messengers
with me this did not prove difficult; so leaving my wife
49 E
The Eastern Congo
behind at the Mission I was soon on my way, accom aa
by twelve local carriers. |
After some hours I found myself climbing a stiff ascent _
to the summit of the watershed, along the ridge of which
could be discerned the outskirts of the dense forest for
which I was making.
Shortly after picking up the three Batwa guides we arrived,
very short of wind, at the end of a sharp, bush-clad ridge; —
following this along, it presently brought us to a suitable —
camping place on the edge of the Kasiba Forest, and over- —
looking Lake Kivu. I contented myself for the rest of the
day, after my tent was pitched, by collecting butterflies
along the icy-cold stream near by.
Partly owing to the fairy-like meadows that are to be ©
found there, this mountain forest proved to be the most ©
beautiful I had ever visited. The reaches of feathery bamboo, —
the giant fern-hung trees, the open glades covered with the ~
purple veronica and tall lobelia—these alone repay a visit.
Hunting in it, however, by reason of its steep declivities —
and thick undergrowth, is excessively tedious as I very soon —
found out. If I was to get a chimpanzi it was going to be ©
a tough job.
The first day I drew a blank at all events, but had the |
satisfaction of hearing their calls for the first time. One —
call they make resembles that of the African hunting dog
(lycaon)—or for those who do not know Africa, let us say —
a lost dog. It can be heard a long distance. The other ~
cries are typical monkey noises, though louder, and are —
made when squabbling amongst themselves. if}
The following day my luck, so far as the apes were con-
cerned, was no better, although it led me to the discovery ~
50
ca al
a Lake Kivu
of their sleeping-places, which were made on the spreading
branches of high trees. These were platforms of bent and
broken branches and may be considered as the first rudi-
ments of our present-day gigantic structures in stone and
iron.
From information gained from my three guides (one of
whom was a typical forest dwarf, more like a monkey than
a man), and from my own observation, it was evident that
there were no gorillas in this forest. The chimpanzi, or
Impundu to give it its native name, was the only ape to
be found here, as far as I could ascertain.
Knowing now which direction to take, the following
morning I again set out. After a walk of an hour or more
along a small track, where the bushes were still wet with
the heavy dew, we passed a trap set for a chimpanzi (con-
sisting of a running noose, surrounding a circular hole in
the ground), which looked as if we were on the right road.
This proved to be the case, for very shortly afterwards we
heard the tell-tale, long-drawn-out call, ‘‘ Woo-00-00-00.”’
Having been warned by the padres at the Mission con-
cerning a superstition of the Batwa in connection with their
totem of this man-ape, I was not surprised that two of my
_. Batwa guides suddenly left me and disappeared round a
i neighbouring thicket. However, I had still one left and
t
AO
determined to hang to him. Advancing in the direction
_ of the sounds we struck the spoor of two of the animals.
| Their tracks being easy to follow in the.soft loam, as well as
_ being indicated by the broken bamboo shoots strewn on
either side, we had little difficulty in coming up with them.
_ But, alas for my hopes, I was discovered in the act of raising
| my rifle and Mr. Chimpanzi (the other I never saw) was off
51
The Eastern Congo
into the thick brush-wood. I did, however, get a good ©
look at him, which confirmed my opinion that this animal —
differed from the common variety. It struck me as being
two or three times as large, of a reddish tinge, with thicker —
hair and a greyish fringe round the face. |
As it was getting late and rain threatening I now made |
the best of my way back to camp. On arrival there I found |
a letter awaiting me from the Father-Superior of Njundo —
Mission, in answer to one of mine, telling me that “the best
place to find both the gorilla and chimpanzi was in the forest _
near the Karisimbi volcano,” some three days’ farther north.
On the receipt of this news and as both myself and the
native collectors had worked the forest pretty thoroughly
for new insects, I decided to strike camp. Meeting my wife
at a pre-arranged rendezvous, we passed through the broken _
and difficult country that here forms the eastern wall of —
the Great Rift, and late in the afternoon we stood on a high ~
prominence above the Funda River, directly overlooking |
the Bay of Kisenji. The northern coast line of Lake Kivu, j|
losing itself in its high western ramparts could only be dimly } |
discerned, but on our right stood, definitely defined, the © |
outlines of one of the little known wonders of the world, |
the three largest of the gigantic volcanoes which form the q .
western portion of the great Virunga or Mfumbiro mountain ~ .
range. :
After camping for the night we were abroad at an early |
hour the following morning. We hoped for another view —
of the volcanoes, which we had come so far to see, but this |
was not vouchsafed to us, for the valley below was veiled
in mist and not a glimpse could be obtained of them. ti a.
We made our way to the Njundo Mission, and arriving |
52 :
Lake Kivu
there at midday were again welcomed by these jovial priests.
-. We were now at a most interesting stage of our journey, -
for this region, lying as it does midway between the Belgian
and late German spheres, has a little-known fauna and flora,
- and much remains to be learnt concerning its topography ;
_ the last British scientific expedition of any note to reach
_ this district was the Tanganyika Expedition of twenty years
| ago, under Mr. J. E. S. Moore, resulting in the two publica-
tions previously mentioned in this book. True, other
travellers, like Sir Alfred Sharpe, have since passed through
it but have written little or nothing concerning its more
_ recent developments. Knowing this and although badly
equipped for any pursuit other than that of entomology and
_ photography, I was intensely interested in this region and
_ determined to find out all I could about it in the time at
_ my disposal.
| The panorama to be seen from Njundo Mission, although
not to be compared in scenic effect with that obtained from
| Rwaza or Ruchuru, is, however, very interesting as it in-
| cludesthelake. The two great cones of Mikeno and Karisimbi,
and Ninagongo with its shapely outline, being near to the
spectator, stand out ominous and threatening. The cloud
effects too, over the two active volcanoes of Ninagongo
and Namlagira, are unsurpassable as seen from this
Mission.
We spent three pleasant days with the Fathers. To look
out from their veranda across the vast amphitheatre of
lava-plain to the ever-changing effects of light and shade
on the volcanoes beyond, was a never-ending source of delight
to both of us. Our friends the White Fathers entertained
us with many tales of the district; of the cruel doings of
53
The Eastern Congo
the sultans of Ruanda, of the Great War and of pestilence
and famine after it, when fifty thousand natives perished,
of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, of Kirschstein the |
German, and his attempt to scale Karisimbi, when thirty or |
more of his carriers were killed in a hail-storm; of elephants, __
man-apes and lions and the mythical “ muga’”’ of the forest My |
dwarfs, resembling an enormous bear, of cattle and tsetse
flies and the three-horned chameleon and hairy frogs. |
These lava-plains by Njundo, which are dotted with
small extinct volcanoes, are covered with a shallow deposit
of very rich soil, producing the finest tobacco. From this
the Fathers make some really excellent cigars. The dried
leaves can be bought from the natives at a hundred for one
franc. This tobacco is very popular with the Watusi, who
will smoke nothing else. It has, moreover, been well re- d
ported on in Europe as suitable for cigar wrappers.
This same ground was disputed by the Germans and
Belgians in the first years of the war, and both German and _
Belgian gun-positions may be spi sie. seen on the hills |
and craters round about. |
After war had passed, came a bad famine through which —
forty thousand natives lost their lives in this one district.
Then the Spanish influenza attacked these hapless wretches, —
from which they were just recovering at the time of our
Visit. |
In connection with the war, the Fathers have a tragic
but funny tale to tell. :
As may be guessed, iron is a valuable commodity amongst | |
these aborigines, and as might be expected after frequent
gun duels between the Germans and Belgians, there were
numberless pieces of broken shell to be found by ardent
54
Lake Kivu
searchers, and also unexploded live shells and shells dropped _
-by scared porters in hurried flight. One such shell was one
day unearthed by a wily Mhutu and after changing hands
several times at varying prices, from a bunch of tobacco
leaves to a goat, eventually found its way with other
pieces of shell into the smelting-pot of a family of native
blacksmiths.
This big shell they judged would make many hoes, axes
and spears, and the melting of it was made something of an
occasion by the blacksmith, who asked several of his friends
to give a hand with the bellows. Now the smelting-pot
of the Bahutu is similar to a gigantic earthenware jar, the
required heat being generated by blowing on the charcoal
through a circle of holes in the bottom. Round this they
sat and all being in readiness, the shell and old iron were
placed in position and the fire started. The family and
friends now joined in and the five or six small bellows were
soon blowing merrily away—when, whizz—b-a-n-g !
The second week of September, 1919, found us at Kisenji
and maturing plans for the exploration of the western and
central groups of the oie volcanoes and their immediate
neighbourhood.
Kisenji, which I decided to make our headquarters, is
in some ways the most beautiful and restful place I know,
- with just a touch about it reminiscent of the South Seas.
_. Washed by the clear waters of Lake Kivu, buried in palms,
gums, fruit-trees and flowers, it stands directly on the sandy
_ foreshore, facing the blue mountains on the other side of
_, the lake. The climate, owing to the high altitude of four
j _ thousand eight hundred feet above sea level, is perfect ;
| it is never too hot and never too cold. Mosquitoes too, and
a
The Eastern Congo
wonderful to relate, white ants, are not to be found*
here. -
At the time of our visit the Belgians were thinking of
making Kisenji the administrative headquarters for the
whole of Ruanda and Burundi. A large house had in fact
been built for the Governor, but I think these plans have
since been altered and Busumbura, on the north end of Lake
Tanganyika, will become the capital.
Before passing on to the next chapter, which contains
details of the exploration of the volcanic region which I
was about to undertake, it will be as well to give my reader
some information regarding the Lake Kivu district from
several points of view, both scientific and otherwise.
With a length of approximately sixty-five miles and
thirty in breadth, Lake Kivu, the last discovered of the
African lakes has this salient feature: that although its
waters now flow into Lake Tanganyika and so to the Congo
River, its fauna has no community of nature with that of
Tanganyika, but must be classed with that of Lakes Edward
and Albert and the Nile system.
To account for this, geologists tell us that at an earlier
but not very remote period there was a water basin extending
from Kivu north along the Rift valley as far as Lake Albert,
and that the present formation of Kivu was brought about
by a vast volcanic upheaval under the floor of this basin, —
forming the Ufumbiro or Virunga Range of volcanoes. This |
* This interesting fact is to be explained as due primarily to the volcanic
nature of the country. There is no standing water where mosquito lave may
exist, the porosity of the soil carrying off all rain-water directly. The rivers,
such as there are, are very swift, offering them no harbourage. The white ants
are unable to find suitable soil, and owing to long continued volcanic dis-
turbances in the neighbourhood, these pests have failed to find a footing.
56
Lake Kivu
acting as a dam, the waters of the newly-formed Lake Kivu
gradually rose as the years went by, eventually overflowing
to the south into Lake Tanganyika.
The second interesting feature of this wonderful district
lies in the fact that Lake Kivu may be said to be the dividing
line between the steppe region in the east and the forest
_ region in the west ; hence we get primeval forests and grassy
downs intermingled around its deeply indented coast and
on its many islands.
North and north-east of the lake lies the volcanic region,
bounded on the south by the waters of Lake Kivu itself,
on the north by the Ruchuru Plains, on the east by the
riverine district of Kabare and on the west by the western
wall of the great Rift valley. The steep sides of these grand
volcanoes and the surrounding ridges and spurs are for the
most part clothed in thick forests, some of them of bamboo
and quite impenetrable in places, but the lava-plains below,
and the numerous small hummock-like volcanoes are covered
with grass, short scrub and herbage growing on a shallow
deposit of scoriz overlying the solid lava. Owing to the
lava flow, water is extremely scarce away from the few river
beds: certainly in some places tiny lakes are formed in
extinct craters, but these are far apart and not always on
the line of march.
The district may be said to be fairly rich in flowering
plants (the Lobelia gibberroa being one of the commonest)
and shrubs (including veronicas and balsams). At the
;| higher elevations about ten thousand feet and upwards,
on the volcanoes themselves, lobelias, senevios, ericacee,
everlasting-flowers and beard-moss occupy the landscape to
to the exclusion of all else.
37
The Eastern Congo
Insect life is not over-abundant anywhere in close
proximity to the volcanoes, but the Bugoie Forest is fairly —
rich entomologically. However, owing to the continual —
cold mists which rise from the lake and collect on the —
mountain forests, it is not so rich as one is led to expect from
the wealth of plant life.
Animal life in general, including the fish fauna, may be
said to be nowhere over-abundant in the region of Lake
Kivu. The crocodile, for instance, that terror of African
waters, is entirely absent from the lake, so bathing can be
indulged in with impunity, a great boon to all and sundry. ~
It will also come as a surprise to many that there are
now two hippos in the lake; these came across for the first —
time, apparently from the Ruchuru River.
As no remarks on a district can be said to be complete
without viewing it from an economic standpoint, I will say
this much: that to simple souls it has all that this old world |
has to offer, excepting the social life and accessibility from |
the outer world. When a railway reaches Lake Kivu, there © :
will be a rush for it; more’s the pity!
Here amongst the polite and simple Belgians and the un-
spoilt Watusi and Wahutu, is a great opportunity for the | ,
would-be settler (and his wife!). An, as yet, unknown — )
paradise awaits him, where a man may still find happiness, ft.
that “ Pearl of Great Price.” .
At present there is such an over-abundance of gts |
that living is ridiculously cheap. For thirty francs a month ~ |
the local chiefs will supply a man with all he wants of meat,
milk, butter and vegetables. :
At the native markets can be obtained at absurdly cheap —
prices: beef, mutton, pork, chickens, fish, eggs, fruits and
58
Lake Kivu
vegetables of all kinds, butter, milk, honey, coffee, wheat,
rice, nuts, peas, beans, potatoes (European and sweet) tobacco
(equal to Latakia), banana flour, oils and finely-worked mats
and baskets. What more does man want ?
A description of what the rich volcanic soil will grow
would be merely a reiteration; suffice it to say that most
products will give double the return that they do anywhere
else.
The Bugoie cattle have comparatively small horns, and are
the finest breed in the district, being larger, squarer and
straighter than any other pure African race. The rich pasture
to be found on the lava-plains has probably a good deal to
do with this, and will also account for the quantity and rich-
ness of the milk these cows produce, which amounts to often
as much as six litres daily from one cow.
Yearling bullocks can now be purchased at Kisenji for
from eight to ten francs a head, heifers at twenty to thirty
) francs, sheep for five francs. The Ruanda cattle have this
| one disability that they will not travel well and neither will
_ they live when exported.
| The Belgians tell me that plans are maturing to connect
| Lake Tanganyika with Kivu by a good motor road and so
bring the Ruanda in touch with the market in the Katanga
‘| Copper Belt.
It will be seen from the foregoing that young men desirous
_ of carving out a place for themselves in Africa would do well
to consult the Belgian Colonial Office, before they are led
_ away by pretentious South or East African advertisements.
59
CHAPTER VI
POPULAR AND CONTEMPORARY VULCANOLOGY IN ITS
RELATION TO THE VIRUNGA VOLCANOES
‘““ Where cavernous chasms. are yawning
Through lands that are painfully new.”’
A Riddle of Roads. Verse I.
HE science of vulcanology, dealing as it does with s) |
the birth and death of worlds and the most stupendous _
force on earth, cannot but make an appeal to the ©
imagination of most of us and to others, like myself, holds an ]
irresistible fascination. I will therefore, before taking him |
to the realms of Vulcan, refresh my reader’s memory witha |
short epitome on the subject in its bearing on the Virunga
volcanoes.
To the mind of most people when they first visit an active |
volcano—if they have not read up the subject beforehand—
there will come a crowd of questions which may be embodied _
in the one query: “‘ Why is a volcano?” and then like the —
usual reply to the question, ‘“‘ Why is the sea salt?” the |
answer will be very indefinite and probably entirely —
wrong. . |
The text-books tell us that a volcano is a more or less _
perfectly conical hill or mountain formed by the successive
accumulations of ejected matter in a state of incandescence
or high heat—its summit usually terminating in a bowl-like
hollow called a crater. From the crater are ejected—some- 7
times continuously, sometimes with long intervals of quiescence
but always more or less explosively, gas, steam or water, |
dust, scoria (bits of natural slag) and molten rock (lava),
60
The Virunga Volcanoes
The earth, being a live world and not a dead one, must
breathe; volcanoes may, therefore, also be described as the
“breathing places’”’ of the globe, where the pent-up gases,
| formed beneath the world’s crust, may escape.
To go a little deeper into the subject, the earth* must
_ be considered as a gradually cooling, and consequently con-
_ tracting, spherical mass with a comparatively shallow outer
crust of water-logged earth and stone, beyond which the
interior is composed of either solid or molten rock.
Now it is easy to understand that all cooling bodies
: contract. Therefore on this account, and also in part
helped by the continual shifting of masses of the earth’s
surface by the action of water, pressure and straint are set
_up resulting in crustal convulsions and earthquakes. The
globe, therefore, on which we live, is continually altering,
_being raised up in some parts, whilst in others it subsides.
| Thus are the fissures and cross-fissures formed which, when
: reaching down to a lake or “ pocket ”’ of molten lava, become
i the pipes along which this lava may perhaps reach through
i to the surface.
I I say “‘ perhaps,” for the fissure may be there and the
eiten lava at the bottom of it, but it won’t spurt forth
“on its own,” so to speak. It must have some driving
force behind it and obviously some agent which is strengthened
by repression. This force is water, and steam (which is water
vaporised). Likewise if the water is withdrawn from a volcano
it will cease to be active.
* The earth is assumed to have been originally a burning incandescent
| ¢ Isostasy: or the endeavour of a rotating body after distortion to assume
‘a form in which it is again in equilibrium ; has also been brought forward as
‘& potent factor in producing movements and fissures in the earth’s crust.
61
The Eastern Congo
Now, let us suppose that one of these earthquakes or —
earth contractions formed a fissure in the bed of the ocean —
or a lake (either a surface or subterranean one) and that the —
ramifications of this fissure connected up with a lake of red-
hot lava. The result would be an explosion together with the _
formation of vast quantities of steam. We have now an |
embryo of an eruption and after this it needs very little —
effort of the imagination to follow the combined lava, water
and steam under terrific pressure, in its efforts to escape along _
the line of least resistance. :
Thus we have the phenomena i volcanic eruptions.
Perhaps not in all instances caused in exactly this manner,
for it has been suggested that eruptions may be brought
about by mere percolation of water on to the red-hot
lava. |
It has been calculated, moreover, on the evidence of the ~
fact that the average increase of temperature from the surface
of the earth in a downward direction is approximately 1°F.
for every sixty feet, that the burning lava thrown out by an |
eruption comes up from a depth below ground of from twenty ~
to thirty miles. 7 |
Before going on to describe the Virunga volcanoes in
particular it would be as well to state the fact that volcanoes
are put into three classes, viz., active, dormant and extinct. |
An active volcano, as we all know, still continues at mea
to break into eruption. A dormant one, however, is one which
after being quiescent for a long interval, as if its fires were.
extinct, suddenly breaks forth anew and is therefore the most if
to be feared. The third and last is the extinct volcano, |
which is one not known to have been in eruption since man F
has been upon the earth. ;
62
The Virunga Volcanoes
The Virunga or Mfumbiro* volcanic mountain chain, as
will be seen by an examination of the accompanying map,
is divided into three groups. The most easterly consisting
of three volcanoes—Sabinyo, Mgahinga and Muhavura. The
central group of three more named respectively Karisimbi,
Mikeno and Visoke, and the western, also the most active,
composed of Ninagongo (a triple cone), Namlagira and three
small cones of quite recent formation. |
Whereas the central group may be said to be quite
extinct, this is by no means the case with the western end
of the range, or, let it be said, with the eastern portion. In
reference to the latter, the discovery made by the vulcanologist
attached to the Duke of Mecklenburg’s Expedition of 1907
of the comparatively recent flow of lava from the Muhavura
volcano, which displaced the theory that the oldest formed
and most extinct volcanoes were to be found in the eastern
group—is in part borne out by a report lately to hand and
recently published in the journal of the Royal Geographical
Society. The report says that in a small valley called Kim-
bugu, a little to the north of the eastern group (viz., 29° 58’
E. long. by 0° 58’ S. lat.), a lake welled up during the night,
having an area of about one hundred yards square, with a
maximum depth of fourteen feet, where previously there had
been neither a stream nor a pool. There was a collection
of native huts in the valley, and although the water did not
touch these, thirty-two people were found dead in them in
~ * Regarding the name Mfumbiro, I must say that I never heard it used
| by any native. Virunga was the name always used when any member of my
“ safari ’’ referred to the volcanoes.
| NoTE BY SIR HARRY JOHNSTON : ‘‘ Umu-fumbiro in Luganda and perhaps
' Runyoro means ‘a cooking pot,’ and was the term applied to this region by
the Baganda in conversation with Speke. Captain Speke was the first white
Man to see and report these volcanoes in 1861.—H. H. J.”
63
The Eastern Congo
the morning, from noxious fumes given off by the ©
flood. | 4
For the benefit of vulcanologists and others, and before
describing my journeys through the western and central
groups, I will give a descriptive account of each volcano |
separately and some data concerning the most recent and |
important volcanic disturbances so far as these are known.
To take the latter first, we will begin with the three small q
newly formed volcanoes :— | |
(2) A low active cone without crater, formed by ~
explosive eruption three miles to the north of Mbusi ~
Bay (Kabino Inlet) and south-west of Namlagira volcano, —
in May, 1904.
(b) A smaller but higher active cone, the so- called |
Kanamaharage volcano, with crater, formed by ex- |
plosive eruption in an opposite direction to the last ©
named, at the eastern foot of Namlagira volcano in ~
July, 1905. in
(c) A hill-like active cone, similar to (0); the so- —
called Kiverunga volcano, formed by explosive eruption —
close to the first named (a) cone, in December, 1912. :
(d) The formation of a small lake in a valley named
Kimbugu, to the north-east of the Sabinyo volcano, in
June, 1920, giving off mephitic fumes. There was no>
eruption of lava. |
Then, in a class by themselves, come the eruptions of
more or less severity of the Namlagira volcano, the most
active cone of the entire group, which occurred between the —
years 1907 and 1910. This volcano is still (1920) ae ;
active.
No eruption of the second largest active crater of Nina
64 |
1
i]
The Virunga Volcanoes
gongo is on record, but when visited in the year 1894 by
Count Gétzen, it was described by him as in full activity.
With reference to the foregoing data it is interesting to
note that the missionaries at Bobandana and Njundo, at the
north end of Lake Kivu, put the cycle of severe eruptions
at eight or nine years. As earth tremors have become fre-
quent of late in the neighbourhood and as the volcano of
Ninagongo is now reported (June, 1920) to have returned to
unwonted activity, another eruption is perhaps imminent.
The north-west corner of Lake Kivu and the country
directly north of it, which lies in the shadow of the western
_ wall of the Great Rift, being in close proximity to the volcanic
- outbursts of 1904 and 1973, are of considerable interest.
The last eruption in this region which began about
_ December 8th, 1912, and lasted well into April, 1913, was
_ of a severe description. The red-hot lava flowing down into
_the lake towards the point of the Mbusi Peninsula, at first
_ completely filled up an extensive lagoon there and thence
_ flowing onwards has all but sealed up the channel into the
i Mbusi Bay. Until quite recently these new lava beds were
| too hot to walk upon and even now are still moving or rather
i subsiding. The vicinity of the channel is always covered
_ with flecks of foam, telling of the heat beneath. Geysers
) also are frequently seen in this part of the lake.
At the time of the eruption many natives were killed,
| being suffocated by fumes or their boats cracked and burnt
, | by the heat in their efforts to retrieve the dead fish, which
) \lay scattered about on the water in great numbers. Others
4 died from starvation owing to the destruction of their crops,
whilst others again, refusing to leave their villages, were
» \Overwhelmed as they crouched within their huts.
| 65 F
The Eastern Congo
Sir Alfred Sharpe has a tale to tell about this in his accoun o
of the eruption, in the Field of December, 1913. He speak |
of the convulsion in the following terms :—
“Its site was previously flat ground covered with grass
and stunted trees... . It began with an earthquake and
immediately afterwards smoke was seen issuing from great
rents in the ground. This was followed by fire and explosions, ©
and twenty-four hours later a full-fledged crater was pouring
out a column of fire, ash and lava. A broad river of swiftly ©
flowing lava poured into the Kabino inlet at the north-west ©
corner of Lake Kivu, three miles from the volcano, and had
already heated the water of that part of the lake to bola
gas:
‘‘ When crossing the lake, occasionally whirlwinds of steam ~
would form and stretch upwards for three hundred or four |
hundred feet, like waterspouts. What with the roar of the
volcano, occasional deafening explosions, the vast columns ~
of steam and smoke, and the lurid gloom all around, it was a
striking scene. For miles in every direction the country
was black ; there was not a green leaf or blade of grass to be
seen. We found many birds and small mammals, killed by
falling stones, some of which measured two inches in diameter. —
We did not sleep that night. We had several sharp earth.
quake shocks, a hurricane of wind raged with appalling
lightning, our tents were nearly blown away and for two hours
a heavy fall of ash and stones threatened to bury our smal —
camp. The roar from the volcano was incessant—a steady
deafening roar; the whole country below us was lit up by —
the column of fire, lava and red-hot stones, which were sho tf |
up thousands of feet. i
‘“Some idea of the fierceness of this outbreak while i if af
66
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@, The Lip of the Crater of Ninagongo. From the
top of crater to the crater-floor is about 650 feet.
The Virunga Volcanoes
lasted may be gathered from the fact that at the post of
Walikali, in the Congo forests, one hundred miles to the west,
ashes fell heavily for two days, while the eruption was heard
at Beni, one hundred and forty miles to the north, and at
Bukoba, on the Victoria Nyanza, one hundred and ninety
miles east.”’
With this description of the most recent eruption in the
Virunga Mountains, we will pass on to the eight volcanoes
themselves, composing this range.
NINAGONGO or Niragongo—although by no means the
highest, as it only reaches an altitude of 11,300 feet,
is nevertheless the most famous of these, by reason of
its imposing position close to Lake Kivu and its symmetrical
form. It may, indeed, be termed classical, so much
is it held in superstitious dread by the inhabitants of the
surrounding districts as being the abode of evil spirits,
and so much does it enter into their life and history. The
first ascent of this cone was made by Count Gédtzen in 1894,
_and since then it has been climbed by Mr. J. E. S. Moore,
the Duke of Mecklenburg, and many others. It may be
described as a perfectly symmetrical truncated cone, over-
shadowing two elevated subsidiary extinct craters on its
north and south sides. Both the subsidiary cones are quite
| perfect, the one to the north, which contains acrater-lake, being
9,480 feet above sea level, and the one to the south, which
has a grass-covered dry lava bottom, 9,255 feet. The whole
pile is forest and bush clad to within one thousand feet of
its summit, the last five hundred feet being bare iron-like lava.
The crater, which appears to be perfectly round, I calculated
approaches one mile in diameter and its vertical sides six
hundred and fifty feet deep—with an oval eruptive vent of
67
The Eastern Congo
some eight hundred and fifty yards in breadth at its longest
diameter, and situated directly in the centre of a flat crater-
floor of fine lapilli and yellow ash. The fumaroles consist of —
semi-circular cracks or fissures running parallel to the lip of the __
vent, and giving the impression that the crater-floor is under- _
mined from below and will collapse one day into the eruptive
shaft itself, as has previously occurred. The fumaroles i
continually give forth a thick white vapour and the shaft a
yellowish smoke. No glow is perceptible from this volcano
at night. | il
NAMLAGIRA—which is 10,046 feet above sea level, and :
the foot of which adjoins that of Ninagongo, as seen from the _
south-east or east, is indistinguishable from a broad, flat- :
topped mountain except for the huge column of white smoke _
that it continually puts forth from the eastern end of its —
vast crater. This terraced crater, which is said to be one and —
a half miles across, has the ruins of an old and former crater
projecting towards its centre from the east side, forming a —
kind of core to the present one. There are numerous active
parasitic craters on the southern side. Both the southern
and eastern slopes are composed of congealed rivers of lava
which have piled themselves one against another in their
course, fold upon fold of lava being interspersed by bands —
and lines of forest and brushwood which reach nearly to the
summit. At night, this volcano, which is the most active
in the entire range, presents a magnificent sight as it reflects
a bright and steady glow on its own column of smoke and on |
any clouds that may have formed within its radius. |
KARISIMBI—this extinct volcano is the highest in the
Virunga range, as its beautifully modelled peak reaches an
altitude of 14,780 feet above sea level. It has two craters,
68 |
|
,
|
G, The Double Eruptive Shaft of Ninagongo, 1910.
@, The Eruptive Shaft as it is to-day (1920), approxi-
mately. 850 yards broad at its largest diameter.
@, The extinct Volcano of Karisimbi from the north-west.
@, The active Volcano of Ninagongo from the south-west
and its southern subsidiary crater. The Author’s
porters adjusting their loads in the foreground.
)
a4
4
:
:
i
The Virunga Volcanoes
one lying directly under the south side of the peak, the other
a crater of large dimensions but almost unrecognisable as
such, forming a flat-topped swampy ridge or plateau running
out in an easterly direction. The large crater is now over-
grown with swamp-grass and reeds, amongst which stand
several small lakes. The summit of the peak has weathered
into numerous ridges and channels in which snow may be seen
to have lodged overnight, giving a beautiful pink and white
umbrella effect in the early morning. The name Karisimbi
has some relation to this white covering of snow. The peak is
scarcely ever visible except in the very early hours, owing to the
continual mists that surround it. Whether the actual top of
the peak itself has ever been reached by an explorer is a matter
of doubt. Up to the last five hundred feet, which is very
steep, this volcano, similarly with all the others, is clothed in
vegetation of more or less luxuriance.
MIKENO—which name is translated by some as meaning
“ Two Teeth,’’* from the two teeth-like spurs on its crest and
by others as meaning “‘ The place of poverty,” is connected
_ with Karisimbi by a high ridge or saddle, and as it
reaches an altitude of 14,600 feet, is the second highest
_ volcano in the range. The peak, which is usually snow-
_ capped in the morning hours, has never been scaled. The
aspect of this extinct volcano, which somewhat resembles
_ the Puy de Dome of Auvergne in France, differs from the usual
| owing to its special formation. In this case the molten lava,
instead of being blown up explosively, has been steadily
_ pushed up, which accounts for its resemblance to just a high
_ and rocky mountain. It has no crater, but the central peak
would appear to be a core or “neck” pushed up from the
| * This is not the meaning.—H. H. J.
69
The Eastern Congo
centre after the surrounding lava had cooled, and thus forming
the broad ledge below the summit which is such a noticeable —
feature when the volcano is viewed from the south. At its
foot, on the west side, are two parasitic craters, in one of
which a pretty crater-lake is situated.
VISOKE, Kisasa or Bisoko, the third and smallest of the
central group, reaches an altitude of 12,450 feet and has a
large and well-formed extinct summit crater. On one side
there is a small pool which is popularly supposed by the
natives to assure a plentiful increase to any cattle drinking
there. The name Kisasa has been given to this pool and is
now generally used by the inhabitants when referring to the
volcano itself. ,
SABINYO—meaning “‘ Five Teeth ”’ in the native language,*
and so named from the five spurs that form its serrated crest
—is a craterless extinct volcano, elongated in form and, as it
reaches an altitude of 11,960 feet, is the second highest of
the eastern group. Its formation is said to be similar to
that of Mikeno and is not to be considered as the ruins of an
ancient crater but standing now as it was originally formed.
Together with the last named volcano it is the most ancient
in the entire range.
MGAHINGA, I1,253 feet high, is a low, truncated, extinct
volcano, symmetrically shaped, with a well formed crater,
but otherwise of no great interest. |
MuHAVURA, which may be called a dormant volcano, —
has an altitude of 13,547 feet above sea level; it is the third ~
highest of the whole range and also the most easterly. It
* These meanings attributed to the volcanoes’ names are wrong: “ Five | /
Teeth ” in the local language of this district would be “‘Amenyo amatano,”
It is quite possible that some of the volcano names antedate the Bantu occupation
of the country.—-H. H. J.
FO
The Virunga Volcanoes
has the remains of a small crater under and to the east of the
peak, which has formed itself into a bog, and, contrary to
preconceived ideas, bears every evidence of having erupted
in the nineteenth century, so disproving the theory of the
relative activity of the range as passing from east to west.
The name Muhavura is translated as meaning the “ Land-
mark,” on account of its outstanding position at the end of
the range and its consequent use as a guide to travellers.
It is also the sacred mountain of Ruanda, where the good
fairies are supposed to dwell, the antithesis of Ninagonga
to the west.
To close this chapter let me add that one is rather aston-
ished to find that there is so little mention of the Virunga
volcanic region either in the letterpress or illustrations of
English works on vulcanology. Yet this region, as well as
the whole of the Great Rift valley, extending as it does right
into and beyond the Red Sea, “a line of weakness ”’ in the
earth’s crust—should be teeming with interest for the vul-
canologist. It is, moreover, broken into and dammed across
by one of the most recent (geologically speaking) volcanic
upheavals, and farther inland than any other volcanic region
of like magnitude. Little is known of this region at present,
not only of its vulcanology but also of its fauna and flora.
I have every hope therefore that these notes, though lacking
in scientific exactness as they must inevitably be, will prove,
with the illustrations, of interest to many, and may even,
_ with very little stretch of the imagination, one day prove of
_ use to the aeroplane-tourist of the not very distant future
_ as he passes on his way from the Cape to Cairo.
7i
CHAPTER VII
EXPLORATION AND GORILLA HUNTING AMONGST THE
VOLCANOES OF THE VIRUNGA MOUNTAINS
Shadows of delicate dawning are creeping beneath the trees,
Mystical murmurs of morning are floating upon the breeze—
There’s joy 1n the City’s clamour—pageants of pleasure, and glamour,
But nevertheless, my wasters, there ave worthier things than these !”’
The Out-station. Verse I.
our tiny expedition during its five weeks’ work in
| ET me put it on record that the treatment accorded
the Kisenji district was all and more that could be
desired. And this at a time when our English papers and the
powers-that-be were slanging the Belgians right and left for
hanging on to the Ruanda and Burundi, for which they had
de Poste of Kisenji, went so far as offering to feed us free of
charge, whilst the genial Commandant Hollants, of Saisi
fame, not to mention Lieut. Lecoque of the Soke fight, were ©
kindness itself from the very first. Our sojourn therefore
fought and won. Our kind friend Monsieur Verhulst, Chef j
i
in this delightful spot proved to be a very happy one. |
Soon after our arrival we had speedily made ourselves ~
at home in one of the lava-built houses to be found there, ©
and almost immediately I set about the task of making pre- ~
parations for the ascent of Ninagongo, which stood beckoningly ~
on the northern horizon.
As Commandant Hollants decided to join me in the venture,
good porters were soon forthcoming, and we left Kisenji well —
equipped on September roth, to take the track that leads the »
traveller by devious lava-strewn ways to a small rest-house
72
a
4 Gorilla Hunting
or gite called Kibati, distant about two miles from the foot
of the famous volcano. Here we found it necessary to wait
one day to arrange for a supply of food and water for our
carriers, and also to obtain guides. Water is a scarce com-
modity in all such extensive lava-fields as that in which
Kibati is situated, owing to the porous nature of the lava-
bed. The natives in the vicinity are in the habit of using
bent banana leaves to catch rain water, otherwise they would
have to visit the lake daily, a distance of eleven miles, for
their supplies.
Kibati, which stands close to the boundary, and over-
looking what once was German territory, is in a way note-
worthy, for from this place General Tombeur started his
campaign against the Germans. As range upon range of
inhospitable mountains confront the spectator, one can well
imagine the stout heart of the Belgian commander failing
him at such a prospect. Here too, in the little cemetery,
many Belgians sleep well amongst the geraniums, telling
the tale of the first clash of conflict.
The following morning there was again a delay of several
hours for more water, some of our carriers having to go all
the way to the lake to obtain it; thus the morning was well
advanced before we eventually got off. At length, however,
we moved forward to our goal and soon found ourselves
entering the tangled growth of the foot-hills and breasting
the outer bastions of the great pile, thick with tropical foliage.
Very soon the track steepened to a stiff climb, for the most
part along old elephant paths, evidences of which could be seen
on either hand in the shape of upturned trees and broken
branches. After three hours’ steady climbing, the first signs
of a change in the vegetation were to be discerned, shrub-like
73
The Eastern Congo
growths, intermixed with small heather bushes (Ervicacee)
taking the place of the tall fern-hung forest trees. This —
giant heather became more frequent and sturdier the higher |
we ascended and, together with senecios and a few other ©
growths, presently entirely replaced the lower vegetation —
excepting the mosses and ground plants. |
It now being late in the afternoon and having reached a
mossy ledge bordering the barren lava summit, we pitched —
our tents, both ourselves and the porters setting about the ~ |
job of making all snug against a cold night.
The ascent of this volcano is not difficult in fine weather,
but as heavy mists, storms, and blizzards are frequent and —
sudden, there is the danger that some of one’s porters might 7
succumb to exposure and cold, or the possibility that one —
might get lost oneself in a thick mist. To accentuate the |
fact, a violent thunderstorm drifted over our little camp |
shortly before sundown without warning and coming from |
nowhere in particular. For fully half an hour a deluge of
icy rain beat upon us, bringing the thermometer with a.
bound down to freezing point, our breath showing up white 2
even in our tents. The storm dropped away, however, as
suddenly as it came, leaving a clear, star-lit sky, cut across »
by the gleaming dome of the Ninagongo crater close above |
us and giving the promise of a fine night. This passed un-
eventfully, the stillness however, being broken by several
terrific “hee-haws”’ from Commandant Hollant’s donkey at
intervals in the course of the night, and a few answering
moans from an old lion far away in the forest below. 7
Rising at 4.30 the following morning, and after partaking —
of some hot wine (sweetened and spiced, this is an ideal” f
stimulant on such occasions) and sandwiches, we dug out a |
74 i
Gorilla Hunting
few stiffened porters from their beds of heather and started
to mount the last thousand feet that separated us from the
summit, carrying a box of food, a bundle of wood, the cameras
and collecting outfit, a rifle and a bottle of brandy.
Half an hour’s climbing brought us out on the bare lava
where the vegetation practically ceases, enabling us to
appreciate the splendid spectacle of the sun about to rise
behind the clear-cut peaks of Karisimbiand Mikeno. Although
the bases of these giants were swathed in empurpled mist,
their snow-sprinkled summits stood out finely in the rosy
dawn without a cloud to mar their beauty—save only as an
added charm a pink umbrella of vapour, a misty halo, that
lay just resting above the tip of Karisimbi. Then, too,
as if Dame Nature had said: ‘‘ I have something to show you,
just this once,” the moon in its last quarter and Venus, the
Morning Star, hung close together above the fairy scene.
Enchanted scenery, as it might be, from some other world.
Another world too greeted our gaze as, after reaching
the summit, we peered over the edge and into the Ninagongo
crater. For there, six or seven hundred feet sheer below,
lay a vast and steaming pit, a world of Titans and unknown
forces at work in the bowels of the earth, beside which one
feels a puny atom. The crater, the crater-floor and the
oval eruptive shaft might have been laid out by some master-
builder, so symmetrical do they appear to be. The crater-
floor, which approximates a mile in diameter, is perfectly flat
and seems to be covered with yellow sand, but which in
reality is pulverized lava. In the centre of this is the immense
smoking vent, or eruptive shaft, surrounded by semi-circular
cracks, running parallel to its edge, and which emit a heavy
white vapour, the smoke from the vent itself being pale yellow
te
The Eastern Congo
in colour. The only noise I heard during the six hours spent —
on the summit was a seething sound from the shaft as of
boiling lava. The vapour and smoke from the volcano are ~
in no way mephitic, as swifts were to be observed circling
around within the crater itself, even as though there were
insects to be caught there. I myself took one butterfly, an
Acr@id, and also observed a large species of Hesperid flying
past, right on the lip of the crater. The acid sulphur fumes
were just noticeable, but were rather pleasant than otherwise.
Having taken my fill, not only of the enthralling sight
of the great crater beside me, but also of the extensive pano- |
rama below me of forest, lake and crater, I proceeded to
photograph and film all that I considered worth while. ©
Ninagongo itself first occupied my attention and after —
Karisimbi and Mikeno, its subsidiary southern crater, as a |
good bird’s-eye view of its forest-clad mouth was obtainable _
from where I stood.
The fact that a column of vapour appeared to ‘be issuing
from the eastern end of this supposed extinct volcano and —
the otherwise interesting look of its grass-covered crater- —
floor, aroused the curiosity of both Commandant Hollants and —
myself so much that we determined to put our camp there ~
that night. Therefore, after a prolonged study of the north —
end of Lake Kivu, we descended and striking camp, soon —
found ourselves clambering down the steep cliffs that fo ‘
the crater-ring and which we had seen from above. at
The vegetation we passed through before reaching the 7
open crater-floor was the weirdest and most fantastic I have
ever seen, composed as it was, almost entirely, of. bright —
green yellow-flowered senecios, overhung by festoons of prey-
green beard-moss which grew on every small tree and bush. —
76 |
@, The Author on the lip of the Ninagongo Crater.
The vast chasm of the eruptive shaft can be
discerned within the smoking crater to the left.
@, Commandant Hollants’ and the Author’s Camp on the
“floor’’ of the southern subsidiary crater of Ninagongo.
Ninagongo itself is just discernible in the mists above.
SS
@, The Skull of the very old Male Gorilla seen in the Frontispiece. As the teeth are quite
worn away, the animal was possibly of very great age. Gorillas come to maturity
slowly, possibly not reaching the fully adult stage in the male till 12 years old.
Gorilla Hunting
The circle of the crater-floor on which we camped was a good
half-mile in diameter. It was covered with short grass inter-
spersed with giant lobelias growing over a perfectly uniform
and flat crust of iron-like lava, with a surface resembling
ironstone. Completely surrounding us stood the circle of
cliffs composing the sides of the crater-mouth and we felt
to be, as we probably were, the first white men to camp down
in such an unique spot as the depth of an unbroken crater.
In the afternoon, and again the following morning, I set
myself the task of trying to find the cause of the column of
vapour we had seen from above, but nothing could I dis-
cover amidst the tangled growths from which it had appeared
to issue.
After this, and owing to the fact that the water supply
for ourselves and our natives had now run out, there was
nothing for it but to make the best of our way back to Kisenji.
This we accordingly did and so pleasantly ending one of those
unforgettable experiences that go to even up the hard knocks
that Africa so frequently deals out.
After paying a short visit to Goma on the lake shore,
a few miles north of Kisenji, and examining the interesting
volcanic features to be seen there, I began to make ready for
a longer trip which was to include the exploration of the
volcanoes of Mikeno, Karisimbi and Visoke, where I hoped
to discover new insects and perhaps meet with the gorilla.
All was again ready for this second excursion by the
morning of September 27th, so again regretfully saying farewell
to my wife I set out, accompanied only by my Wahutu
carriers. On this trip I made the fatal mistake of leaving
without an adequate supply of food, and relying, as I did, on
obtaining sufficient from local chiefs it nearly cost me dear.
77
The Eastern Congo
The situation was saved later by the expedient of sending
back half my porters to buy food at the Kisenji market at the
cost of considerable delay.
Unless money is no object, and the man can afford to pay
unlimitedly, the three essentials that go to make the successful
African explorer are patience, perseverance, and a strong-
mindedness ; without them the would-be traveller had better
not leave the beaten track. This present “safari” of mine _
nearly “‘ failed to meet the test,” for, to begin with, a steady
downpour of rain commenced which continued to beat upon ~
us for the best part of ten days, making the carriers dis- —
gruntled and the ground soggy and slippery. After scarcity - |
of food, useless guides were my next trouble. From the
first day I had my doubts about them, which were soon
confirmed by their glaring (or wilful) lack of knowledge of
any part of the district. Mere bluffers they were, so I cleared
them out and engaged two others, who assured me they knew
the volcanoes well and that they in fact lived in the bamboo
zone on the sides of Karisimbi.
In spite of the sun being continually obscured by the
lowering clouds and for the time being all sense of direction
gone, I had every faith in my new guides and their ability ©
to lead me to the point I wished to make. I therefore kept |
to their course which, after floundering through many miles of |~
wet forest and along muddy cattle-tracks that intersected | :
it in all directions, eventually brought us to a wonderful little |”
crater-lake, tucked away into the riven foot of Mikeno on its |
western flank. This appeared to me to be a serviceable |
I
ai
place from which to begin the ascent of the two giant vol-
canoes that now towered into the clouds above us, and more- |
over my boots being wet through, with rain still falling and b
78 1
5]
G, The Volcano of Mikeno and the Gorilla Forest,
where the Author made his Camp. The Trees
are the Hagenias described in the next Chapter.
ad
~
® 9%, me ' 4& «
‘ onl WF tg } f é
\ oe “er ¥ "7 ‘ P .
yy de Be Fk? SARK oe
i a Sk ET CM ren i fe Ne
‘ oh 4 Pa 1, € .
ss
Soll
iN
- om!
a wee i 4
ey WERE 4’ oy:
, J . BY, * \ . " J
. 5 e 1a 9%
ie ’ J be f id ; ih
: eS Pears: :
@, A Forest of Senecios and Beard-moss within
the subsidiary crater of Ninagongo, and
from which the column of vapour described
by the Author was seen to be issuing.
- ~ —-
——e
Gorilla Hunting
the air bitterly cold, I was more than pleased to get the camp
fixed up. For this purpose I chose a flat ledge close by,
which commanded an extensive view across the valley of the
Ninagongo massif and the glowing crater of Namlagira.
This camping place, from a scenic point of view, would be hard
to beat but it had its disadvantages, for apart from being
very cold, the elevation being seven thousand feet, it was
overgrown with stinging-nettles of a very poisonous variety*
beside which our own homely species pales into insignificance.
As the place proved to be a very good one for moths, which
in spite of rain and cold came to my gasoline lamp moth-trap
in considerable numbers, these tall nettles gave me a lively
time, for on more than one occasion I happened to beat up
against them in my chase after passing insects. There can
be little doubt that on these occasions my porters put me down
as a maniac, for both the language I used and the figure I cut
(a semi-war-dance accompanied by a waving butterfly-net),
must have been appalling.
Two days were required by my men in which to secure
sufficient supplies of food to carry them over the next week,
_ the time passing very monotonously for me in the damp and
_ rain-soaked camp, mitigated solely by a few hours’ sunshine.
Taking advantage of this, I paid another visit to the
crater-lake, which is the only permanent water supply for
man or beast within a radius of many miles. This extinct
parasitic crater, seen in the sunshine, is the most beautiful
spot that can well be imagined. Shaped like a horse-shoe,
with steep sides gouged out of the base of its giant host,
its novelty is enhanced by a narrow breach in its western
front, caused by the overflowing crater-lake, and forming a
* Evidently like those on the Kenya volcano, British East Africa.—H. H. J.
79
The Eastern Congo
kind of gateway on to the original crater-floor where lies a _ |
circular shallow pool some hundred yards in diameter. As
verdure of all shades surmounts the encirling walls of this |
miniature lake right down to the water’s edge, where red,
white and black cattle are to be seen standing at ease and
mirrored in its depth—the scene is worth more than this poor — |
pen-picture : is indeed worthy the canvas of a great painter. |
From my guide I now began to hear tales of the gorillas,
the Ngege as the natives call them hereabouts; in fact six _
weeks ago two brothers named Foster had shot two, and —
caught a young one, in the bamboo forest higher up on Mikeno, _
directly above this small pool. From my guide’s description —
and judging by the fact that he was able to differentiate —
between what he called the Impundu (the chimpanzi) and —
the Ngege (the gorilla), it was evident I was within measurable ~
distance of seeing and perhaps shooting a specimen of this —
animal: the largest species of man-ape that walks the earth ©
to-day. id
What with rain and cold, bad and grumbling porters, —
lack of food and suitable guides, I had begun to wonder if © 1
the climbing of these volcanoes was worth the candle, but
the news concerning the gorillas and the arrival of a quantity
of food putting everyone in a good humour, things tookaturn
for the better, and I decided to start for the higher regions q
on the following morning. This was the seventh day out |
from Kisenji and it broke fine and sunny, showing up the >
magnificent scenery that had been hidden forso long and leav-
ing the twin peaks above us, clear, snow-capped and gloriously
beautiful. So with the sunshine our troubles were forgotten,
each man shouldering his load with a light heart and full ,
tummy, and stepping out with a will for gorilla land.
80
Gorilla Hunting
The ‘‘ saddle’ that connects the two volcanoes of Mikeno
and Karisimbi approximates an elevation of ten thousand
i)
}
')
five hundred feet, and, as water is obtainable in some small
bogs that exist there, I decided to reach this and make it my
\
i
_ camping place for the further exploration of this part of the
'
.
_ Tange.
As the ‘safari’? mounted to this ridge, evidences of
elephant and buffalo became more frequent, and the bamboo
and other tropical foliage more dense. However on approach-
Ing the top, the hardy traveller will reach a definitely marked
,zone beyond which the bamboo apparently will not grow,
and he will be delighted to find himself amidst open forest
scenery that can only be described as elysian. This unique
forest, which is little more than two miles square, is composed
almost entirely of old and knotted hagenia trees (resembling
the European sumach) on the gnarled stems and branches of
which are to be seen massive pads of dark green moss. Ha-
genia trees growing elsewhere never attain a thickness of trunk
much greater than two feet, but here their growth for some
unexplained reason has become abnormal, many of their
_ red arched and buttressed trunks assuming giant proportions
_ three times this measurement. Judging by the rubbed and
if
Y]
f
marked appearance of many of them, they are greatly favoured
oy the buffaloes for rubbing their horns and hides against,
uso on occasions the shelters afforded by their overhanging
. trunks are used by gorillas.
These trees do not grow thickly together but form an
ypen forest, interspersed with small glades of tree veronicas
ind lobelias, the black loam beneath being covered with
ueculent fennels, docks and sorrels and other species of
quatic-looking plants that snap to the tread; the sorrels,
81 G
The Eastern Congo
witl. grass and bamboo leaves, form the favourite food of the - :
gorillas. | | | .
It was on the edge of this hagenia zone that, for the —
first time in my life, it fell to my lot to find and examine ~
the freshly made sleeping-place of a solitary ‘ old-man” |
gorilla. As I obtained a very good photograph of this, which ©
will be found reproduced on the opposite page, it is unnecessary
to describe it in detail ; suffice it to say that it consisted of |
a fair-sized hole scooped in the ground, and filled in with
leaves and bamboo branches bent down for the purpose.
Shortly after passing this place we entered the patch
of open forest that I have previously described, and finding a
suitable camping place near a water-hole, we cleared, with
considerable difficulty, a patch free from the thick growth of
Alpine foliage. I then put up the two tents I had with me,
one for myself, the other as a kitchen and boys’ tent, the
porters meanwhile selecting a huge overhanging creeper-|
covered hagenia stem for their quarters, which would afford 4
considerable protection against inclement weather. | ;
When I left my damp and cold camp the following morning)
for a still wetter and colder forest, I had little hope of bagging} |
a gorilla, one of the rarest and most interesting animals that
may fall to the hunter’s rifle, the mere name of which had often) __
hrilled my younger days and around which there still hangs |
something primeval, like the forests from which they come} ~ |
Such luck seemed too good to come true, but this time how —
ever my luck was in, a recompense for having “ stuck it out.’ 4
“It’s dogged as does it,” is a good motto! , a
Now, it is perhaps not generally known that gorilla) —
are fond of bending over long bamboos to make a kind o| ~
low platform upon which to sun themselves and from whicl —
82 :
‘JOAQT-B9S 9AOGe Jaodf OOO‘OI ye OURIIOA IqUIISHeyY
ay} UO eYWOS ,,ueUI-pio,, AreyyOoS e jo suIOxY IU, D
fi? ee os “|
#
@, The Head and Shoulders of a Kivu Gorilla.
Gorilla Hunting
to pluck and chew the tender leaves. Thus engaged was the
first gorilla I encountered. My Mhutu guide and myself
had been going carefully along through the dew-drenched
forest, when we were attracted by what sounded like a cough
and a breaking branch a considerable distance in advance
of our position. This the native assured me came from the
animals we sought, but quite how he could distinguish the
sounds from those made by a buffalo I am at a loss to under-
stand ; however he was right, for after gingerly picking our
way ahead for a short distance, we disturbed one of these
hairy giants taking an early morning sun-bath on his platform.
He was however too quick for us, for either sensing danger or
having seen us, he made one great leap off his perch, accom-
panied by a screaming roar, and was immediately lost to
view behind the thick screen of bamboos. The set of the wind
being in our favour we stood stock still where we were, it
being evident that the big ape could not have smelt us and
therefore had simply leaped to the ground, and was in all
likelihood standing and listening for intruders just where
he landed after his jump. Owing to the dense nature of the
bamboo forest in which we were, the incident just described
occurred at close quarters and I was now standing, as I
guessed, within twenty paces of my quarry—there being only
a tiny glade separating me from the bank of bamboo into
which he had disappeared. These surmises proved correct
for suddenly there broke forth from the opposite thicket the
| weirdest ‘“‘ devil’s tattoo’’ that can be imagined; it started
with an indrawn whine, which quickly increased in volume
until it broke out into a hoarse grunt, accompanied by a heavy
resonant clopp—clopp—clopp. I had of course heard of
_ both the gorilla and orang-utan beating their chests to frighten
| 83
The Eastern Congo
away an intruder, but when I first listened to this extraordinary
‘“‘clopping”’ noise, I scarcely realised that it was being made
by the great ape beating his chest. However on thinking
the matter over afterwards it was evident that it was pro-
duced in this way.
Judging it advisable to allay any suspicions in the animal’s
mind of our continued presence so close to him, we breathlessly
waited a considerable time, in the hope that he would move
out of the position in which he had entrenched himself.
This the gorilla would not do however, but continued at
intervals to gibber and beat his chest, accompanying this
by stamping and shaking the bamboos.
Hearing these angry danger signals and the heavy thud
of its stamping, one instinctively realised that one was con-
fronted with a large and formidable animal, not amere monkey,
and my mind flashed back to the thick and tough trees that
I had seen away back, broken and bent to pieces like match-
wood and how it would be with my arm or neck if it got
either in its grip. However “ Faint heart ne’er won fair
lady ’”’ or anything else, so after giving my friend Tarzan a
quarter of an hour to come out, what time we had been loudly
a = ae —
|
j
ee
,
|
he
4
ie
y
in
sworn at by the enemy, I decided to accept the challenge
and carry the war into the enemy’s stronghold by going in —
after him. Therefore, followed by my guide, who was armed ©
with a useful looking spear, I crossed the glade and going
down on all fours crawled into the bamboo thicket rifle in
hand. But it was no go this time, for on my advancing a
few yards, he heard me and shaking us both up with another
of his uncanny roars, crashed away into the forest. Having .
followed the spoor for a short distance, it became apparent
by breaking branches and other noises, that there were quite
‘
_
84
» -
“e
Gorilla Hunting
a number of gorillas right close at hand, so I decided to abandon
a frontal attack in favour of a flanking movement to the right.
Accompanied by my plucky Mhutu spearsman this we
accordingly did, and creeping over the mossy ground we
presently found ourselves on the edge of a steep glade. On
reaching this spot I cautiously peeped through the bamboos
and as luck would have it at that moment c-r-a-c-k went a
rotten stick beneath my foot; there was a roar followed by
a general commotion in front of me, and again I was dis-
covered. I now threw caution to the winds and wriggled
recklessly through the remaining bamboo stems in the wake
of the retreating quarry. This brought me out into the open
glade and there, squatting in some thick brushwood and
apparently quite undismayed by the danger signals of his
companions, sat or rather half-stood, with both his massive
hands resting on the ground before him, a huge “ old-man ”’
gorilla, regarding me with his malign and wrinkled counten-
ance. At this moment I whipped up my rifle and fired point
blank at the great bare chest ; the little .303 bullet was well
placed and its effect immediate, for he stumbled away but
a few yards, and my second bullet finished his career. He
_ then lay quite still outstretched on his stomach with his head
—
———
]
_ buried between the two great hairy arms.
Now pandemonium was let loose. Other members of the
| troop, which consisted as far as I could judge of two large
and quite black females with several young ones of varying
ages, stood around uttering their angry barking roars, and I
' beheld black and evil visages regarding me from under bamboo
it
archways and over leafy thickets. Whilst from out the forest
¢ | to my right, ambled another monster and crossing right in
i | frout of me was soon lost to view in the woods beyond, but it
a s
85
~%XIVE
bea
Vv
2 ge DS
= $ way 7
2 PES ~<
TARIG
The Eastern Congo
gave me a good “ full view” of another of these giants.
This was a second male and his black form made a splendid
picture against the lighter foliage as he stopped to gaze
curiously at me with his old and furrowed face.
However as I had shot the one, I let him pass on to rejoin
the rest of the troop which had now calmed down and were
moving off into the undergrowth—going forward myself
to examine my prize which lay face down in the grass. On
turning him over I was truly astonished at his herculean
proportions. His immense arms and hands were especially
striking and of such enormous strength that they could doubt-
less tear even a Hackensmidt or a Sandow limb from limb
in a few minutes. These abnormally long arms give this
splendid ape a misshapen appearance when walking (or
ambling is a better description), the legs being very short in
comparison. Living as they do in the mist-covered moun-
tains at a high elevation, and seldom descending to below ~
an altitude of seven thousand feet, these animals carry a
thick and long coat of hair, with the exception of the chest —
which is bare grey skin. In colour, the hair on the arms and ©
shoulders is black, the lower part of the back of the old males —
having across it a broad band of grey, the lower parts of the
body as well as the head becoming greyish brown when fully
adult. t
The most interesting feature about this specimen, however,
and one that has not been remarked before in others, was the
elongated crown or crest of thickened skin surmounting the
head, which has since been described as a growth similar 7
to the warty face protuberances of the orang-utan and a
mark of the completely adult male. This crown was deeply F
cut in two or three places as if by the teeth of other males —
86 |
‘ydei80joyd sty} ur UMOYS TEM 9Ie pPUeyY puUe Wire snowsOUs oY} pue
Surjse19}UI St ySaIO poyesuoja oyy, ‘oyyny oy} Aq joys LIMO IPI V D
eo
G, A Bird’s-eye View of the Subsidiary Crater of Ninagongo,
in which the Author camped with Commandant Hollants.
Author. The
remarkable crown or crest is here seen to advantage.
@, The male Kivu Gorilla shot by the
—- -
—_— -
Gorilla Hunting
when fighting. These animals have no cheek pouch and of
course no tail.
With a weight approximating four hundred and fifty lbs.*
the measurements of my specimen were as follows :—
Standing height (crown to sole of foot)... 63? inches
Span of arms Me 3 ei, ae: h
Chest a ce on 6 Pa sy | <
Forearm .. yh ry 3 tee iy
Length of foot eM a ey Ate z
Length of hand... ae 10
I have given above the animal’s “ standing height,’”’ but
as a matter of fact, contrary to the popular theory, a gorilla
seldom walks erect, unless when using its hands to support
itself by branches overhead or when alarmed or attacked.
Non-arboreal in habit, this monster ape would seem to
have no enemies, failing man; and even man, the most
dreaded of all the animal world, holds little fear for the gorilla
in his inaccessible home. As before described they never
sleep in trees but prefer to make a nest or shelter on the
ground, frequently in the centre of a clump of bamboo stems.
Judging by my observations, it may be said they scarcely
ever climb trees and moreover are not partial to fruit or
nuts, preferring to feed on grass herbage and bamboo leaves.
Bearing this out is the fact that seeds are never to be seen
in their droppings (like those of a chimpanzi for instance)—
which resemble those of a horse. The gorilla walks squarely
on all fours, with the fingers of its hands doubled under, so
that the backs of them are in contact with the ground.
It was now my task, after photographing and filming my
i prize to have it carried into camp for the skinning and curing
* Over 32 stone.
87
The Eastern Congo
of the hide and skeleton.* Under this decidedly heavy load
twelve niggers struggled and thus heavily laden we slowly
reached the tents.
The days that followed were engaged in making an ex-
cursion to the Visoke volcano and the ascent of the twin peaks
of Mikeno and Karisimbi, between which I had my camp.
Senecios, lobelias, heathers and other Alpine plants are to be
found growing in profusion at an elevation of about I1,000
feet on both these volcanoes. At one place just below the
bare cone of Karisimbi, senecios take the place of nearly all
other vegetation.
These various excursions had now completed my entomo-
logical work, which proved to be rather disappointing owing
to the disgusting weather that had again set in. The cold
and wet made it impossible for me to keep warm night or
day. Fortunately one evening before I broke camp the
clouds had drifted away, revealing the splendid spectacle,
hidden till now, of the red storm-tossed cloud-masses hanging
above the amber smoke-column of Namlagira, and behind
it all the sun setting in a haze of golden splendour.
My work completed, I now packed up my belongings and
again retraced my steps by way of Njundo to my temporary
home at Kisenji, where the gorilla proved of the greatest
interest to both white and black. The skin always attracted :
a great deal of attention wherever I had it out to dry, the
crowd of natives examining it outside my tent often becoming
positively embarrassing. It was put down to be anything —
between a hyena and a lion, according to the tribe we were
living amongst. In the Ituri forest, where lions are unknown, ~
* NoTE.—My camp followers, although pretty hungry at the time, refused a
to eat the meat of the gorilla. |
88
Gorilla Hunting
it was a lion; anywhere else it was anything from a muga
to an aquatic animal, but few natives, curiously enough,
perhaps one in a thousand, knew it for what it was, and those
that knew held it in superstitious dread.
On reaching Kisenji I found that several cases had occurred
amongst the native population of cerebro-spinal meningitis,
a common disease amongst the Ruanda and Urundi natives.
To combat the spreading of this disease, disinfection of the
lungs and throat was being carried out by the medical depart-
ment. This took place every morning near the compounds
and had to be attended by all native servants, our own
included.
Before the war the Germans at Kisenji were in possession
of a small gasoline launch. This they sunk, together with
many drums of petrol in the Jake near by, when they evacuated
the placein 1916. Having been salved the launch is now in the
possession of the Belgians, and together with a motor-
barge is the only mechanically driven vessel on the lake.
I believe, however, that another barge is now in course of
construction.
The Petrolette, as it was called, was very kindly put
at my disposal by Commandant Hollants and so, wishing to
_ pay a visit to the scene of the 1912 eruption, in the north-
_ west corner of Lake Kivu, I set out one fine morning with
_ the engineer and two White Fathers for Bobandana, at the
south end of Mbusi Bay. We had already passed the high
cliff and bare lava-beds that mark the narrowed channel
_into the bay, and had examined from a distance with our
| glasses the newly formed volcano, when our engine went on
Strike. It appeared that since the engine’s two years’ im-
_Mersion in the lake it often did this when it felt like it,
89
The Eastern Congo
requiring sometimes gentle persuasion in the form of two or
three gallons of lubricating oil or a brand new sparking plug,
at other times a few pieces of sardine tin or binding with
native fibre were necessary, and then again on other occasions
nothing whatever would move it. This proved to be one
of the last-named occasions, so the rough native paddles
had to be produced, much to everyone’s disgust, and with
these we got the boat along. Presently we hailed some
native canoes, one being sent back to Kisenji with a note to
the Commandant asking for the motor-barge to be sent out
to our assistance. In the meantime we paddled painfully
into Bobandana Mission Station.
We were hospitably received by the Fathers and as far as
the circumstances would allow “‘made comfortable’”’ for
the night, but as it passed uncomfortably for me, I was glad
to welcome the motor-barge early next morning. :
After loading up this with European potatoes for Busum- _
bura, we took the Petrolette in tow and started off again. |
Shortly after coming out from Mbusi Bay we observed ~
a sunken volcano, its crater-edge just showing above water —
in the form of a horse-shoe of bush-clad land enclosing a ~
fairy-like lagoon. It is an enchanting little island called —
Chegera, and after entering its calm and unruffled waters
by the narrow entrance one finds oneself nearly surrounded —
by a thin ring of greenery, sloping quickly to a reed-clad
shore, on the other side of which lie the blue waters of the lake ©
itself. Years ago the missionaries had put some pigs on this —
lagoon-island, and their progeny were living there in a semi-
wild condition. I shot two of these pigs for our larder and
hoisting these aboard we set out for our return to Kisenji,
which we reached without further incident. i
go
*Peulloy SEM OUPITOA MOU e UdYM ‘EI-ZI6I JO }SInqjno IIUeITOA 9Yy} JO ouUZDS 943
ainzord oy} JO JYSII oY} OF puke ‘Avg Isnq]{ 0} 90UeI}UD JY} Uses 9q UD 90U4SIp O[pprul
94} UJ ‘NATH oe] JO IoUIOS YSOM-Y}IOU OYY UI ‘eIOSIYD JO pue]s] 10}eID UOOseT oY], ‘D
ee rt ee ee
qd, The “ Petrolette ’’ being towed into Kisenji by the motor-barge after the breakdown.
In the distance can be seen the narrow channel into the Mbusi Bay and the
newly formed lava-bed (shown in illustration facing page 66), and to the
right is a cliff 325 feet high, surrounded by the recent lava formation.
———
j CHAPTER VIII
TO THE GAME-HAUNTED SOLITUDES OF THE
RUCHURU AND RUINDI PLAINS
“When the world ts out of gear,
When our gods have gone astray,
When the ghosts of yester-yeay
Rise to taunt the coming day,
In the lull before the rains
Hie we to the Magic Plains.”
The Magic Plains. Verse I.
EFORE leaving Kisenji to resume our northward
B journey it fell to my lot, for the second time in my
life, to be reported as killed by an elephant. How
and where the report started it is difficult to say but like
news of disaster all the world over it travelled quickly, and
before many weeks had passed my wife was receiving letters
of condolence from all parts of the country, as far even as from
Lake Tanganyika. As I told my wife, judging from the tone
of one of the letters I am not at all sure that it would not have
ended in a proposal of marriage if she had not written to
disprove the report, whilst thanking the kind inquirer for his
sympathy.
The peace of Kisenji was rudely shaken on the morning
upon which we had decided to start. The discovery was
made that in the night a large man-eating lion had sprung
on a wretched native servant going to the lake for water
and had partially eaten the body, leaving the gruesome
remains on the foreshore for all to see. As my porters were
all ready and loaded for departure, I was unable to stay for
the lion hunt that was to be arranged. Whether or no the
gti
The Eastern Congo
Belgians eventually bagged the lion I did not hear, but it
served its purpose as far as we were concerned by putting
our whole “ safari’’ on the gui vive when night came on, and
prepared us for any eventualities that might occur in the
lion-infested country we were about to visit.
We were now to leave the Awa-ruanda for the last time.
Concerning their country enough has perhaps been said to
show how great it is, and what potentialities lie dormant
within it for the future. It only remains to be seen with what
courage and administrative ability the Belgians will meet
their task. But I am bound to say this much, that they seem
to have struck the right note in their dealings with Sultan
Msinga, and also that their policy is at present paternal and
lenient with every chance of working smoothly, providing
no further friction arises between the Church (or the many
Roman Catholic Missions-—-who are-inclined to be rather too
assertive of their authority over the natives), and the State.
Further, there can be little doubt that the class of Belgian
official employed in administering the Ruanda to-day com-
pares favourably with his English neighbour across the border.
The boundaries of the Belgian Tanganyika territory
have now been fixed, but as they are a little complicated
my reader had best refer to the map bound up with this
volume, and so save the tedium of reading a written descrip-
tion of them.
It was not generally known at the commencement of the
war that the Germans had advanced so far with their pro-
jected railway from Tabora past the south end of Namirembe
Bay to Kaseke on the southern bend of the Kagera River.
As a matter of fact, work on this railway had proceeded at
such a pace that the construction of the line had reached ve
Q2
a Se >
cS ih yl attain esd
oe wefan le
=~ iy
The Ruchuru and Ruindi Plains
more than half-way between the two points. It is moreover
believed that this railway formed part of the German Imperial
scheme of the conquest of Central Africa. It was discovered
during the war that an (until lately) unknown valley (known
of course to the Germans but kept secret and unpublished
in any save their Secret Service maps) exists on the western
side of the Kagera River, and runs parallel with it to a point
called Katitumba, near the Uganda border; through this a
light railway track can be constructed with ease. From
Katitumba I am told it is also a fairly simple problem of
railway construction to reach Lake Edward itself, down the
valley of the Ntungwe. Thus, owing to fortune being against
them in Europe, did another German adventure come to
naught and light was thrown again on their secret plans.
Before passing on to a description of the game-haunted
solitudes of Lake Edward, it would be as well to record here
the facts that led up to the Belgian occupation of the Ruanda
and Urundi, so I cannot do better than quote ‘‘ Nomad’s ”’
brief account from The Spectator :—
“Up to December, 1915, the military operations of the
Congo Belgians had been practically confined to the defence
of their own frontiers, as their forces in the Eastern Congo
_ were only such as sufficed for the defence of their own borders,
_ and beyond the garrisoning of certain British frontier outposts
~
in Kigezi, no other military assistance to the operations in
German East Africa could be rendered. Concentration of
native troops from the Western Congo, where their military
headquarters were situated, was both difficult and slow owing
to the immense distances to be traversed, and it was not
| until early in 1916 that any appreciable assistance could be
_ offered to the British forces.
93
The Eastern Congo
‘In Uganda also the position had been strictly defensive ©
as the regular troops had been withdrawn for the operations in
German East Africa, and the training and equipment of the |
irregular forces which had been raised, necessarily took time.
‘This position was manifestly unsatisfactory as it kept _
both the Belgian Congo and Uganda frontiers in a state of
unrest, hence it was considered advisable for the respective
Governments to endeavour to arrange for a combined offen- —
sive, which would clear the Belgian frontiers and the territory |
between Lake Victoria on the east and Lakes Edwards and |
Kivu on the west. A conference was consequently arranged —
between the two Governments when it was decided that, ©
subject to the approval of the British Commander-in-Chief
of the East African operations, General Tombeur, with the
Belgian Congo troops, would undertake an immediate advance
into the Ruanda, provided the Uganda Government would ~
supply the necessary transport. Mutual action followed and >
the Belgian Congo force, with the Uganda Transport Corps ~
which had been specially organised for the purpose, started on —
April 25th, 1916 from Kamwezi, near the Uganda frontier.
“ Ruanda and Urundi were clear of German troops by July,
and by September the Belgian Congo troops had reached and
occupied Taboraon the Central Railway. The Uganda Defence
Force moved forward at the same time and cleared Karagwe ;
Bukoba and Muanza being subsequently occupied. An|
arrangement between the British and Belgian Congo military
authorities followed, whereby Ruanda, Urundi and the terri-
tory to the west of a line drawn from Namirembe Bay on|
Lake Victoria to the south-east corner of Tanganyika, came
into the Belgian Congo sphere of administration, Karagwe
being reserved to the British.”
94
eS
|
|
,
:
:
@, Lake Kivu. Looking towards the western wall of
the Rift Valley from the crater island of Chegera.
>
_ Mame 5
@, A Bahutu Dance in progress at Kisenji.
west of the Victoria
Two specimens of this rare bird have lately been
on the Upper Nile and round the north-
@, The Whale-headed (or Boat-billed) Stork (Baleniceps rex), found
Nyanza.
Its existence
captured on Lake Kissale on the Lualaba River.
recorded.
Congo Basin has never before been
the
in
The Ruchuru and Ruindi Plains
With these jottings on its contemporary history, I must
leave the Ruanda and passing on, again cross the Congo-
Nile watershed into the Lake Edward basin and describe our
journeys through it to the Mountains of the Moon.
We left Kisenji with an excited crowd standing round
- the remains of the meal of the man-eater, while the relatives
of the deceased one occupied themselves in tying them on to
a pole, with the idea of finishing off the feast in their own
huts for aught I know!
Although our send-off was not lacking in heartiness and
good wishes—for we made friends easily—it was on this
occasion put quite in the shade by the night’s tragedy. Thus
_ it was we left behind us the palms, the lemon groves, and the
geranium borders of beautiful Kisenji, to cross the boundary
into the Belgian Congo.
The track to Ruchuru takes the traveller by way of Kibati,
through the pass formed by the two volcanoes of Ninagongo
and Namlagira on the one hand and Mikeno and Karisimbi
on the other. We had therefore to pass again close to the
gorilla country and this decided me to spend a few days in an
_ attempt to obtain some moving-pictures of these rare animals
alive and to study their habits still further.
We pitched the tents on one of the lower spurs of Mikeno,
on the same spot where the Foster brothers had made camp
_ some months previously. These two Uganda coffee planters
had the good fortune to shoot a male and female gorilla,
_and to secure a baby one a few days old which they found
_ clinging to the back of its dead mother. I have heard since
| that it thrived well and was bought by the New York Zoo.
The Fosters had an interesting and successful hunting expedi-
| tion until almost the last day before their return home, when
95
The Eastern Congo
a fatal accident with a wounded lion overtook the eldest of the
two brothers whilst out shooting on the Ruindi Plains.
After three days’ climbing round the steep sides of Mikeno,
it became evident that the gorillas had shifted their quarters
to the eastern slopes of Karisimbi, and the weather being wet
and misty, I had to abandon any further ideas of cinemato-
graphy or gorilla hunting. Therefore we struck camp, and |
moving northward, crossed the watershed on to the recently
formed lava flats, the drainage from which forms one of the
ultimate sources of the Nile. |
The roughness and iron-like nature of the volcanic region
through which we were passing, was well evidenced by the ©
mutilated and bent toes of not only all our porters, but of ©
the majority of the inhabitants of the villages as well. More-
ever, hunters who know the district complain that many
of the elephants who roam over this region are quite often
minus one tusk, due to having it smashed off when stumbling P
or stampeding over the lava-strewn bush. My wife and my-
self, in spite of our boots, soon felt the discomfort of walking —
on such a hard and unyielding surface, and the feet of our —
carriers were usually bleeding at the end of the day’s march,
Having passed the Roman Catholic Mission of Rugari we were
therefore glad to find ourselves well over the more recent ©
lava flow and to feel the soft earth again beneath our feet.
Wishing to get our camp fixed up and to avoid one of the _
afternoon storms we were experiencing at this time, I found
it necessary, contrary to my general rule, to pass this mission ‘aa
without calling on the Fathers by which, much to my regret, |
I lost the goodwill of these kind people. It appears they were
expecting and looking forward to meeting us, but this I did I
not realise at the time or I should have stopped for achat.
96
The Ruchuru and Ruindi Plains
During this period of our journey there was a break be-~
tween the seasons of the “little”? and the “big” rains.
The mornings were always fine, but short thunder or rain
storms were a frequent occurrence in the afternoons, and the
rain being of an exceptionally cold or sometimes sleety variety,
it was not exactly in favour with our naked Bahutu porters.
_ They however, had a novel method of keeping the rain away—
a method thoroughly believed in by all the natives of the
-Ruanda. A short wooden whistle, or rather pipe, about
three and a half inches long is carried, slung on a string, by
most of these natives when on a journey; this pipe would be
| produced when a storm threatened, by any native who thought
himself favoured by the gods, and he would blow it whilst
_ standing on some eminence-—such as an ant-hill or mound ;
at intervals cursing and imploring Jupiter Pluvius not to
use his watering-pot. The harangue and the whistling away
of the rain always interested the whole “ safari,’’ and odds
were even as to the result, the proceeding being watched
with great attention. As the unsuccessful whistlers always
“had their legs pulled’’ by everybody, and entirely lost
their prestige if the rain came after all, it was noticeable
that when a man stepped out with his whistle he was very
icareful to select the right occasion, when the set of the wind
or other signs appeared favourable to the desired result.
The Wanya-ruanda are the only natives, as far as I know, who
practise this curious custom; it is usually the other way in
Africa—the gods are more often invoked to send rain and not
to withhold it.
_, On a long expedition such as we were making, and being
continually on the move to fresh scenes and new places, we
sontracted the restless habit of ‘‘ thinking on ahead ”’ so to
97 H
The Eastern Congo
speak. No sooner had we arrived at one place—which had
been our goal for some weeks and the name of which had
entered daily into our conversation—than we began to think
and speak about our next centre or stopping-place. At first.
it was the Lualaba River, then Tanganyika, then Lake Kiva
and so now our minds began to “ crystallize ’’ on the Moun-
tains of the Moon—the turning point of our long march. |
It was said that from near the Government station of
Ruchuru, these great mountains could be seen over a hundred
miles away. This Belgian Post, which we were now approach-
ing, stands on the river of the same name, at an elevation.
of 4,150 feet above sea level, and about midway between
Lakes Kivu and Edward. It is the administrative head-
quarters of the Kivu district and is connected by a track —
over the border with Kabare, in the Kigezi district of Uganda,
but at this time the border was “‘ closed” on account of
rinderpest, and only mails were allowed across. ‘There
were ten or a dozen Government officials, including a customs
officer, also a branch of the Banque du Congo Belge. |
We reached the place early in November, and althougt |
the site of the township is a good one and commands a fiue —
view of the splendid Kasali mountains across the Ruchurt
valley, we did not find it healthy, and, in fact, felt ill anc
feverish during the period of our stay there. I found &
necessary to remain nine days, to enable the special messenger
despatched by the Administrateur, to reach Kasindi at th
north end of Lake Edward, and to bring back, with a suitabl:
crew, a steel barge or baleinitre lying there. By the kindnes
of the Admuinistrateur, Monsieur Vanderghorte, this was pu
at our disposal to take us up the lake, for on inquiry I rr 4
98
Whe tetra ane Rasndi Plains
Lake Edward was dangerous and impracticable on account
of the cannibals who infest this region.
At Ruchuru I had to pay customs duty and take out my
shooting licences. For some reason only known to the
Belgian Government, the game laws and regulations are
constantly altering, especially in regard to the shooting of
elephants. The district residents themselves are never certain
about the cost of game licences, or the number of elephants
allowed to be shot. When I applied for a licence I was
informed that the cost would be 1,000 francs for the first two
| and 400 francs for each subsequent elephant shot, up to twenty
_ head, but that, although the applicant had to pay his money
| down, he was unable to receive his licence or commence
shooting for two months, as the application had to be for-
| warded for the Governor’s signature at Stanleyville, thirty
| days overland. This arrangement must lose the Government
‘many thousands of francs annually, as few hunters would be
‘inclined to wait such a length of time. The regulation came
\|
\
|
_ into force a few weeks before I reached Ruchuru. I applied
for a licence to shoot two elephants, but when I received it
/|from Stanleyville twelve weeks later, the regulations had
pe been altered. I also took out a licence to shoot small
_/game, costing fifty francs, which can be obtained on the spot,
and under which I was able to shoot all kinds of game, ex-
- \cepting elephants, chimpanzis, gorillas and okapis. To shoot
_ ‘the three last mentioned animals a special licence is necessary
for which, however, no charge is made if such specimens are
' required for scientific purposes.
_| The district being very rich entomologically, both my
_ collecting “‘ boys”’ and myself used every available hour of
| the day for catching insects in the large patches of evergreen
99
The Eastern Congo >
found in the neighbourhood; these were located around
the sources of the smaller streams, in the folds of the hills,
and also on the borders of the lakelets of this interesting region. —
For the most part the eastern side of the Ruchuru valley —
is covered with luxuriant elephant-grass and low bush. The —
river itself, which has its main source in Lake Mutanda, ~
runs swiftly at the very foot of the grass-covered spurs of the |
Kasali mountains, first through the rough lava blocks from _
Namlagira, then out into the lacustrine plains of Lake Edward.
Having crossed the Congo-Nile water-parting over the ©
Virunga mountains, the sudden change in the insect-fauna on —
the Nile slope is most marked, for here one finds entirely
different species of insects, some of which I had not seen for —
months past—since leaving Lake Tanganyika, in fact! The |
division is definite but comparatively few miles in width,
a narrow boundary where the steppe region ends and the —
intermediate forest and grass area begins. |
The panoramic view, to be obtained from Ruchuru, of ©
the Virunga volcanoes is one of the most imposing bits of |
scenery to be seen anywhere in Africa. From here these
eight giants line across the landscape in imposing array,
commanding the attention of all beholders and the admiration |
of the most phlegmatic. This was the last view we had of
them, for on leaving Ruchuru the traveller to Lake Edward
descends rapidly to the plains and the greater portion of
the range is then hidden from view. This last view, however,
does the volcanoes ample justice, and one leaves them with —
the firm conviction that the stupendous forces that now lie —
dormant have by no means reached their last effort, but are b
preparing a holocaust that will convulse the district yet
again in a giant upheaval. 4
*)
scecaaieenimane.
er ee
I00
The Ruchuru and Ruindi Plains
Our porters were now ready and our route mapped out,
but before leaving Ruchuru I must say one word in praise
of the care and attention that the Belgians have bestowed
on the flower and strawberry beds in and around the “ town-
ship.”’ The flowers were principally roses, and the fact that
they grow here so luxuriantly had led one of the Government
officials to turn rose-planter for the production of attar of
roses. No strawberries grown in the tropics have any
flavour, to my mind, but what was lacking in quality in the
__ Ruchuru fruit was well made up for in quantity and nothing
could surpass them for jam-making purposes.
| We made a friend in Monsieur Fourget, the manager of
the Banque du Congo Belge at Ruchuru, who happily decided
to join our “safari’’ and take a few days’ shooting leave.
_ We found him a delightful and entertaining companion and
his method of hunting dangerous game—which I will recount
later on—fairly ‘tickled us to death” (as the Americans
say).
We all “ got under way ’”’ on the morning of the 12th of
| November, and very soon found ourselves traversing the
_ humid flats, now long with standing grass, that here border
j the eastern side of the Ruchuru River. After a long and
hot trek we crossed the river by a shaky bridge and camped
_ under the Kasali mountains on the other side.
The following day brought us by an easy and pleasant
march to some boiling springs known as Maji-ya-moto. The
_ Water, which is too hot to bear the hand in, has its source
_ in several geysers, one throwing up a continuous thin jet of
} water, and others ejecting it explosively from the rocks at
_ Short intervals. As the steaming hot water has only a few
hundred yards to flow before it reaches the Ruchuru, it
IOI
a)
¢ il nail
—— =
The Eastern Congo
increases the temperature of that river pretty considerably.
The hippos have found this out, and a pool a short way
below the junction is a favourite haunt of theirs. As our |
tents were pitched below the high bluff which here marks
the turning point to the west of the Kasali mountains, a
number of these great beasts were to be seen below the camp _
enjoying their hot bath. Not beingin want ofmeatandhoping
to obtain some moving-pictures of them, I am glad to say
they were left unmolested on this occasion, much to the
disgust of our porters, however, who were dying for a gorge
of their favourite food. | |
Although we were only on the outskirts of the extensive
lacustrine plains to which I have previously alluded, yet
around this camp (which stood on a high pebbly ridge, forming
part of the ancient foreshore of the old lake system), we hada
glimpse, in the herds of antelope around us, of the extra-
ordinary wealth of animal life collected in this comparatively
small area by Lake Edward. As it is perhaps the remotest
and least accessible of any such places in Africa to-day, it is
likely to remain for many a long year a sanctuary for bird
and beast, unvisited save only by an occasional traveller.
By selecting a track that led us to an unmapped river
called the Ruindi, which rises in a distant corner at the back
of the Kasali mountains, we were breaking new ground. —
The line of the Ruindi River is marked on few if any published —
maps and is named on none of them, but it is nevertheless a —
broad and swift, though shallow river, bearing down to the |
lake a considerable volume of water from some unknown ~
source in the western Rift Valley mountains. It is not
definitely known if the waters of Lake Moho and its many -
marshy surroundings—lying north-west of the Namlagira |
102
“‘PIPMPA dye] uo }yOYsS oddtyy Vv D
ssa epacanes
————
G, The head of the Buffalo that eventually proved a nasty
customer to deal with. It was due to the animal being
blind in one eye that the Author escaped a bad accident.
\
The Ruchuru and Ruindi Plains
volcano—drain into Lake Kivu, directly into the Oso River,
a tributary of the Congo, or into Lake Edward; or even if
its waters drain off at all, but it has been thought that this
small lake might form the source of the Ruindi. Judging
by the configuration of the Kasali and the connecting ranges
viewed from the Lake Edward side, I am of the opinion
that Lake Moho does not form a direct source for the Ruindi,
but may however feed a spring below its own level by seepage
through the intervening hills at its north end, and so become
indirectly a source for the latter river.
After the gameless country of Ruanda our trek amongst
the herds of buck scattered over the intervening plains between
the Ruchuru and Ruindi Rivers, was indeed a pleasure,
and in spite of the terrific heat the rather stiff march passed
more easily. This first day gave us a foretaste of our new
environment, after which we expected anything, for whilst
striking camp in the early morning we were all set agog, as
we munched our breakfast, by a fine old lioness suddenly
appearing in full view of the whole caravan. She was, how-
ever, a little too curious and stood regarding us just a trifle
too long, for having my rifle handy I drew a bead on her at
three hundred yards and hit her, whereupon she sprang
into the long grass, lying down beside an ant-heap as if badly
wounded. Unfortunately it was impossible to follow her up,
as the lioness was on the opposite side of the river which
was unfordable at this point, so there we had to leave it, for
a hot and long journey lay before us.
The lioness began the day and a nasty, solitary old
bull buffalo ended it, challenging our right of way as we
approached our proposed camping place on the Ruindi
River.
103
The Eastern Congo
It was in this way. The porters who, on account of thirst,
were anxious to reach the river, were a good mile ahead of
us and could be seen advancing in a long string across the
plain. We had just reached a high piece of ground over-
looking this scene and were rather astonished to notice
what looked like an elephant in the shimmering heat,
advancing steadily towards the head of the caravan. The
porters had stopped and were all bunched up, undecided as
to what to do; but their minds were made up for them
however, a few seconds afterwards, by the big animal, which —
turned out to be a very large old buffalo, increasing his pace
into the well-known lumbering gallop, with the result that our
carriers fled precipitately, leaving only a line of loads to face
the charging animal. We were fortunate in having a clear
bird’s-eye view of the whole affair, and the three of us stood
watching the miniature bull-fight with open-mouthed interest.
(We could almost feel ourselves standing below there with
those nervous porters, at the critical moment when the
buffalo charged and the men, dropping their loads, sprinted
back in a body, shedding clothes, calabashes and other odds
and ends as they ran.) Our friend the buffalo came near
the loads, got a whiff of them, it seemed, and thinking in his
little mind that having ‘cleared the field”’ he had done
all that was required, lumbered away again across the plain,
probably to some little spot that only he knew, where the grass
grew lush and long for the evening feed.
Just before this episode we obtained our first view of
Lake Edward, showing as a silver streak two days’ march
to the north; beyond this again we thought we could make
out a dull gleam high above the horizon, but could not be
sure if this was in reality a reflection from the great snow
104
pe -
The Ruchuru and Ruindi Plains
mountains for which our gaze searched, or if it was only some
figment of the imagination.
The porters having gathered their belongings and re-
shouldered their loads, it was not long ere we reached the
deeply eroded ravine of the Ruindi River, which runs seventy
or eighty feet below the level of the surrounding plains. Owing
to the thick forest that clothes the sides of the river—growing
at the bottom of the ravine and not on its edge—and the
tops of the trees not reaching above the surrounding level,
the course of the river is all but hidden from view unless one
overlooks it from some eminence or is close to it. It is just
such a river course as one would expect would eat its way
across these vast flats in a bygone age when they were plastered
with the slimy ooze of the lake bottom, after the great eruption
had damned back the waters of Lake Kivu. Few trees of
any size have been able to find root on these sun-baked arid
plains since then, excepting the hardy Acacia thorns, euphor-
bias and other zerophytes.
Crossing the Ruindi ravine was not easy, as its sides
are best described as cliffs, but after a rest in its cool shade
we were soon clambering up the far bank and presently
found ourselves at an old camping place and standing round
the forlorn grave of young Foster, on the other side.
“ Killed by a lion!’ From all accounts, Foster, who
was a keen and plucky hunter, would like the above epitaph
as well as any other and although his grave is the most lonely
imaginable from a human point of view, he lies midst a great
assembly of splendid animals: and how much finer, cleaner
and more graceful are they than human beings !
The tale concerning his death was told to me by Monsieur
Fourget, who accompanied the Fosters on the trip in question.
105
The’ Eastern Congo
It has been told before and will be told again so long as there
are Britishers; the circumstances were as follows :—
The Ruindi plains at certain times of the year have more
lions to the square mile than any other part of Africa (or the
world for that matter). They are to be seen here in troops
of seventeen to twenty at a time. The natives have fled
the district and all save two small villages have been aban-
doned on account of them. Lions here are as common as
rabbits in a park. This fact being known at Ruchuru, the
brothers Foster heard of it and, collecting carriers, immedi-
ately proceeded to the spot, camping in the same place where
we camped.
When we arrived the game had shifted down the Ruindi
towards the Ruchuru estuary and the lions with.them, but
some weeks previously, when the Fosters were there, they
were extremely numerous and it was only necessary to leave
a dead buck or two about to find lions feeding on at least
one of the carcases in the morning or afternoon. The brothers
had shot five lions in this way, but not content with this
fine bag they spoored up—with the help of their dogs—a
lion which they had wounded, locating it in a dense thicket.
Here they did not take the warning their dogs gave them by
their evident reluctance to enter this, but the two brothers,
advancing shoulder to shoulder, with their rifles at the ready,
went in. On reaching the centre of the small wood the lion
charged them at close quarters and, failing to kill it, the
elder brother was knocked flying by the infuriated animal,
which gave him a terrible bite in the neck. The poor fellow
was carried sadly back to camp with his spine so badly —
injured that he succumbed two days later.
N\
106
@, The Kasaii Mountains, bordering the Ruchuru River,
looking south across the old lake-floor of the Rift Valley.
G, The Foster brothers and a before-breakfast bag on
the Ruindi River. The man on the left of the picture
| was killed by a lion as described in this chapter.
@, Two Lions shot by the Author.
) CHAPTER IX
THE WILD SHORES OF LAKE EDWARD
AND ITS GREAT GAME
““ Shadow shapes with sweeping horns
Glinting in the level rays,
Shapes that through a thousand dawns
Feed along the meadow ways,
Roan and eland and the rest
Grazing toward the golden West.”
The Magic Plains. Verse IV.
OW the balance of nature is kept with regard to lions
H::: never been adequately explained. Nothing preys
on them and a lioness gives birth to from two to
four—sometimes five—cubs at a time. Yet, how is it they
do not overrun Africa ? 6
Antelopes and other animals, having many enemies and
producing their kind one at a time, have overrun parts of
the continent to such an extent that human ingenuity has
been hard put to it to cope with their numbers. Environment
and scarcity or otherwise of food has little to do with it in
the case of lions, for they are frequently numerous in districts
where game is scarce and scarce where game is plentiful.
Seeking a reason to account for their numbers being
kept within bounds, one perhaps finds it in the fact that
the lion, like some dogs, pigs and rabbits, has a malign instinct
found cropping out here and there throughout nature, and
not entirely absent even from man—that makes it eat its
own cubs. To guard against this race-suicide, the mother
lion has to resort to hiding them away from her lord and
master as best she can.
107
The Eastern Congo
It is possible also that young lions are more prone to
disease than vegetable-feeding animals. That the lioness,
like all the cat tribe, is a good and affectionate mother is
proved by the following experience.
Some years ago I had my tent pitched in a small village
in Nyasaland, and during the night was awakened by the low
moaning grunts of a lion, which continued until the early
hours of the morning. At the time I thought the sounds
unusual for a lion, being so low toned and mournful. In
fact, until I went outside my tent to listen more attentively
they seemed to come from a distance, but it was evident,
by the indrawn breath being distinctly audible, that they
were uttered close at hand.
Early next morning, having just left the vicinity of the
village and entering a well-worn track made by elephants
when raiding the native gardens, I ran right into a big lion
round a bend in the path. He gave me no time to even
raise my rifle, but catching sight of me gave a great bound
that landed him in one instant completely out of sight in the
long grass. Shortly after I heard a growl from the opposite
side of the track which betokened a second lion.
I returned to the village and, collecting my porters and a
few volunteers, organised a drive, which however was un-
successful. After the drive and when returning to camp,
I followed a narrow trail in the bush which on examination
proved to be a well-worn lion path, and which brought me to
a deep pit-fall made by the natives for trapping antelope
feeding in their gardens. This pit was less than one hundred _
yards from the village, and I was astonished to find that
another track led me beyond the pit up to a certain hut in
the village. The ground in proximity to the pit was flattened
108 |
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EEE
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_ a gt A I enim
The Lions of Lake Edward
down, showing on it after a recent shower—and also along
the two tracks I have described—innumerable broad pug
marks of lions. The pit itself was scored on all sides near
the top by a network of deep scratches in the hard clay.
The natives of Nyasaland and Rhodesia have many super-
stitions regarding lions, principal among which is their belief
in the transmigration of the souls of their dead chiefs into
the bodies of lions, and on this account natives there will give
little or no information or help to the would-be lion hunter.
However, after some persuasion, I elicited the following
facts to account for the curious discovery I had made.
It appeared that two months before I arrived at the
village, four lion cubs had fallen into the game pit and on
being found next morning were speared and carried to the
hut of the village headman, where they were skinned. From
this time onwards the lion and lioness—father and mother
of the cubs—never ceased to haunt the vicinity of the village,
and almost nightly one or the other paced back and forth
along the track to the pit, and from the pit to the hut and
back again, searching for their lost cubs. At intervals, no
doubt, the mother would claw away at the edge of the pit,
perhaps fancying that her young ones were still there. While
she did this she uttered the moaning calls I have described.
This was not quite all, for the lions, finding game was
becoming scarce in the vicinity, took to man-eating and
had already killed and eaten the headman of the village and
one of his wives. Thus was their revenge complete !
On the Ruindi River and on the mountains and plains
surrounding it, are to be found large numbers of lions, giving
the impression that all the lions for a radius of many miles
had collected in this one spot. They started to entertain us
109
The Eastern Congo
during dinner with a fine chorus from across the river, and
kept it up at intervals until about the time we all turned
in for the night.
I was the last to go to bed as I set myself the rather tick-
lish job of collecting moths with my lamp moth-trap. This
consisted of a “‘ Storm-King’”’ gasoline lantern of 300 candle
power,* standing in the centre of a four-foot cube-shaped
frame-work, with mosquito netting stretched around three
sides. As our camp stood on a cliff overlooking the tree —
tops of the Ruindi, I calculated the edge of this would be a
good place to rig up my trap and so here I fixed it. However,
towards 9.30 a heavy wind sprang up and blew lamp, table
and trap over the cliff into the trees below; so there I left
them—veritably, to the lions, and went to bed to dream of
the butterflies and moths that are only seen in dreamland,
and of the splendid time I hoped to have “ filming ” the great
game around us.
It was not my intention to hunt lions in the ordinary
sense, but as I passed through the country I hoped to obtain
some moving pictures of them. So with this purpose in
view, Mr. Fourget and myself would shoot either one or two
waterbuck or Uganda kob (Cobdus) in the course of the day,
and, covering the carcases with leaves,to prevent them being
eaten by vultures meanwhile, leave them out at night in
likely places as bait for lions. We did this on three occasions,
but although we saw lions out on the plains, contrary to the
experience of the Fosters, none came to our baits. This was
* This lantern, which has mica in place of glass, and which is fitted with
either one or two incandescent rag mantles and burns petrol vapour and air
mixed, is the strongest and most economical lamp I know of for all “‘ safari”’
purposes. The lamp referred to above fell and rolled a good fifty feet over the
cliff, but, with the exception of the mantles, was unbroken when picked up.
Iio
~The Lions of Lake Edward
in part due to the fact that since the Fosters’ visit, the game
—and consequently the lions—had shifted to other feeding
grounds farther down the Ruindi, so we ourselves decided
to move on.
When I say the game had shifted to other pastures I do
not mean to imply that there was little game to be seen. As
a matter of fact we beheld antelope and other beasts still
dotting the plains in all directions as we marched across
them. First it would be a small herd of wart-hog that
trotted beside us, tails erect and heads up in that smart way
they have ; then we would pass through a herd of silly curious
topi (Damaliscus), reminding me of the tsesebe of Lake
Bangweulu, and anon, kob antelopes would have to be
shoo-ed out of our way—in fact these last animals were so
tame that when we came on one or two of them lying down
they would only get up at the very last moment. Water-
buck too, were numerous, being finer animals with larger
horns than any I have seen in Africa. Reedbuck and bush-
buck were fairly common; and amongst the game-birds,
two species of the lesser bustard, which make such a tasty
addition to the hunter’s menu. These birds were in greater
numbers than I have previously seen anywhere. Guinea-
_ fowls also were plentiful. It is round Lake Edward too
_ (more frequently at the north end than on the plains to the
_ south) that the hunter, if he has good luck and rises at dawn,
may catch the giant forest hog (Hylocherus meinertzhagent)
_ out on the plain in search of roots, before this rare animal
_ is aware that it is high time he was off again to his forest
fastness.
From our camp on the Ruindi, we took a north-westerly
direction to the foot of the western wall of the Rift Valley
III
The Eastern Congo
Mountains, which here rise steeply up from the flat plain.
Game was now seen literally in thousands, which was not
surprising as the grass was young and green from recent rains.
Whereas we had before seen them in scattered bunches,
they were now in herds of two and three hundred strong ;
buffaloes and elephants were also included in the menagerie.
The former were to be seen in strings, wandering down in
Indian file to some waterhole, or standing about under the
bright green acacia thorns in groups of grey and black,
their swinging tails switching away the flies. The elephants
looked gigantic in the heat mirage, and stood apart on the
edge of a shallow river that here debouches from the moun-
tains, with that baggy, misfitting-trousers kind of look, the
while they lazily flapped their huge ears.
We had reached a hunter’s paradise of the wildest and
most remote description, lacking in nothing dear to the heart
of such savages as my wife and myself. The boat, engaged
to meet us at a small fishing village on the shores of Lake
Edward, was not due for some days yet, so we decided to ©
give ourselves up to the fascination of the game-haunted
solitudes around us and, for myself, to take advantage of |
the opportunities afforded for moving picture photography.
We decided to make camp on the stream where the :
elephants were, and on our way thither, my wife, who was oF
several yards ahead of Mr. Fourget and myself, ran plumb ©;
into a great herd of buffalo, which was hidden from view »
behind a screen of long grass. She was accompanied only ~
by one boy, whom she cutely sent back to warn me to bring =»
along my movie-camera. This I got fixed up in double »
quick time, and carrying it over my shoulder, soon joined her
close to the drowsy herd of buffalo, which fortunately, owing — | '
112 il
The Lions of Lake Edward
to the set of the wind, was entirely unsuspicious of our pre-
sence. As my wife wished to watch the subsequent proceed-
ings I placed her in a position of comparative safety on a
high ant-hill. Meanwhile our Belgian friend and his black
ex-soldier gun-bearer, having no fancy for buffaloes at such
Close quarters, climbed with considerable alacrity (though,
I should imagine, not without pain) a small thorn tree still
_ farther in the rear, from which elevated but precarious position
_ (with their swaying rifles at the ready) they bravely viewed
_ with scorn and derision the baffled buffaloes.
Advancing carefully with my camera, by short stages,
| I managed to get up to the animals and took some unique
films of them at close range. Eventually they got alarmed
and thundered away, disturbing as they did so a very large
herd of mixed topi and kob which I had not noticed until
then. I attempted to film these antelopes but unsuccessfully,
after which we walked the short distance to the small river
hear at hand, where we camped ’neath some fine old acacias.
__ From this camp I made several short excursions into the
| surrounding district in search of insects and to take pictures
of game. Lions were frequently seen but I never managed
to come within camera range of any of them except once,
and then, as luck would have it, I was without my apparatus.
_ However, I bagged two fine maned lions on this occasion
and SO was compensated to some extent for the loss of a
_ unique chance to film them.
Our Belgian friend, although a delightful camp companion,
_ was a broken reed as far as hunting or filming dangerous
_ game was concerned. When it came to the point of facing
a lion or a buffalo, even at a reasonably safe distance, as
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The Eastern Congo
not looking for them. He made “no bones about it,” but —
simply stated the fact that he did not intend risking his life
for the sake of a mere trophy. Both my wife and myself
“pulled his leg” all day long but it made not a particle |
of difference to his even temper, as he entirely lacked thes
sporting instinct.
In spite of this—what we will call—disability, he oi |
nevertheless extremely anxious to shoot a buffalo, if he
could do so at a safe distance, and one of his efforts to this -
end was the funniest thing I ever saw. |
Early one morning, on a dried-up swamp near our camp, _
there happened to be a small herd of buffaloes feeding, and
as there were a few of Fourget’s favourite trees near them
the chance was not to be missed; he sallied forth therefore
with his native bearer, whilst I brought up the rear wit
my kine-camera in the hope of filming something interesting. -
Some scattered trees, a good two hundred yards distan
from the unsuspicious animals, were selected as the first
objective, but on reaching them they were found to be rather
smaller than our friend had anticipated. They were, 1
fact, not more than ten or twelve feet high, of a sturd
growth with spreading tops, but as there was nothing bigger
in the vicinity (and no thorn trees!) it had to be these or
nothing. Fourget therefore legged it up the biggest and
swaying gently, peered out over the grass at his coveted
bétes noives, who fed slowly along. With our friend, the |
mere sight of a shaggy-eared buffalo was enough to “ put
the wind up him.” I think, therefore, at this moment one —
must have looked in his direction, for he beckoned to his |
gun-bearer to join him up the tree. Following his masters |
orders, the native just managed to push his way up beside |
II4 |
‘82Z1S Tey} MOYS 0} Wey} UO pespoy sousdxIs e pur
SOATOSUISY} VATeT 9Y} Moys 03 uado yno usveq eaey s3ysho 94}
JO eMl0S ‘soyIsered 9soyi Jo yuNODDe UO pezyepeusa ATauteIy
“xo SeM [euUe oy. ‘odojezuy eMyooT por Ajyse1z e Jo
SoepInS Jouuy 9y} 0} poyoeyze Apq s[qrej, v jo BAIeyT oy ‘Dp
G, A Cloud of the Kungu Fly on Lake Edward, seen at a
distance of about three miles. A second cloud of these
insects may be seen onthe horizon to the right.
ee ea
@, Monsieur Fourget embarks in the “ Betty ”’
at dawn on his return to MRuchuru.
The Lions of Lake Edward
him, and the two of them swaying there like a couple of
vultures on a windshaken branch, put the little tree to such
‘a severe test that it gave way under the strain, precipitating
the two clinging braves, rifles and all, into the grass below.
After this they selected separate trees and arranged to fire
simultaneously. Whether it was the swaying tree tops,
or the long range, or the excitement, I do not know, but
their selected victim appeared to lumber off unharmed after
the fusillade, the herd settling down to feed again unconcernedly
a mile or so farther on. Thinking to give Fourget a hand
to bag his buffalo, I left my camera behind and took him
with me up to the herd which now stood in the open. How-
ever, as there were no trees handy he would not shoot, so
leaving him in disgust I returned to camp.
Three more days having sped pleasantly away in this
camp, we considered it time to be moving on to the wild
shores of Lake Edward itself where we were to meet our
boat. Before going on to a description of this remote water
_ and its interesting fauna, I must say just one word in praise
_ of an unknown “ feathered friend ’’ that never missed paying
usa call each morning at early dawn. This little grey fellow
_ of the Reed Warbler type had to my mind the most alluring
_ and entrancing series of liquid whispering notes it is possible
to conceive. They were so beautiful and of such sweetness
_ that I shall never forget the little Lake Edward bird that,
. | for a few minutes each morning, favoured the camp with
| his tiny song as if he knew we loved to hear it. I feel quite
_ Sure he missed the slumbering camp the morning after our
; | departure, and went off to his breakfast with a sad heart.
| | From this camp to the little bay that confronts the fishing
hema of Siko eth proved to be a good six hours’ trek,
II5
The Eastern Congo
first through a series of acacia park lands and then, as we
approached the lake, past the extensive palm-covered swamps
that overgrow the estuary of the Ruindi River. On our
left hand stood the abrupt spurs of the Central African Rift
Mountains which run from here right out on to the western
shores of the lake. Beyond them lies the unexplored country
of the cannibal Bahuni, untrodden as yet by white man.
At Siko Moyo we were glad to find a comfortable reed rest-
house built on the sandy foreshore. The lake water, which
always seems to be turbid with organic matter, we found to be
slightly brackish and on this account not pleasant to drink.
The lake itself, which stands at an elevation of three
thousand feet above sea level, is said to have an area of
approximately eight hundred and thirty square miles, and
is fifty-two miles long by twenty-four in breadth.
At certain times of the year, principally in December,
what, in the distance, looks like heavy smoke clouds, some-
times as much as half a mile in length by three hundred feet
in height, are to be seen moving slowly across it. These
are in reality clouds of tiny may-flies, the pupe of which
are first noticeable as a reddish-brown film covering many
hundred square yards of the surface of the lake. From
this stage they suddenly hatch out, and rising quickly em
masse, give the impression of having suddenly appeared
from nowhere. Huge clouds of these insects are continually
seen sweeping across the lake and to get into such a cloud
is a most unpleasant experience. The natives of Lake
Victoria as well as of Lake Edward collect and eat these
insects in the form of baked cakes.* |
* They are also found on Lake Nyasa, and I think on Tanganyika. ~
—H. H. J.
116
The Lions of Lake Edward
Yet another interesting feature of the lake is the very
large number of hippo to be found along the sand banks
~and reed beds of its south-western shore. Here during the
day these animals, which are rapidly decreasing in numbers
in other parts of Africa, lie in the shallows one on top of
another in “schools” of thirty and forty at a time, and at
night turn the reedy flats into a perfect stamping ground
in search of food. I have never seen so many together before
nor found them so tame. It was possible to walk along a
sand-spit to within twenty-five paces of the drowsy beasts
before they would shift.
Round our camp were some specially succulent reed
beds which had sprung up young and green after the natives
had cleared the surrounding vegetation when building the
test-house. It would seem that this patch of herbage, which
lay directly behind the spot selected for our kitchen, had
an irresistible attraction for Behemoth, for during the evening
the cook rushed in to us with bulging eyes and the breathless
statement that a hippo was about to invade the sacred pre-
cincts of the culinary art. As the kitchen lay round the
corner of the reed-hut, not fifteen paces away, this news
was quite exciting, and the moon being at the full, my wife
now hoped to realise her wish of seeing a hippo at really
close quarters. She had, however, on this occasion donned
a white dress for the evening, which of course would frighten
away anything when seen in the bright moonlight, so telling
her to cover herself with my black oilskin and handing her
over to the tender mercies of the cook, whom I instructed
to cautiously follow on behind me, I went in advance, rifle
in hand, to reconnoitre. Before reaching the kitchen my
nostrils were greeted with a strong odour of stable and I
117
»?
The Eastern Congo
heard the loud plucking sound made by a feeding hippo.
Upon turning a clump of bushes, the cause of all this commo-
tion came into full view, resembling nothing so much as a
war tank.
He was feeding unsuspiciously in the centre of the clearing,
so advancing as near as I dare I took a low aim, as I always
do when shooting at night, and fired. The “ tank’ now
showed surprising agility, and rushing towards the lake
with the speed of an express train, was soon to be heard
diving away into the water, where we found him “ toes up,”
next morning. As I said, when I went forward I left my
wife with the cook, who, instead of carrying out my instruc-
tions and following me, induced my wife to take a roundabout
way to see the fun, with the result that partly owing to the
incommodious garment she was wearing preventing free
movement, she was nearly run over by the hippo in its dash
for the water, and reached camp properly scared, vowing
she would never, as long as she lived, go hippo hunting again.
I had some quite novel experiences when filming hippo
on the lake. The great drawback to successful photo-
graphy there was the fact that in the morning, when the
animals were sleepy and most easily approached from the |
shore-side, the sun was right on the camera lens, necessitating
placing the heavy camera in a very insecure position on a
wobbly canoe and approaching the sleepy animals from the —
lake or water-side. After several attempts of this kind I
decided that the work was too dangerous and it would be ©
best if I confined my efforts to the security of terra firma,
until our “‘ whale-boat ’”’ arrived from Kasindi.
Every afternoon, therefore, I would hide in the reeds 7
by the lake side near the basking hippos, in the hope that
1x8
@ A Bull Buffalo of the Cape type shot by the Author.
pe ty} 5
@, The old Bull Buffalo as he came out of the Lake,
listening to the clicking of the cine-camera.
G, Suspicious.
=
Se
The Lions of Lake Edward
some of them would approach near enough to the shore
for a successful picture. Sometimes they did and sometimes
- they didn’t, more often the latter, but at all times there was
a wealth of bird life to observe and so waiting was never
tedious. On one such occasion I had the good fortune to
secure a film of the big black-and-white fish-eagle, catching
and flying away with a big fish. Again, on a never-to-be-
forgotten day, when arriving at my hiding-place, I was not
a little astonished to find a solitary old bull buffalo taking
a bath in the shallows in front of my favourite seat, where
he lay at full length in the water quite oblivious to my near
presence.
Such an opportunity only comes once in a lifetime and
I took full advantage of it. On making the discovery, I
slipped back to my camera “ boy ”’ and adjusting my seven-
inch lens for close work, I lifted camera and tripod on to
my shoulder, and returning, managed to “ plant ’’ my camera
in the very nick of time, just as the buffalo came through
the reeds and stood dripping with mud and water and licking
his chops not twenty paces from me. The wind being in
my direction, this fine old animal took a prolonged stare
at me, and mistaking what he saw for some harmless brother
mammal, walked leisurely across my front, picking, as he
went, at bits of herbage in his path.
As I consider these splendid African animals finer creations
than the common ruck of humanity, nobler in many ways,
cleaner, more graceful and more pleasing to the eye, it is
with something akin to pity that I have to record the fact
that when this fine old buffalo passed into the reeds and so
out of the view of my clicking kine-camera, it was not for
the last time, and that we were to meet again close to this
119
The Eastern Congo
haunt of his, under less peaceful circumstances, when man,
backed by his devilish inventions, was to come off victor
in the encounter. |
It happened in this way. The porters were wanting
food and needs must have it, so I took my rifle and strolling
out in my usual direction, again encountered my whilom
friend of the previous day, shot at and wounded him but
not so badly that he was unable to escape the subsequent
chase. Coming back empty-handed therefore, I decided
to try my luck in the same direction on the following day.
On this occasion I had stalked a small herd of waterbuck
and having fired several rounds at the leader of the troop,
I was suddenly startled by the crash of breaking branches
a short distance behind me, and on turning round was faced
again by my redoubtable opponent, who had apparently
been lying up with his wound in a thicket close at hand and
was now charging madly towards me. Fortunately, I still
had a solitary bullet in my rifle, and I lost no time in placing
it into the on-coming foe. The immediate effect of this
was not, however, apparent, for although he swerved, it
did not alter the infuriated animal's intention of getting
its charge home. Thinking my number was up, I jumped
aside for dear life and escaped by a hair’s breadth the upward
thrust of the massive head with its wicked horns. The
charge of the heavy beast carried it some distance beyond
me, but bringing itself up with a jolt, it was soon nosing
around with every intention of delivering a second assault.
By this time, however, I had reloaded, and placing another
bullet in its shoulder, I was devoutly thankful to see the
beast lumber away showing every sign this time of being
vitally hit. When I had collected myself sufficiently to
120
The Lions of Lake Edward
follow him up, I found the old chap at his last gasp and finished
him off with little difficulty. On examination he proved
‘to be very old, of massive proportions, with horns worn
away almost to the core, and blind in the right eye. To
the latter fact I consider I owe my life—for it was its right
horn that missed me! The beast was rolling in fat, and
this came in useful for the making of soap, our supply of
which had run out.
On the Edward Lake, pelicans and natives fish together.
In-shore, fish of every description are so numerous that the
natives practise the most simple form of fishing imaginable.
This consists of merely walking along in a line in shallow
water, each with a capacious (i.e. magnified) crab-pot (without
a bottom) in one hand—which they push down at intervals
on to the lake mud—and a long spiked stick in the other,
on which to impale the fish when caught and extracted from
the top hole of the crab-pot. The pelicans seem to enjoy
it as much as the fishermen, for they swim in and out between
the moving line of natives and apparently find a rich harvest
amongst the disturbed shoals. <A hippo or two are frequently
_ seen as interested spectators, taking little notice of the ordinary
_ savage. They are, however, cunning enough to know the
_ red tarbish of the Belgian native soldier when he appears,
and will then keep at a respectful distance. The Belgians
' have the rather foolish custom of supplying their soldiery
_ with a too liberal amount of ammunition, which they shoot
_ off at any game they happen to see.
__~ One evening we were watching the fishing scene I have
_ just described when our long-looked-for boat turned up.
_ Showing first as a speck out on the lake, it presently resolved
itself into a twenty-five-foot steel barge-like craft, manned
121
The Eastern Congo
by fourteen Wanandi paddlers. As I had promised our
Belgian friend Fourget the use of it to take him round to the
Ruchuru estuary, the following morning therefore saw us
saying bon voyage and bonne chance to our companion just
as dawn was breaking.
Although constantly on the watch for a sight of the
Ruwenzori Mountains which we knew lay only fifty miles
to the north, we had not up to this time caught more than
a fleeting glimpse of them, through the piling banks and
lines of cloud behind which they seemed to be forever con-
cealed. On this morning, however, the mantle of clouds
had fallen away from the higher peaks, and the snow-clad
summits were unveiled for the first time, showing faintly
in the far distance as cones of gleaming amber light.
The sight made us restless to be off, but as we did not
expect the boat back for three days, we had to possess our-
selves with what patience we could muster until its return.
In the interval we busied ourselves with repacking loads
and collecting specimens of the not very numerous species
of insects to be found in the locality.
On the third day we were more than a little pleased to
see our boat come leisurely paddling round the point again,
to the accompaniment of a cheery boating song from the
dusky crew. That night we paid off our remaining porters
and stowed away our kit in the roomy barge, ready for an
early start the following morning, both our followers and —
ourselves being in great spirits at the thought of the new
scenes and new faces that lay before us.
(I had almost forgotten to say that we received a letter |
from Fourget by the boat, telling us that he had shot a
hippo en route to the Ruchuru estuary, and that on landing —
I22
‘SOARIT OY} JO dORTINS IOUT 94} JO UONeUIIO; JeIDods ay} jo wUosear Aq
oyeuUT[D ourdye ue JO SINOSTI oy} PULISYRIM 0} J[QGe oe SIOY}eIY VsoyT = ‘“suleJUNOPW
IIOZUIMNY OY} UO SIOyZeIF{ BURT) pue SSO| 94} ySsuOUIe duIeD ,, JUDT, SIG ,, 9UT ‘D
@, The Giant Ferns to be found on the
Western Slopes cf the Ruwenzori Mountains.
The Lions of Lake Edward
at Kabare village and having gone out to shoot a buck with
his famous ex-askari, he had seen a troop of ten lions, two
of which he reported as having wounded. But like Cecil
\ Rhodes’ favourite lion yarn, we took this cum grano salis.
The great man’s lion story will doubtless bear repetition,
_ so I give the gist of it, which is as follows: A native, as he
walked out one day, met a lion, and seeing that it was about
to spring on him watched his opportunity, and diving beneath
it, managed to escape. The native continued to evade the
infuriated beast in this manner until the lion, becoming
tired of its fruitless efforts to capture the wily savage, gave
up in disgust and retreated to its lair. The following day
the native was again out walking and suddenly turning the
corner of the path came once more on his old enemy, but
this time the lion was too preoccupied to notice him, for
he was intently engaged on practising short jumps!)
On the morning of the twenty-seventh of November,
1919, we were all aboard the baleinitve, which we temporarily
_ christened the Betty in honour of my intrepid spouse, and
_ with our tent as awning, and baggage, boys and two native
| policemen with their wives stowed away aft, we punted and
paddled northward along the wild western shore of the
_ Edward Lake.
The scenery bordering the western shore of this lake
_has a quality quite its own, and I do not remember to have
seen anything resembling it along the shores. of other African
lakes I have visited. The foreshore is of a rocky descrip-
: | tion backed by a thick line of evergreen forest trees and
giant creepers of the rarer kinds, whilst behind this belt
of greenery tower the steep spurs of the Rift Mountains.
| grese belts of tropical foliage along the lake harbour an
123
|
|
i
| |
The Eastern Congo
interesting species of baboon, which from individuals we
observed must be of gorilla-like dimensions.
The coast is uninhabited except by a few fishermen,
who have built their villages in some of the small creeks.
As one approaches the outlet of the Semliki River, the Rift
Valley Mountains take an abrupt turn to the west, leaving
the lake enclosed only by the low flats that form the southern
half of the vale of the Semliki. Here are found a few in-
habitants of not too pleasant notoriety.
One may describe the Semliki valley as an extensive
flat-bottomed gap between the Central African Rift Valley
Mountains on the one hand and the Ruwenzori range on
the other, which, from evidences showing on every hand,
at one time formed a narrow extension of Lake Edward.*
The mouth of the Semliki is not easily seen, for it is over-
grown with reeds formed on a sand-bar lying athwart the
outlet, and the current is barely perceptible.
From a little village near the Semliki mouth it took |
five hours’ paddling to reach Kasindi on the Uganda-Congo |
frontier, where we were welcomed by Monsieur Ballez, the —
customs officer in charge of the station. We stood at last |
beneath the ‘‘ Mountains of the Moon”’ after six months ;
of strenuous travel.
* It is curious, when one considers the fact, that crocodiles being so numerous’
in the Jowey part of the Semliki, have never been found in Lake Edward 4
and yet such is the case, as every native will tell you. It is said to be due to”
the rapids which exist below Lese. But I am of the opinion there must be
Edward.
some other reason to account for the entire absence of crocodiles from a |
124
CHAPTER X
IN THE VALLEY OF THE UPPER SEMLIKI AND THE ASCENT OF
THE RUWENZORI MOUNTAINS
“‘ These for the setting ; and, beneath it all,
Tattered and scarred,
My tent, set up in some wide glade, where tall
Dim trees keep guard.
t * * *
** So, in a silence of the early world,
I sit and gaze
Upon the pictures, open and unfurled
Amid the haze.’
In the Smoke. Verses III and V.
AVING reached Kasindi, which stands just below
the equator on the southern foot of the Ruwenzori
Mountains, we were now approaching that Mecca of
entomologists and zoologists—the vast primeval forest, that,
bounded on the east by this mountain range, extends from
the Semliki valley right across the entire centre of the Northern
Congo Basin, and the equal of which is only to be found in
the selvas of the Amazon.
Few portions of the African continent remain unexplored
to-day, but here we were on the borders of the still unknown
region which lies to the south-east of Kasindi, and roughly
| forming that piece of country drained by the higher waters
) of the Lindi River directly to the west of Lake Edward,
a district given over to wild cannibal tribes known as the
_ Bahuni and Wakobi, and which is, judging by reports brought
in by elephant hunters and prospectors who have visited
its outskirts, certainly rich in gold, as well as in cattle and
ivory.
| 125
The Eastern Congo
We were fortunate at this juncture in meeting with Mr
Gibbons, a hardy Uganda settler and elephant-hunter, who
had just completed a ten-months’ hunting trip in the Ituri
Forest and the long-grass country bordering the land of
the Bahuni, and who therefore had a lot of useful informa-
tion to impart, besides entertaining us both with many in-
teresting tales of the wild life he had led since first visiting
Africa, thirty years ago. He had with him many fine tusks
of elephants, shot both in the long-grass country and in
the virgin forest, the difference in the colour of the ivory | :
being very striking. For, whereas the tusks from the former
region were of the ordinary creamy-white colour, those
from the forest were of such a dark brown as to be almost
black; then again there were tusks intermediate between
these two colours, shot in a district where the long-grass
country borders on the forest. Although I suppose this
“black ’’? ivory must be well known to ivory turners and
brokers, I have seen no mention of it elsewhere. therefore
a few other notes will be found concerning it in the chapter
on elephants farther on in this book.
To the fact that Mr. Gibbons was the first Englishman
we had met since leaving Kigoma in July, and also owing
to the extreme kindness of Monsieur Ballez, the Belgian
customs officer, postmaster, J.P., policeman and tax-collector
rolled into one, our short stay at Kasindi passed very
pleasantly, but so much does the nomadic life get into the
blood that we were pleased to be thinking about moving
on once more—to feel again the “‘ fever of the horizon,” as
some other traveller has so aptly called it.
It was now the beginning of December and the season of
the heavy rains approaching. We had to submit at intervals
126
.
|
‘SUIP[G NAINYONY pure ipuiny sy} uo snorsunu ABA Je
pue ‘suOTTy JO POOFJ 9}1IINOARF 9y} ‘VIGo7Z pur ‘YONq-19}e AA
‘sdidysng Y}IM ‘UO; speturue vsoyT =“ SOY-WeA FLW V D
a 3 co c>
— See eS S&S mS ee oS See
=
qd, The snow-clad Peaks of the Ruwenzori Mountains. From
Ulimbi, looking across the Valley of the Kamsonsa.
In this Valley lies the Lake described on “page
142. (Note in the foreground the giant Senecios.)
ee
The Ruwenzori Mountains
to tornadoes of wind and rain that made travelling far from
comfortable, but as these usually occurred in the afternoon
one was pretty safe from their fury so long as camp was fixed
before then. During our stay at Kasindi we had of course
been longing to get a good view of those great snow peaks
that we knew to be hidden in the thick clouds above us,
_ but owing to the stormy weather and the position of Kasindi
| this we had not yet done. I was moreover anxious to push
on with all speed to Mbeni, from which place I hoped to
make the ascent of the Ruwenzori Mountains before the
| heavy rains set in. Thus, there were several reasons that
| made us glad that we were on the tramp again, when with
our new “safari’’ we found ourselves dropping down, from
the high ridge on which the post of Kasindi stands, to the
banks of the Semliki River.
The Semliki, which carries off the overflow from Lake
Edward and following a winding course joins up this lake
with Lake Albert, is a river little known to any save a few
hunters and travellers by reason of its remoteness, and to
| the fear of what a bite from one of the tsetse flies that
| abound in its valley, may bring. This most dreaded of all
i] African scourges, which decimated the population of this
| district during the commencement of the last decade, flies
_abroad along its sinister euphorbia-covered banks and in
its fevered palm-hung swamps. However, like all such
} places i in Africa, the valley holds by the very nature of its
} surroundings a great deal that is interesting and beautiful,
)} and even fascinating, as one looks back upon it.
! | Where we crossed the river it was a good hundred yards
! |broad, with banks of great height cut out of the surrounding
} plains, which at one time doubtless formed a bygone lake
| 127
a
The Eastern Congo
floor, the formation resembling that of the Ruindi Plains.
After getting our loads across with the help of the one available
canoe, we camped on the west bank of the river, some twelve
miles below the lake mouth; the site selected for our camp
commanding an extensive broadside view of the Ruwenzori
mountain range, should it condescend to show itself. In
the evening I took my rifle and went for a stroll in search
of a kob antelope, and having stalked and shot one I turned
to look for my natives who were behind to give them instruc-
tions about bringing it into camp, when my attention was
caught and riveted by the enchanting picture, suddenly
revealed for the first time, of the snow-capped summits of
Ruwenzori, glistening white and ethereal high up in the
eastern skies. A clear view of the line of snow-peaks and
glaciers that form the summit of these mountains is a com-
paratively rare occurrence, and as the range rises on the
western side almost sheer from the level of the Semliki
valley, the spectator is somewhat taken aback by his first
view of them and the astonishing height to which they
reach. After my return to camp, however, this feast ff;
of mountain scenery did not remain long to gladden j},
the eye, for the peaks were soon again wrapped in mist, } )
leaving as before, only the lower ranges exposed to |;
view. ii
At this camp, as on the Ruindi plains, the night was |
enlivened at intervals by the prolonged chorus of lions, a |
sound of which we never tired, and coming as it did on this ' ft
occasion from the direction that I had decided to take on~ 1
the morrow, it promised an interesting day. |
The following morning our course for the first six miles i:
took us south up the west bank of the Semliki, and although |
128 |
The Ruwenzori Mountains
small game were not very abundant, herds of elephant
were frequently to be seen and were, moreover, quite un-
suspicious of the approach of man. The spot selected for
our camp that day proved to be a veritable menagerie of
elephant, buffalo and hippo, and on one occasion we were
favoured by the novel spectacle of witnessing from the bank
of the Semliki a herd of elephant, three hippo and an old
bull “ buff’’ in the water together. We watched the latter
come down the bank, wade into mid-stream, then, lazily
swimming down in amongst the hippo who snorted loudly
at him, he presently came out again—dripping ; and slowly
_walked away across the plain.
For the next two days we saw these fine animals daily
and as all were unusually tame I obtained some good pictures
of them. Lions were about but these were only heard.
I now turned northward away from Lake Edward and
moved along the western side of the Semliki valley. The
track we took closely followed the foothills of the Rift
‘Valley Mountains that gradually lessen in height as one
approached Mbeni and which here form the boundary of that
unknown Bahuni country, with the lawlessness of which,
so far, the Belgians have been unable to cope. That this
state of things should remain, after so many years of occupa-
tion and after the many lawless acts perpetrated by these
savages, still stands as a blot on the Belgian administration.
Parts of the bush through which we now travelled on our
way to Mbeni were pebble-strewn and others again boggy,
i as one would expect to find the bed of a one-time lake. The
country, too, is overgrown with acacia thorn trees, which
at the time we passed by were in full bloom; the pink, white
and yellow blossoms overcharging, with their heavy perfume,
129 K
The Eastern Congo
the already stifling atmosphere.* This part of the valley
is but sparsely inhabited and food is difficult to obtain but
the natives, such as there are, are ruled by Bahima chiefs
who possess some fine herds of cattle, so we were again able
to procure butter and milk. |
The day before reaching Mbeni we took up our quarters
for the night in one of the brick buildings attached to the
sleeping-sickness hospital. The hospital, which I under- §
stand was built partly with the money from a legacy left
by King Leopold II and partly by subscriptions obtained
for the purpose by the Queen of the Belgians, consists of |
many rows of double roomed tin-roofed huts, dispensaries,
kitchens, and out-houses, as well as a good doctor’s residence
on the hill above. The place is now in a state of some neglect |
as it is in charge of a black overseer—there being no doctor
available. There were thirty-three cases of sleeping-sickness ©
at the hospital, but as the work of taking blood-smears
and searching the villages for infected natives is no longer
carried out, this number is no criterion of the prevalence
or otherwise of this scourge. The disease is in fact on the |
decrease in this district and the time opportune to strangle.
the last bit of life out of the dying germ, if a little interest
and energy were once again revived in the combat. Whereas, .
if left as it is now, this plague may well recur again in as
violent a form as previously. !
One day, in the gradual opening up of this part of the
continent, the waterway of the Semliki will play an important ©
part, but whilst its banks are “ fly’ infested its use for this
* It is well known to many Central African natives as well as myself that
camping under some species of acacia trees results in feverish symptoms the
following morning, and is therefore to be avoided.
130
The Ruwenzor1 Mountains
purpose will be dangerous. The suggestion of spraying
_ chlorine gas over the vegetation on either bank from a barge
on the river, may then be tried as a likely means of destroying
- the dangerous Palpalis tsetse fly, the carrier of the fatal
germ.
The Belgian post of Mbeni, situated on the outskirts
of the Semliki forest, is some two hours away from the
hospital. Here again are evidences of the under-staffing
so noticeable in the Congo of to-day, for the work of this
important station—the centre of a well-populated district
and of a brisk trade in ivory, is carried out by one man.
One cannot help admiring some of these men, administering
| single-handed, as they do, a district as large as two of our
| biggest counties. Alone amidst utterly savage tribes, the
nearest helping hand perhaps fifty miles away, they carry
on, undertaking every conceivable task from drill-sergeant
_ to maternity doctor.
This one-man-to-do-everything method has become a
# joke in the Congo about which a yarn is told of a certain
Belgian Chef de Poste who happened to have lost an eye and
ff was accustomed to wear a glass one in its place. This
man was in sole command of a big district and his work of
tax-collecting took him away from home. In his absence
his house and effects were of course left in charge of his
native servants, with the usual result in such cases that a
‘ to him one day when he was about to leave the station
» that he would travel without his glass eye, and instead he
would place it in a prominent position within his house.
131
The Eastern Congo
This he accordingly did and after telling his black dependants
that now, if any more pilfering went on, his watchful glass
eye would tell him who the culprit was, he left on his rounds
through the district. It is said that on his return not only
had nothing been taken from his house but no one had dared
venture near the place to sweep it, and the white ants were
thoroughly enjoying an undisturbed feed on his best boots.
This was a truly African ending to such an experiment,
for, at the end, Africa holds the last card !
The official in charge of Mbeni being such a busy man it
was not to be expected that the place would present a very
smart and well-kept appearance; we were, however, made
very comfortable there in the best house in the place and
all our wants quickly attended to in the most kindly manner.
The post of Mbeni having been established thirty years ago,
has a history reaching back into the days of the Arab slavers
when a man carried his life in his hand.
Here are buried the remains of Lieutenant Demanie, |
after the cannibal Bahuni had picked his bones. The tale §,
goes that in the early days, he, together with sixty askaris, §
made a reconnaissance to the south of Mbeni and were §.
camped for the night on a small river on the outskirts of the
hostile country. It is said that a good deal of native beer
had been drunk by the native soldiers; however, be that
as it may, they were set upon by a horde of savages in the
early hours of the morning and were speared as they lay,
only one man escaping to tell the tale. After the slaughter
a cannibal orgy must have taken place, for parts of the
bodies had been cut up and removed, and amongst the
remains were found all that was left to bury of Lieutenant
Demanie. Sad to relate this officer’s death has never been
132
The Ruwenzori Mountains
avenged and to this day the perpetrators of this deed remain
unpunished and defiant, as they were twenty years ago.
Again Mbeni was the scene of the murder of a Belgian
officer as late as 1918 by one of his own soldiers, and here
also the Okapi was first discovered twenty years ago by
that keen naturalist and observer, Sir Harry Johnston, when
on a visit to the district. The surrounding country is also
one of the best elephant hunting grounds remaining in Africa
to-day, tusks weighing a hundred pounds and over being
still obtainable by the hardy hunter.
Two days after my arrival at Mbeni I commenced pre-
parations for the ascent of the Ruwenzori Mountains, the
summits of which in the evening light gleamed golden and
unreal, overshadowing, as it seemed—even at a distance of
twenty miles—the valley below us. As one stood in con-
templation of the surrounding wealth of nature, the great
volcanoes to the south, Ruwenzori to the east, and the
limitless forests to the west, with all they contained, a
_ quotation occurred to me from ‘‘ The Great Divide” by the
_ Earl of Dunraven which, although written of the Rockies
is equally applicable to the heart of Africa in which we were.
| For here also “‘ is a region, which contains all the peculiarities
of the continent in a remarkable degree and which, moreover,
is exceedingly interesting on account of its scenery, geo-
lt graphy, its mineralogy and its sport. There it is that great
| Tivers rise, running through every clime from perpetual snow
to tropical heat.’’ One thought that certainly this is the
geographical centre of Africa, yet another “ Great Divide!”
In a day or two I had gathered all the local information
possible from my good friends the Péres Cambron and Lens
of the Sacré Coeur Mission, and had completed arrangements,
133
The Eastern Congo
including the purchase of blankets for those natives who
were to accompany me to the snow line. My porters
too and headmen, having been selected with some care,
I had every chance of bringing off a successful excursion
if the weather would only remain fine.
The Ruwenzori peaks, which rise to a height of 16,790
feet, have been partially climbed by Sir Harry Johnston,
Douglas Freshfield, the Duke of the Abruzzi and others
from the north-east, and from the south by Stairs, Scott-
Elliot, Dr. Stuhlmann and J. E. S. Moore, but from the west
few attempts have been made. The great explorers selected
the eastern side, as here the rise to the watershed itself is
more gradual, the ascent from the west being very steep.
However my entomological work left me no alternative
but to accept the formidable climb from the Congo side,
and for this purpose it became evident that the Butahu
(or Butagu) Ravine, where the river of that name debouches © |
from the foot of the range, would be the most suitable. This |
deep ravine, which runs into the heart of the Ruwenzori_
Mountains, can be easily discerned from many points on-
the upper Semliki as a dark cleft in the mountain mass. _
My sturdy Wanandi porters having turned up for the
last muster, their loads were soon adjusted, and four days
after my arrival at Mbeni, I found myself bound for the
Mountains of the Moon, and with my long butterfly net
waving a farewell to my wife.
The Butahu River, which has its source in the summit
glaciers of Ruwenzori, falls into the Semliki near Mbeni,
and the track to the mountains after crossing the latter
river follows the Butahu pretty closely all the way. As the
days turned out sunny after the morning forest mists had
134
‘apIs O80) IO UWIa}s9M\ dao}s oy} UOT, Yeog AoTUe}S 9Y} Jo
yied Surmoys ‘sureyuNoOj, OzZUaMNY ayy JO fissypy ferjuaD eff ‘Dp
‘9PIS OSUOD IO }SOM OY} WOIF SUTeJUNO WOZUIMNY
94} Jo poysiozeA, poddeo-mous oy} suryoeoiddy ‘p
an
The Ruwenzori Mountains
dispersed, my collecting work was of a strenuous nature,
this part of the Semliki forest being extraordinarily rich
in insect life. I, therefore, travelled very slowly, taking
three days to reach the mountains, being engaged each night
up to the early hours in papering insects.
On my arrival at the foot of the mountain range, I rested
one day in the village of the local chieftain to obtain a supply
of food and the necessary guides to take me up to the last
mountain village of Kalongi. The promise of a blanket
to the chief soon had the desired result and by the evening
two men had promised their services and we had accumulated
a fair supply of food, mostly bananas from the huge groves
that here cover the country for many square miles.
From the commencement, where the sparkling waters
of the Butahu River tumble out from their rocky bed beneath
the first steep spurs, the ascent is very fatiguing, with but
little respite from the long interwoven elephant-grass and
giant roots, that stick in the ribs or trip the feet of the traveller
who essays the unrelenting climb.
After some hours of this kind of thing I arrived at the
first stage of the ascent and camped on a high bluff that here
forms one side of a giant gorge, at the foot of which, far
below, foams our old friend the Butahu. Perched alongside
my tent was the solitary hut of a black mountaineer, who
was engaged with his friends, or relations, in cutting down
and clearing a forest of immense wild plantains to form a
_ plantation for beans, which seem to be, with bananas, the
_ staple food of these natives. To make sure that the food-
supply would not run out, both at this camp and the next,
_ I bought all the food that my guides could rake in from the
hillmen round about.
~ 135
The Eastern Congo
Getting an early start on the following morning, we con-
tinued to clamber up the throat of the ravine, until the tiny
village of Kalongi was reached at 7,400 feet above sea level.
These huts, situated in the bamboo zone, are perched at
the foot of the central mass of the Ruwenzori Mountains,
and are the last habitations to be found before tackling
the heather-clad slopes that tower into the clouds above
them. ,
Having to make preparations for the four or five days
that I wished to spend under the snow-clad summits, I now
selected fifteen of my best porters to carry the necessary
loads to a saddle that could be discerned high above us, and
on which I proposed to make a half-way camp. There were
eight loads of food and a big tent for the porters; the re-
maining men were to carry my tent, bed, blankets, food,
cameras, etc. My cook and one native collector were to
accompany me. By night-fall all was ready for an early
start the following day; the weather, on which so much
depended, fortunately remained fine.
So far, we had followed the steep-sided embrasure of the
Butahu Ravine, but the next morning, after sending my
three new Kalongi guides to cut a path in advance, we struck
off to the north at right angles. This took us along the
sharp-crested spur that divides the Kanyamwamba from
the Kamsonsa River and which runs up, at a very steep
angle, to the foot of the lesser peaks facing the central massif
of Ruwenzori, and so on up to my proposed camping place.
At first the narrow track wound through the bamboos
but presently came out into a sub-alpine region. Here
the heather brush-wood stands ten to twelve feet high for
the most part and alternates with older patches, tree-like
136
The Ruwenzor1 Mountains
in growth, with stems many inches in diameter, hung with
waving lichens a yard or more in length. The ground
beneath is covered knee-deep in the most wonderful pink
and green mosses, through which we struggled with increasing
difficulty. I may say here that both my guides and carriers
led me to believe that water was scarce on the mountain-
side, and this is in part true if the sponge-like mosses are
not reckoned with. Handfuls of these beautiful growths
will produce half a pint of water at one squeeze, so no fear
need be felt on this score.
As I struggled and stumbled, pushed and pulled my way
_ up through the rough heather stems, it became evident that
the track I was following, although overgrown, had been
made and used by some previous travellers, therefore after
some hours’ climbing, eased by frequent halts to get my
breath, I was not surprised to find myself in an old camping
place, situated on the saddle that I had seen from below,
the elevation of which was about ten thousand feet. I had
now reached the foot of the secondary peaks that surround
the snow-capped summits of the range, and at intervals
when the swirling mist cleared, these could be seen—after
all our climbing—still thousands of feet above us. Towards
evening the mist cleared entirely, giving me an opportunity
to photograph portions of the snow-cap.
As the site of this camping place was the bed of a primeval
heather and moss forest, the two tents stood on a kind of
superstructure formed by accumulated layers of ancient
heather stems and moss pads, which at any moment might
give way beneath the tread and let one through into deep
holes beneath. Some of my natives in fact used, as a sleeping
_ Place, a kind of burrow or cave formed below this mass of
137
The Eastern Congo
old vegetation, preferring it to the big tent I had been at |
such pains to erect for them, and from which I named the
place Big Tent Camp.
I now selected eight of the strongest men from my bunch
of carriers and instructed them to be ready the following
morning to accompany me on the last climb to the top of
Ulimbi Mountain, supplying each with a blanket apiece.
The night was cold, but by no means uncomfortably so,
and although the day dawned mistily as is usual at these
elevations, there was promise of fine weather in the snatches
of sunlight to be seen, as we ploughed our way up the last
increasingly steep ascent.
A heather fire is the last thing, as I thought, that would
have to be encountered in this damp and cold region, but
as in Africa it is the unexpected that has to be looked for,
this is what occurred and nearly proved our undoing.
Being careful to husband the strength of my remaining
porters and the morning being extremely cold and misty,
I allowed them at frequent intervals during the ascent, to
light fires of heather sticks and warm themselves. I was,
therefore, a considerable distance ahead of my men and had
just reached a most wonderful alpine garden of senecios —
and lobelias, and, this being the first of its kind I had ever —
seen, stood examining the beautiful foliage, oblivious to all
else, until I became aware of what I took to be the roar of
the wind. Not taking much notice of this at first and having
my net with me, I set about catching some of the diurnal ~
moths that abound here and whilst thus engaged I caught
sight for the first time, of a sheet of flame and smoke below,
which, fanned by the strong wind was tearing up the slope ‘
towards me, making the crackling roar that I took to be= i
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The Ruwenzori Mountains
the wind itself. Realising the cause in the fires made by
the porters, and the danger that threatened in their wake,
I and the cook (it’s always “ the cook”’ in Africa) who had
turned up at that moment, made the best of our way back
through the heather to encourage the men to reach the
' green and open senecio zone, where the heather finishes
and beyond which the fire would be unlikely to spread.
The porters, now realising their danger, clambered along
for all they were worth, and being lightly loaded managed
to reach safety. But only just in time, for shortly after-
wards the fire came roaring by, licking up the giant heathers
with flames that reached to twenty feet and more. It
spread, as I found out afterwards, right into the fields of
senecios and lobelias above us, leaving everything withered
and smoking; the tall plant stalks alone remained, gaunt
and black against the sky.
We came off lightly, considering the extent of the con-
flagration, with one carrier burnt, holes in various garments
and one butterfly-net damaged.
It was now after 3 p.m. and what with the excitement
_ of the fire and the stiff climbing, the porters were tired out.
I therefore gave instructions to one of my headmen to
pitch the tents where we were amidst the senecios, and to
collect all the firewood available; meanwhile, with the
guides, I determined to gain the last ridge that I knew must
now lie within reach.
Accordingly I set out and whilst ascending the last slope,
known as Ulimbi, I was able to realise the full extent of the
Tecent fire, as I passed the blackened remains of what were,
a few hours since, glorious meadows of giant groundsels and
lobelias. However, I was soon over the burnt portion and
139
The Eastern Congo
found myself crossing, in the direction indicated by the ‘
guides, the most wonderful alpine moor that can well be ©
conceived. The groups of fantastic vegetation gave me
the novel feeling that I had dropped on to some new plas
Mars, as it might be, who knows ?
Unless there is a very clear sky, which is an exceptional
occurrence at this elevation, the snow-clad massifs of the
Ruwenzori Mountains in their entirety remain unrevealed
to the hardy climber until the very last ridge is mounted
and the last bush turned—as if the Mountains of the Moon
were loth to reveal their secret. But to the traveller who
has the fortitude and good luck to gain the last eminence on
which I now stood there is a sight to be seen worthy the
effort. For one reaches the edge of a precipice and gazes
across a dark and narrow valley at an unequalled panorama
of glistening glaciers and mighty snow-caps, their whiteness
enhanced by black projections of rock and ridge; this too,
framed in a setting of senecios and lobelias, everlasting flowers
and alpine plants of many species!
In spite of the approaching mist I at once set about the
work of getting both my cinema and stand camera in position,
but as a fall of snow and sleet commenced shortly after,
driven by a gale off the snow-fields above us, my time was
wasted, and I packed up and prepared to return to camp.
On my way thither, the guides led me to a lower eminence
where lay two corked bottles and one glass tube. On examina-
tion, one bottle and the tube contained records of. visits
made by one Englishman (Mr. J. S. Coates of the Anglo-
Belgian Boundary Commission, 1907); three Belgians—Mons.
Dierkz, Chef de Poste, Kasindi, Pére Lens of Mbeni and
an ornithologist, name undecipherable; and two Germans,
140
H
~
~The Ruwenzori Mountains
Drs. Schubotz and Nildbraed of the Duke of Mecklenburg’s
Expedition, 1908. The second bottle, although strongly
corked, contained a small amount of water in which floated
what had once been a piece of paper; how such an amount
of water accumulated in one bottle and not in another it
- is difficult to Say.
After nearly losing ourselves in the dark, the two guides
and myself finally arrived at the camp and much to my
chagrin [ then found that the carriers had collected little
or no firewood, and neither had my instructions been carried
out with regard to the canvas covering I had brought for
the men: this lay flapping in the wind, affording no kind of
protection in the event of a blizzard. Luckily this night
was fine, but if we had then experienced the hail-storm that
set upon us the following night, without doubt every man
would have been frozen to death. As it was, the early part
of the night saw the fire-wood all finished, with the result
that two of the carriers were unable to move in the morning,
in spite of their blanket coverings, and had to receive stimu-
lants to bring them round.
Although not realising it at the time, this was Christmas
Eve, and it passed uneventfully, save for the attentions
of a large fox-bat around my tent and the prolonged booming
of an avalanche or landslide in the valley near by.
Christmas Day can be spent midst snow and ice, even on
the equator, by those who would wish it. It was no plan
of mine that I did so on this occasion—it just happened,
and as the climbing of the Ruwenzori Mountains was in a
way the culminating point of the expedition, I took it as a
1 good omen. The day turned out fairly fine, although it
was not until eleven o’clock that the mists began to clear,
I4I
The Eastern Congo
necessitating a wait of many hours to obtain sufficient illu--
mination for good photography. About midday the sun began
to show himself and I was able to obtain, for the first time, an
uninterrupted view down into the near valley, at the foot of
Mount Stanley and across the larger one that separates the
Baker range from that of the Margherita and Stanley peaks.
That morning I had again crossed the moor but by a
shorter route, and stood on a lower ledge of the narrow and
precipitous valley of the Kamsonsa that I had reached the
afternoon before. Here I descried, for the first time, buried |
in the depths of the valley, a very gem of a lake, the glaciers
feeding its black and mysterious waters being mirrored on ©
its motionless surface ; a lake which is held in great reverence, |
so I am told, by the local hillmen.
After an early breakfast that morning, I had sent the |
carriers down to the Big Tent encampment with my camp- |
kit, keeping with me three guides and two porters. |
At this altitude of over thirteen thousand feet these |
men were all affected with mountain sickness, three badly _
so, in the rarified morning air. One of the local guides, —
a strapping big fellow, was affected to such an extent that —
he could only get his breath in gasps, and being on this —
account quite useless I sent him down the mountain after —
the other porters. I, myself, felt this difficulty of breathing, ~
but much less than the natives and for a time I was compelled —
to carry my heavy kine-camera, as they appeared to be ©
unable to do so. After using up the greater part of my cine-
matograph film and exposing a number of plates on the snow- _
peaks and the surrounding alpine flora, I was able to give
further attention to my surroundings which were of the i
utmost interest. ;
142
~The Ruwenzor1 Mountains
As one’s gaze took in the comparatively easy ascent of
the snow-capped summits from this quarter, it struck one
as curious that the scaling and exploration of the great peaks
had always been undertaken from the east side of the range,
for without doubt no great difficulties present themselves,
_ from where I stood, to an expedition equipped with the barest
necessities for a short alpine climb.
Insect life in these charming solitudes was fairly abundant,
_ but much to my disappointment not a single butterfly graced
the scene. Birds too were conspicuous by their absence,
with the one handsome exception of pairs, male and female,
of the beautiful long-tailed and long-beaked WNectarina
johnstonit, feeding on the lobelia flowers. Neither eagles nor
hawks were to be seen, although, judging by their small
_ burrows, a small rodent was common. I had hoped to come
across some of the large flowering proteas similar to those
found on Kilimanjaro but saw none; otherwise there was
a mine of interest for the botanist.
The afternoon being now well advanced, to my great
regret I had to think about returning to the Big Tent camp
if I was to reach it before dark. If I had had more food for
my men nothing would have given me greater delight than
to spend a week in exploring these unknown solitudes, but
as it was, not only the food question but the special ento-
_mological work on which I was engaged would not admit
of a longer stay and I had, therefore, reluctantly and with
_ many a backward look to turn my steps downhill. As I
and my four followers commenced the descent, the ominous
growlings of distant thunder made themselves heard, and
the sky being now overcast it behoved us to hurry on if
We were to reach the lower camp before the storm broke.
143
The Eastern Conera
The downward track through the burnt heather was now
easily discernible after the passing of the porters up and
down, but nevertheless, and in spite of my putting my best |
foot foremost, I was only able to make slow progress down
the steep moss-covered crags: with the result that the storm
reached me some time before I sighted the camp, and broke |
in a fury of heavy hail, that rattled on the heather round
about in anicy tornado. In less than no time the innumerable
cavities and depressions in the moss round about were filled
with hailstones as big as pea-nuts. |
In the middle of this tempest I gained at sundown the |
welcome shelter of the tents, and was soon getting outside -
a jorum of hot coffee and cognac. My four men, handicapped |
by the heavy cameras and tripod were not so fortunate, —
and only three turned up an hour later; the remaining man
with the heavy kine-camera being unable to reach us until
eleven o'clock that night. When darkness set in I began |
to have grave doubts concerning the safety of the fellow and ©
the storm abating somewhat I turned out two men, clad |
in blankets and carrying a lantern, to go and search for him.
After much calling, some hours later, he was found under )
a large boulder and eventually brought down; the camera:
case was soaked through with wet but otherwise had come |
to no great harm. Thus ended Christmas day on Ruwenzori! . :
The night that followed was bitterly cold and only by |
piling over myself every available material that I possessed —
could I keep warm; occasionally I hugged myself with :
satisfaction at the thought that all my aims had been success- _
fully accomplished and that it only remained for me now to
rejoin my wife at Mbeni. ie
In the morning, hailstones still covered the ground and MH
144
———
The Ruwenzori Mountains
could be picked up in handfuls. Before leaving, it was
_ interesting to note that my followers, toa man, picked little
bunches of heather and other plants, in the same way as a
European might, to bring luck or guard against evil. It
may even be that in the remote past this superstition, held
by both black and white alike, sprang from one source—the
monkey-man of Equatorial Africa.
_ So now it was “all over bar the shouting.’”” Ruwenzori
had not altogether let me down lightly, as I had been hailed,
snowed and rained upon, and nearly burnt up. I was,
however, amply compensated, for I had made a fine collection
of insects, my pictures turned out well, and I had obtained
a unique cinematograph film of the snow-peaks and their
alpine surroundings.
Collecting insects en route, I slowly returned to Mbeni
in time for a New Year celebration; having been absent
thirteen days.
CHAPTER XI
OKAPI HUNTING WITH THE PYGMIES OF THE SEMLIKI FOREST
‘““ Fronting us lay a patch of tenderest green
With tiny, dotted huts of sober grey—
Most quaintly Quaker-like amid a scene
Where all the vest wore Nature’s féte avvay,
And girls with swaddled babies on theiy backs
Passed and repassed along the forest tracks.”
From “Songs out of Exile,’”” by Cullen Gouldsbury.
HE far-reaching extent of the Ituri forest protrudes
a small part of its eastern boundary over the Congo-.
Nile watershed, into the central portion of the —
Semliki valley below. The southern boundary of this fores
area stands without the gates, as it were, of the Belgian post.
of Mbeni, so we found ourselves almost immediately beneath:
its cool shade as we left this station to resume our travels, |
We now entered the portals of the vast forest region of
West Africa—a vegetable kingdom that was to hold us in¥
its embrace’ for over four months. A region that affects.
profoundly all human or animal life within it ; whose sombre
shade breeds the dark germ of cannibalism, and unhinging.
minds. only half-human, conceives such monstrosities as the,
Leopard sect of the Anyioto or the burial murders of the)
Baluba; a region, too, that distorts the stature and pales ©
the face of nature. Here the world is buried in grotesque ~
growths ; a plant world where giant and majestic trees jostle ©
one another for breathing space, where a continuous war is being
waged and living, dead, and dying trees litter the battlefield:
—some standing, others fallen, but all in the deadly embrace
of elegant and fantastic parasites of fern and liana. |
146
Okapi Hunting
The fact that the rarest insects and the rarest animals
may usually be found together, induced me to take a north-
easterly direction from Mbeni, up on to the Congo-Nile water-
shed, where the Ibima and Itoa Rivers have their source and
where that shiest of all animals the okapi (Ocapia johnstonit)
is to be found, a skin of which I had hopes of adding to my
collection.
After three days the winding forest track led us up to
the village of a Wanandi chief called Moera, a cunning old
rascal, who in his younger days has been a blood-thirsty
_ villain; but to-day his village has become the centre from
* which many a hunt for the okapi has been set afoot by big
! game sportsmen, adventurers, and museum collectors from
all over the world, in fact ever since the existence of the
animal was first discovered in this part of the forest by
_ Sir Harry Johnston. Old Moera hasa thin veneer of civiliza-
tion due to his contact with white men, but this is scarcely
| skin deep and, as Pére Lens afterwards explained, what he
‘| and his rival cannibal chiefs had done, and in some cases
still did, would not bear print. Our friend the Catholic
Father knew more than he would tell, for later when he
‘Shake hands with Moera, counting him as quite beyond
the pale of friendship. To see the chief’s efforts to in-
| duce the Father to shake hands with him were ludicrous ;
‘his importunities were, however, quite unavailing on this
occasion.
i | As Moera’s village stands right on the watershed and the
| forest has been cut away round about, glimpses of the Congo
' slope on the one side, and the deep Semliki valley on the
other, can be obtained. We made our camp on the edge
147
The Eastern Congo
of the surrounding banana plantations, and within the barri-
cade of giant trees felled one across the other as a protection
for the plantations against raiding elephants.
The old chief had received news of our coming and must
have looked upon us as “ pigeons to be plucked,” for after
meeting him and at the subsequent palaver nothing under two
trusses of calico would tempt him to help us and organise
the Pygmies for an okapi hunt. Subsequently, however, a
few things changed hands between us, including a much
desired coat and trousers (an old hat we held over until the
hoped for okapi was secured), which brought about an ami-
- cable settlement. Presently, therefore, the big village drum
beat out the message across the forest that a white man and ©
his 61bi (lady) had arrived and wished to talk to the chief |
of the Pygmies. This “call”? was repeated several times |
during the night, not only on the drum but by blowing —
a series of blasts on a horn hollowed out of an elephant’s |
tusk. Both methods of communication are in use by the |
local Wanandi and Wambuba, but trumpet signalling |
is the only one in use,* and is generally understood by |
the Pygmies. | |
Nominally under the sway of Moera, as they roam through |
his district, but in reality the original owners, and indigenous ||?
race, of the Congo forests—and engaged in stealing from |}
the local plantations, hunting, trapping and grubbing roots, |
and never camping for more than a few days at a time in |
any one place—are four clans of Pygmies, known as the | }
Wambute. At times when they are hungry or in want of a |
bit of old iron, tobacco, or what not, they will work for the |
* The Wambute themselves carve ivory trumpets which they decora of |
with lizard skin and elephant hair and wear hanging behind their backs,
148
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@, Wambute Pygmies of the Semliki Forest,
4ft.4in.and 4 ft. 5in. in height respectively.
Okapi Hunting
Wanandi and other tribesmen in the banana plantations.
These little men, who by the way are greatly respected
by the dominant negroes for their power of retaliation
when occasion arises, are indispensable when it comes
to okapi hunting, and the first thing to be done is to
_ solicit their help. As they are inordinately fond of salt
and as they see very little of this commodity, their aid is
easily obtained by the offer of a few pounds of the coarse
article.
In answer to Moera’s summons, the following day brought
the chief of the Wambute* and six other Pygmies, some of
them with the face whitened with kaolin—forming a very
effective mask—and others with only half of it painted, as is
their custom when outside the confines of their forest home.
Both my wife and myself looked at these sturdy little men
| with undisguised interest. What need to look further for
the Missing Link when he stood before us! Short legs, long
arms, heavy torso; short neck, rounded head, deep set,
_ penetrating, see-in-the-dark kind of eyes; square long lips,
protruding jaw. The ape was all there, up to the hair, which
was discernible in some cases over the entire body of these
dwarfs.
Later on I went to take cinematograph films of the
Wambute, and made a surprise visit to one of their largest
camps, an account of which I have given towards the end
of this chapter. The work in hand at this meeting, however,
was confined to raising their enthusiasm over the hunting
down of a kwapi (the name, by the way, by which the animal
* As I knew that Captain Harrison, twenty or more years ago now, took
some of these pygmies back to England with him to be shown at Earl’s
Court Exhibition, I inquired about them, but was told they were all dead. For
_ Many reasons I believe the forest dwarf to be short lived !
149
The Eastern Congo
is known in these parts and from which its present scientific
name is derived).*
As Moera was the only one who could speak their lan-
guage, this I left to him; he seemed to promise a lot but
gave little away and the palaver took some time. It was,
however, eventually concluded satisfactorily for the Pygmies
by the usual distribution of salt.
I gathered that the plan was for the Wambute to search
the forest in all directions, and that when an okapi was located
the fact was to be signalled by a special trumpet call to bring
along the rest of the clan with their dogs and so start the hunt,
which might last several days or even weeks.
As I myself witnessed one of these hunts when out col-
lecting in the depth of the forest a short description of it
is worth giving.
The first intimation I had of the coming chase was an
exceedingly melodious piping away in the distance, which
on becoming more audible as it approached resolved itself
into a series of flute-like notes of considerable volume, but —
very pleasant to the ear. These were augmented by varying
tap-tapping noises; but nothing was to be seen and no other
sounds were heard! Knowing from the native who was
with me that this was a band of Wambute out hunting, we |
stood behind trees to watch, letting the chase go by. How-
ever, as the foliage was very dense, little could be seen, but —
presently as we watched out came a little yellow dog scurrying fF
* The Okapi is known by the name of Ndumbe in the northern extension —
of the Ituri forest. George Grenfell, the great missionary geographer discovered _
the okapi in the region south of the middle Aruwimi River in 1902, and recorded ©
its local name as Ndumba. The range of this primitive giraffe seems to extend |
from the Mangoma country (5° S.Lat.) in the south, to the Aruwimi basin in
the north, and possibly westward, north of the Congo, to the vicinity of the ©
lower Mubangi River.—H. H. J. 4
150
Okapi Hunting
along the track from which we had stood aside, the bell
(made from a hard seed-pod with two clappers) attached to
its neck tap-tapping as it ran, and then, following it, a naked
Pygmy holding a little bow and a sheaf of arrows, both soon
disappearing however as quickly as they had come. The
fluting was continuous and as far as I could judge was the
little men’s method of keeping the centre of a half-circle.
They evidently passed through the forest in this formation,
with the idea of surrounding anything their dogs tracked up
for them; the Pygmy playing the flute being guided to a
certain extent by the bells of the dogs.
The forest dwarf is an adept at “‘calling”’ animals,
especially I believe the chimpanzi, and will sit alone with
his bow and arrows imitating the cry of this ape or some
other animal, until one approaches closely when he lets fly
) ashaft and kills it more often than not, for they are expert
. marksmen and use poisoned arrows. I think, however,
| they kill very few elephants without assistance from the other
: forest negroes, the game being too big for their primitive
f
weapons, but they certainly ably assist their more robust
‘brethren in arranging traps and pit-falls. The fierce but
‘pygmy red forest buffalo is perhaps their béte noire, for this
et sturdy beast is the “ devil and all’’ when aroused, making
. even the bird-like Wambute “step lively’’ on occasions.
f) _ Later on when nearing the Ituri River the report was brought
. tous that one of these animals, after being wounded, had put
five Pygmies right out of action by goring them, three of
whom had not survived. Most Pygmies are extraordinarily
agile tree climbers (a very necessary accomplishment, by the
way, for a grey parrot snarer), but I am unable to give
credence to the reports one reads of tree-living Pygmies,
I5I
The Eastern Congo
resembling large apes: never having seen or heard of any
such during my wanderings in the Congo.
Our meeting with the Pygmies concluded, they decided
to celebrate our arrival and their departure for the chase
with a dance which commenced after sundown. This
proved exceedingly entertaining to watch in the glow of
the firelight, and was moreover accompanied by the most
melodious music I have ever heard at any native dance in
Africa. It was the same mellow ‘“ Pipes of Pan’’ music
that I heard in the woods when the Wambute were hunting,
but this time harmonised with their peculiar intonations,
accompanied by a small drum. The forest dwarfs I put down
as the best native musicians in Africa.*
Before describing the small measure of success that-
came my way in my search for an okapi, a few notes on
this interesting ruminant will I hope, interest the reader,
for I have frequently been asked even in Africa: what is an
okapi ?
Belonging to the same family as the giraffes, the okapi
has diverged considerably both in form and colour, under
the influence of its forest surroundings, from its well. known
long-necked cousin of the Acacia plains. In size it resembles
a large donkey, the female, which is hornless, showing a
tendency, almost unique amongst mammals, to grow larger
than the male. Its body colour is a rich chocolate with a
purple tinge, the legs being striped black and white, and the
latter colouring continuing well up the buttocks. The tail
is comparatively small, ending in a tuft of bristle-like hairs.
The head, which in the males is surmounted with a pair of
* I am informed on good authority that some pygmies when dancing beat |
their chests with their hands, making a loud clopping noise, similar to a gorilla
Or Orang-utan.
152
_ Speed.
Okapi Hunting
small skin-covered, bare pointed horns, is mostly greyish,
sometimes with a yellow tinge; the ears, however, are dark
_ brown, large and sensitive like those of the tragelaphs,* and
formed to carry to their owner the merest suggestion of a
_ footfall or snapping twig. The head has the rounded and
._ pointed appearance of the giraffes—the nose, however, is
| rather snout-like—the tongue long and prehensile. The
| dark eye is small and not “full” like an animal
| from the plains. The neck is only slightly elongated, but
with a heavy base and high withers. The hide is remark-
ably tough and the hoofs and spoor resemble those of a
| small ox. The meat is considered a great delicacy by all
_ the forest tribes.
The habits of the okapi resemble those of the bongo, the
_kudu, and the bushbuck, and like these very shy animals
more often than not it is found alone. It is partly nocturnal
and fond of feeding in the late evening or at night when the
moon is out, and similarly with the tragelaphs its food con-
_ sists of fruits, flowers, bark, and some kinds of decayed wood,
as much as succulent shoots of trees and herbage. There
is no record as far as I am aware of the okapi uttering any
' kind of call, either of alarm or otherwise. From observations
made on live specimens captured in the Congo, it has an amble
: _ like a giraffe, but I am assured by the Pygmies and by white
_men who have seen them, that when alarmed it appears to
bound through the forest undergrowth and at an incredible
-It is said that the first record of the existence of the
) | okapi is contained in drawings found on the walls of an ancient
_ Egyptian temple. Be that as it may there is no zoological
* Members of the,eland-kudu-bushbuck sub-family.
153
The Eastern Congo
find within recent times to compare with Sir Harry Johnston’s
discovery of this unique animal in the years Ig00-I1901.*
* The first hint which set my imagination reflecting on the possible existence
of some large, strangely-marked ruminant in the heart of Central Africa, in the
Congo basin, was derived in my boyhood from a book on strange beasts which
might be even yet discovered in the unknown parts of the world, most probably
of all in the Congo basin and the unmapped regions between the Cameroons
and the East Coast. The book was written by Philip Gosse, the father of Mr.
Edmund Gosse; and I think it was given to me asa school prize. It described
amongst other creatures a unicorn, attributed to the inner regions of Centra]
Africa, some brightly-marked and coloured creature about the size of a horse;
and its descriptions were based on the stories of Dutch, English and Portuguese
explorers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. When I first met Stanley
on the Lower Congo in 1882, and still more when I spent some weeks with him
on the Upper Congo in 1883, we talked about this book of Philip Gosse’s, and
he sp. ke with great stress on the iost likely region in all Africa for the occurrence
of marvels in land-features, in human races, and in the existence of strange
mammalsand birds. This he described as “‘ the region of the Blue Mountains,” —
the country immediately south of the Albert Nyanza, west of Uganda, and on
the fringe of his newly-discovered Congo basin. ‘“‘ If ever I get the chance of a
free choice of exploration, it is to that region I will return. It holds, I believe,
the greatest marvels of Africa.’’ Four to five years later he gotthe chance. He
directed his steps thither in his attempt to relieve Emin Pasha. He discovered
Ruwenzori and the Semliki, Lake Edward, and the vast forest of the north-east
Congo basin. He also found traces of the okapi—‘‘a large donkey ’’—and
recorded them in a foot-note in his book. About that time the work of Wilhelm
Junker, a Russo-German explorer of the Bahr-al-ghazal, was published, and in
it appeared a few paragraphs indicating that he had actually seen a skin or
two of this strange ruminant (the okapi) in the neighbourhood of the Nepoko
River. Soon after I was appointed Special Commissioner to proceed to Uganda
I paid a visit to Stanley to say good-bye, and we talked of the strange fauna
that might inhabit the wonderful forests of north-east Congoland. At his
house in Whitehall Terrace we once more discussed what his large “ donkey ”’
of north-east Congoland might be, and I promised him to make it my endeavour
to find out. Early in my residence in Uganda I was thrown much into contact
with Congo pygmies; they eagerly confirmed Stanley’s stories and eventually ~
led me to the discovery of this forest-dwelling giraffe. I think it quite possible
that the okapi, like the forest hog, also mentioned by Mr. Barns, may have
extended its range right across Central Equatorial Africa at one time, to the
hinterland of the Cameroons, and so have furnished the natives with accounts
of a unicorn-like beast in the dense forest which were transmitted to the Dutch
explorers and geographers of Western Equatorial Africa in the eighteenth
century. George Grenfell, the great missionary-explorer of Congoland, in-
dependently discovered the opaki near the Nepoko River a year after I had
found it near the Semliki. But this fact did not become known for several
years, till his journals came under my inspection after his death.—H. H. J.
154
Okapi Hunting
In regard to it, it is curious to reflect that although Congo-
land had been occupied for many years and the Ituri forest
penetrated in several directions, this animal escaped dis-
covery for so long a time. This is the more to be wondered
at, as the forest negroes have been in the habit of wearing
belts and bandoliers made from the striped leg skins of the
animal for generations past. It was on the evidence of these
native ornaments that Sir Harry Johnston eventually based
his researches. May it be that there is still something startling
to find in the Congo—a really pygmy elephant, a dinotherium, —
a water rhinoceros or perchance a brontosaurus! Even as I
write comes the news of a five-tusked elephant shot by
Monsieur Pilet in the Uele District. The Belgian Congo—
“ The Pearl of Africa ’’—has, I feel sure, a zoological surprise
packet still hidden away awaiting an opening by some lucky
adventurer ! |
Although not realising this when at Moera’s village,
the range of the okapi is more extensive than is commonly
supposed and I should have accomplished my object more
successfully had I postponed my search until I reached the
north side of the Ituri valley, where the animal is fairly
numerous. In the Wamba and Nepoko districts no difficulty
will be experienced in securing a specimen, although the
actual killing of the animal will have to be left to the native
hunters—it being impracticable for a white man to hunt in
the tangled undergrowth in which it lives.
Fortunately my time was fully occupied in collecting
insects—in search of which I made excursions in many
directions—for day after day went by and no okapi turned
up, until I began to lose hope. To make matters worse,
an obscure epidemic disease broke out amongst our porters,
T55
The Eastern Congo
and in a very few days we had seventeen of them sick on
our hands, one of whom died. Very naturally the rest of
the men became nervous and wished to be paid off, leaving
me no alternative but to comply with their request. In a
most kind way the Chef de Poste at Mbeni, to whom I wrote
for more carriers, sent out one of his soldiers to collect others
for me, but as luck would have it he too was taken suddenly
ill the day after he reached our camp, together with one of
the new porters he brought with him, both having to be sent
back strung up like pigs in impromptu hammocks, for the
disease, which was a form of Spanish influenza, took them
in the legs and they were unable to walk.
In Africa the truth of the old saying, “‘1t never rains but
it pours,”’ is often very forcibly brought home to one and in this
case it was literally true, for at this time we experienced the |
most terrific thunderstorm and tornado that it has ever been
my misfortune to encounter. Due no doubt to the mantle
of ice and snow covering the equatorial mountains of Ruwen- —
zori, the elements are continually at war in this region and bad
storms and electrical discharges are of frequent occurrence.
This electrified tornado, however, was half-a-dozen thunder-
storms rolled into one, its effect being felt half across Africa,
for later, news of the damage it wrought at Kampala in
Uganda reached me where it was described as “‘ the worst
storm ever known.” It approached from the north-west,
at first painting the entire landscape with a sickly yellow
light, and bringing with it an ominous sense of impending
disaster felt by the entire living world about us and warning
Dame Nature to wrap up tight her cloak. The large blue
turaco took his last run along the big branch and ceased
his noisy crowing ; the cheery grey parrot shut up whistling
156
4
@ The Author, before leaving Mbeni
to climb the Ruwenzori Mountains.
:
/
i
:
|
G@ A Wambute Pygmy suffering from
leprosy (right hand and cheek). He
carries his quiver slung on his back,
qd, Pygmy Women and Children in their Forest Home.
Okapi Hunting
and “cocked”’ that all-seeing eye of his; that uncanny
night-crier the Potto lemur turned in his hollow tree and
thought (like ourselves, only for a different reason !)—if he
woke up at all—that “ Thank goodness, this hasn’t come
_ atnight!’’ The chimpanzi sought his most protected “ plat-
form,” and crossing his arms formed that natural hair cloak
of his, from off which the rain would presently run, and the
monkey families huddled close together beneath the great
clumps of elephant’s ear fern. The one animal perhaps
that recked nothing of the storm was the jaguar-like forest
leopard of the Semliki*—callous, collected, cruel, caring
nothing for the giant breath that, as yet, only whispered
among the huge creepers about him or for the pealing thunder
of the coming tempest. He thought thisa fine opportunity to
steal a march on his implacable, albeit more sensitive enemies,
the bandar-log crouching on high beneath the fern.
We hammered in our tent-pegs and packed our belongings
as best we might to weather the hurricane that was now
upon us. For half an hour or more we seemed to be engulfed
in a whirlwind, round the edges of which the shafts of lightning
chased one another, tearing and splitting the tall trees around
us, with blinding flashes of electricity terrifying to witness.
Hardy as my wife had become, and strong man as I am,
we both felt, after it was all over, that we had had the breath
knocked right out of us and that this was the occasion for a
little stimulant, in which the reader may rest assured we both
indulged.
- With us at this time was a fat, pleasant Wanandi native
whom we had engaged at Ruchuru on Lake Edward as my
* A remarkable sub-species of leopard discovered by the Duke of the
Abbruzzi’s expedition.—H. H. J.
157
The Eastern Congo
personal servant. After some years’ wandering with the ©
Belgian forces during the war and having visited such places
as Dar-es-Salaam and Tabora, we had brought him back to
his home near Mbeni where he was well known to the Catholic ©
missionaries. We had become quite attached to this pleasant
native, so in the light of the event that followed it was a little |
bit pitiful to remember his answer to the White Fathers when —
they expressed surprise that he had brought back nothing ~
with him after so many years’ absence. It was to the effect
that he hadsaved no money and had nothing at all, but he had
seen “‘life,’’ having smoked the white man’s cigarettes and
cigars and having tasted the white man’s beer and whisky
at Dar-es-Salaam.
When he left his home sleeping sickness was very pre-
valent in the Mbeni district, and this native, so the Fathers
told us, was supposed to have had it, but the germs being
dormant, as occurs in some cases, the disease acted slowly.
On this evidence therefore it seemed that it was his fate
to come home with us to die of this scourge.
For some weeks past it had become increasingly evident
that Cyril—which was the boy’s name—was becoming fatter
and fatter, in fact, he became elephantine (for a negro).
This apparently was the last stage of the disease with him,
for he went sick and was dead in three days. With this
native and the porter who succumbed earlier in the week,
we had a practical illustration of the Wanandi’s superstitious
dread of any man dying in a house. Both poor Cyril and
the dying porter were carried out of the hut they occupied —
when at their last gasp, so that they should not die under —
its roof.
This ‘‘ chapter of accidents’’ was rather disconcerting
158
Okapi Hunting
and inclined to get on the nerves; moreover, the old chief
Moera reckoned, and quite rightly, that we had brought
trouble to his village, so he was as fed up with us as we were
with him—we were irritable and so was he! A fruitful
cause of irritation (to my wife at any rate) was the ever-
lasting chattering and shouting that went on in the village
court-house over which Moera presided, being close to our
camp, it worried her a good deal. She sent out a native
_ therefore on one or two occasions with instructions that the
hubbub should cease, and that the cases were to be tried
with less noise. I being away on a certain occasion when
the row going on was past bearing, owing to the introduction
of pombe or native beer into the deliberations, and Moera
' reluctant to stop the noise, she decided to take the matter
_ into her own hands, and as the reader may judge, to some
_ purpose, for going to the entrance of the place she harangued
old Moera and his assembled savages in bad Swahili, but
_ with such good brandishings of a lighted fire-stick she held
_ that she cowed the lot of them, emphasising her wrath by
throwing the stick into the middle of what were, for aught
_ I know, the most important witnesses and village elders.
After this we had some peace, if we omit the early morning
_ hours before the village he-goat went forth to graze, and the
_ beating I had to administer to two natives who threw banana
_ skins on our tent, and the row we had with the cook for stealing
the salt, and his eventual desertion, when he left us to the
_ mercy of my insect collecting “ boy ’”’ who had then perforce
_to act as cook, and last, but not least, the nerve-racking
tapping of the bark-cloth makers.
About this time, and on to this slightly unhappy horizon,
came a half caste Pygmy-Arab to cheer us up—his name
159
The Eastern Congo
was ‘‘ Amissi’’ (Hamisi). He was an Imp of Darkness not I
more than four feet two inches in height, with a small beard,
and his round intelligent head surmounted by a well rolled |
turban. He was a local chief, and like Moera had several |
clans of Wambute in his “ district,’’ and moreover appeared :
to be none too friendly with the aforementioned gentleman. —
Coming up to our tent he salaamed and in a few words stated —
that he wished to speak to me alone. His ’cute manner —
gained my confidence at once, so nothing loath I sent everyone —
away. f
As I had decided to resume our northward journey within —
a few days, the news he communicated to me was no less :
astonishing than delightful to hear. I am sorry to admit —
that my Swahili is imperfect—it is of the Congo variety known _
as Kingwana—but I gathered this much, that an okapi lay
dead in the forest and that if I would come with him immedi- —
ately he would lead me to it so that I could take its skin,
There were conditions of course—considerations—which the —
wily Amissi tried to gauge correctly from my elated demeanour
or otherwise ; I tried not to be elated but it was a hard job —
after a month’s waiting joined to our other troubles.
I had offered a two hundred francs reward and a load of —
salt for the first kwapi skin brought in, so this was the bargain _
I struck with Amissi. That finished, we set off into the forest —
at a speed that barely kept pace with my impatience. After
a good two hours’ walk along an elephant path, and after
meeting a sour-faced dwarf who apparently had been waiting
a long time for us, we turned aside into the tangle of creepers —
and cardamoms,* through which we struggled. This new >
* These aromatic plants form the greater part of the forest undergrowth;
they have a brilliant red seed-pod growing from the root, which is much sought |
after by many animals for food. |
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Okapi Hunting
track led us across several boulder-strewn streams, beside the
last of which Amissi pointed his thin finger at some deep
spoors scattered over the heavy loam, using the words chui
(leopard) and kwafi frequently when speaking. Greatly
_ Interested I examined these tracks very closely, also the
_ quantity of broken twigs and small branches that now strewed
the trail we followed, some of the latter having bits of hair
adhering to them. Having seen similar indications in the
bush where a lion or leopard has had a “ kill,” I at last
tumbled to the word chui. Of course, now I knew—a leopard
_ had killed an okapi! Shortly afterwards our Pygmy guide
_ led us to the dead animal itself, a large female, which judging
| by the severe clawings and bites she had sustained must have
| put upa plucky fight for her life. The Wambute who appear
7) to know everything that goes on in the forest, had got wind
of the “ kill” and that morning had wounded the leopard
: over its prey without however killing it. The stomach of the
| okapi had been torn out and partly eaten, and the head
and neck were useless for mounting purposes, but here was
| the animal I sought. I had therefore to be content with
. what the leopard had left me and return to camp with the
skin. As I trudged home my imagination painted a most
wonderful picture of the struggles of this okapi to free itself
from its assailant, all the bright colours and tropical sur-
roundings were there: the golden, spotted leopard, the
chocolate-purple of the okapi with its black and white mark-
ings, the shaft of sunlight through the trees. What a picture
Africa can produce at times! I gained our camp that
_ evening highly pleased, for with the okapi and gorilla trophies
~ I had obtained records of the two rarest animals in Africa.
*k * *% * **
IOI M
The Eastern Congo
The anthropology of the Pygmy races, and of those known
as the Wambute, has been exhaustively dealt with in many
books, and it is not therefore my intention to write a great
deal about them. When I paid a visit to their camps in the
forest it was with the intention of taking moving picture '
studies of the Pygmy at Home, an intention to a certain |
extent original (one must be original in these days). For,
whereas their life’s study has been made some time ago,
their family life has seldom been presented to the public |
exactly as it is and as the kine-camera makes it possible for
people at home to see it.
As it is now surmised, the Pye in prehistoric times
was probably evolved from negroid tribes that originally
migrated into Africa from Nearer Asia. The type is not, as
has been supposed, closely allied to the Bushman of South
Africa. The language of the Wambute, as well as other
forest dwarfs, would appear to reflect the tongue spoken
by the neighbouring tribes amongst whom they live. To me,
however. their speech resembled calls of animals, especially _
monkeys, more than a language; they seemed to use intona-
tions more than words, especially when calling loudly to
each other in the forest ; this was due no doubt, in part, to
the echoes that form in the tree “ galleries,’ but this quality
in their speech always persisted—to my ear at least !
Respecting their range, the Pygmies are to be found
spread about over the entire basin of the Congo, with a
leaning to the north-west, north-east and east. Their limit
to the west reaches right up to the Cameroons, and on the east
as faras Mount Elgon and Lake Eyassi, dwarfraces being found
even on Lake Rudolph. Their skulls being lowest in the
scale of human development are characterised by a prog-
162
a a —_
od
Okapi Hunting
nathous or protruding jaw. They are, however, or seem to
be, more nimble witted than many other forest natives of a
higher culture, and having no cannibal tendencies are gentle-
men compared to the bigger negroes.
When making my visit to the Wambute with my “ movie ”’
camera, I took the chief Moera with me, sending him on
ahead to calm any fears they might have regarding my
intentions. On my way thither I passed through a large
extent of forest that was then being cleared for bananas,
the staple food of the forest negroes, where I had a good
opportunity of observing their methods of opening up land
for this crop. Firstly, they cleared the thick undergrowth
which was burnt, leaving only the largest trees standing to
act as shade for the young banana roots that were planted
hap-hazard beneath, in small holes dug in the deep leaf-mould.
When these had taken root they proceeded slowly to fell
the gigantic trees that had been left standing; this was done
from a frail platform some twelve feet up the bole or, in the
case of a soft-wood tree, a fire would be started at its foot in
between the semi-aerial roots.
Passing on in the wake of Moera the fact that we had
reached the vicinity of Pygmyland soon became evident for
our ears were assailed by a babble of echoing and unaccus-
tomed sounds, due to the consternation caused by my near
approach and Moera’s expostulations. The expectation of
some salt, however, induced the more timid women and
children who had run away, to return, so when I arrived
most of my “ performers ’’ had assembled. There were some
twenty-five of them all told, some on trees—mostly the children
—the men and women in groups in front of their leaf shelters.
The grey bearded chief of the Wambute, whom I had seen
163
The Eastern Congo
previously, came to salute me; to him I explained my mission
through Moera, but at first I wanted to know why they
hadn’t killed me an okapi. The reply was that “‘ many white
men had come seeking the kwapi and that now there were |
few in the forest ’’—this I believe was true.
The Pygmy camp as I found it was just a collection of ||
leaf bowers made by arching branches into round shelters
about three to four feet high, some of which Moera informed |
me were for the women and others for the men; this no —
doubt bears out the recorded promiscuity practised in their
matrimonial affairs. Almost all these little people were ~
light brown in colour as if living in the dense shade of the
forest had paled their skins ; they also had the appearance—
especially the children—of being ill-nourished and hungry.
On making a tour of the camp and looking into all the ‘“‘ huts,”
I was unable to find a single utensil, neither cooking pot nor :
gourd. There was one primitive kind of iron axe and a few
earthenware pipe-bowls, some with long reed stems, others
were stuck into the midrib of a green banana leaf four feet
in length, through which they doubtless obtained a very
cool smoke—that was all. All the male Pygmies, men and
children, had small round bows and numberless arrows,
some of the latter having broad iron heads with feathered
shafts (some of them poisoned with a paste was of the ~
deadly Stvophanthus seeds), whilst others were merely finely
pointed raphia splinters flighted with shaped pieces of
dried leaf. Most of the men had round skin pads at-
tached to their left wrists, made apparently in some cases
from the dried and stuffed scvota of various animals, to | |
protect the arm from the bow-string and in which to carry 4
their poison. I saw no spears and but few small knives, —
164 7
Okapi Hunting
and they wore next to nothing in the way of clothing or
ornaments. |
The light for instantaneous photography in the gloom of
the forest is never good, but on this occasion I was fairly
successful and the results were pleasing. Having made my
exposures I returned to camp, where my wife and I were soon
busily engaged on preparations for our advance along the
Semliki valley.
Shortly before we left Moera’s village, Pére Lens of the
Sacred Heart Mission at Mbeni spent two days with us, and
over the camp fire told us many interesting tales of the old
days when the cannibals were openly cannibals and white
men travelled with an armed escort. Some of these grim
_ episodes I have recounted in the next chapter, some must be
| left untold. |
—
On passing in review the novel experiences we went
through, and the first glimpses we obtained of the highly
interesting life of this great forest, we felt we were only just
commencing the really interesting part of our expedition and
longed to see more. It was, therefore, with the Call of the
Wild, the Fever of the Horizon—call it what you will—as
___ strong as ever within us, that we “ slung our pack ”’ and hitched
our belts and passed on down the forest way.
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@NTARIO
CHAPTER XII
AMONGST THE WAMBUBA CANNIBALS
“ Capped in scarlet parrots’ feathers, draped in vesture wild and weird,
Beaded, bangled, and barbaric, reverenced and rudely feared,
Lords of life and limb unquestioned, Kings of Crop and Kings of Clan,
Swayed they thus their forest silence on the old primeval plan
Till the white men came among them, and the new regime began.”
Verse II, ‘‘ The Crocodile Kings,’’ by Cullen Gouldsbury.
HE descent from Moera’s to the native village of
Katushi, which is built on the floor of the Semliki
valley, is very steep in places, the track passing through
dense virgin forest and becoming a kind of tunnel here and
there, the haunt of large and brilliant forest butterflies, which
from every bunch of fallen fruit, fly up in sparkling clouds
as the traveller approaches. Flowers are by no means
common in the primeval forest, and the butterflies and
moths, most of the forest forms at any rate, feed on fruit,
plant juices and gums, some again—the rarest and most
beautiful—on dead and decaying animals and other offensive
matter. Here I added considerably to my already rich
collection. |
Besides these beautiful insects, I had collected some
valuable monkey skins in this neighbourhood, amongst them
were: The Red Colubus Monkey (Colobus elliott); Dent’s
Guenon (Cercopithecus dent1); Stuhlmann’s Guenon (Cerco-
pithecus leucampyx stuhlmannt) ; Huri Mangabey (Cercocebus
albigena iturt) ; also I obtained a Flying Squirrel (Anomalurus
pusillus, and another fine reddish squirrel with a large bushy
grey tail. From the north end of Lake Kivu I had already
166
Wambuba Cannibals
obtained several skins of that rare and beautiful Golden
Monkey the Cercopithecus kandt1.*
As we made our way down into the valley I added yet
another specimen to my collection; this time it was a large
genet, the Genetta victorie (another discovery of Sir H. H.
Johnston) which was brought after me by a breathless runner
from one of the villages near by, having been caught that
morning in a trap; another native who followed me had an
okapi skin belt he wished to dispose of. The Semliki natives
appear to be great trappers for they were always bringing
me trapped animals, especially the black and white Colobus
monkey which seems to be more easily snared than others.
The trap used in most cases is a small hutch-like enclosure
with a falling trap door, which the animal sets off itself when
grasping the bait within.
The trapping propensity of these natives was answerable
for a very nasty experience that occurred to me a short while
before when out collecting. On this occasion I was quite
alone and seeing a valuable butterfly which I chased along a
narrow track I fell with a crash into a hidden game pit.
Fortunately for me the pit was not staked at the bottom as
some of them are, or I should have been impaled. The sen-
sation when seeing the ground breaking up about one, as one
goes down clutching at the thin grass covering, is to be classed
with nightmares. This pit-fall with the inside of which I
made such a painful acquaintance was eight feet deep, six
* Belgians have reported to me the existence of a pure white monkey in
such widely separated districts as Lake Kivu and Lake Leopold II; this is
- possibly the White Mangabey (Cercocebus jamrachi) which was first discovered
near Lake Mweru. A photograph shown me of two dead white monkeys and
one live young one, from Lake Leopold II, rather confirms this as they looked
like mangabeys ; their heads were black and the rest of the body white, with
very long tails.
167
The Eastern Congo
feet six long, and about four feet wide at the top, tapering
down to about a foot at the bottom. It was placed on one
side of a fallen tree so that any animal stepping over the
tree could not fail to fall headlong—this one was made to
catch an okapi. I scrambled out of it with some difficulty,
having luckily only sustained a severe shaking. ©
On arrival at Katushi we again had a practical example of
drum-signalling by these natives, for we were expected and not
only had the chief got food, wood and water ready for us and
our porters when we arrived, but had sent out natives in
several directions to locate a good elephant for me. Now,
up to this time I had been doing no elephant hunting and had
scarcely even made inquiries about them, as my licence
had not arrived from Stanleyville. This had in fact turned
up the day before we left Moera’s, when I asked that chief if
I was likely to see any of these animals on my way to Katushi.
However, as stated when we arrived the natives appeared
to know our movements and even of my wish to hunt
elephants. In explanation of this the chief told me he had
received news about our coming the previous day by drum-
signal.
Right throughout the central Ituri district this drum-
signalling is in practice, and drums are to be heard beating
at all hours of the day and even at night in a thickly popu- ©
lated district. Amongst the Wanandi especially and in a
lesser degree with the Wambuba, this drum-signalling has
been brought to a decidedly useful art. The Catholic Fathers
at Mbeni used it almost daily when having something to —
communicate to their teachers in certain villages or to their
cattle herdsman in charge of the Mission cows, which had to
be kept at some distance from Mbeni on account of tsetse
168
i
4
4
‘
ip
Wambuba Cannibals
fly. Illustrating the accuracy of the drum code the following
instance is worth recording.
On this occasion news was received at the mission by
drum that a white man was approaching from a certain
direction, but as one of their members had lately left to travel
the same route and news had already been received respecting
_ his arrival at a certain village, the Fathers placed little credence
in the report, judging the natives had become mixed up with
the message and that it referred to their friend who had
recently left. However, the native signaller persisted in his
report that there were two white men, one going and one
coming on the same road. To prove the reliability of the
native code sure enough the reported white man turned up
at the mission the following day. This one instance is suffi-
cient to show how useful this method of signalling might be
in case of sickness, for instance, or a native rising.*
On such an expedition as I have attempted to describe
in this book, the study of the flora, fauna and topography
in which I was most interested, are no less absorbing than
the extraordinary variety of the beliefs, customs and super-
stitions of the many savage races through whose country
I travelled and to which, through lack of time, I was only
_ able to give but a passing interest. With the forest region—
_ for the practice of its worst forms is confined to forest dwellers
__—we were in touch for the first time with cannibalism, with-
out a reference to which a book of travel on the Congo could
hardly be considered complete, it having played such a large
part in its history.
_ As we had passed by the Bahuni country and were amongst
* This system of drum-signalling extends over the whole of the Congo basin,
_ as well as to northern Angola and the Cameroons, and reappears in Southern
| Nigeria and much of forested West Africa.—H. H. J
169
:
The Eastern Congo |
the Wambuba natives who inhabit the one strip of the Belgian
Congo not yet completely under administration, we were in
a district where cannibal practices are as much rampant as
anywhere in Africa to-day. We were, moreover, about to
penetrate the unknown region ee cere west of the aban-
doned post of Lesi where “ long pig ’’ was still on the weekly
menu of these degraded savages. I will therefore at the
suggestion of many friends write down such observations
on the custom and its history as I think may interest them,
leaving, however, my account of the Leopard sect of the
Anyioto for the next chapter, and until my description of
our route leads us through the country in which they operated. — |
Cannibalism* no doubt entered into human nature through |
the pangs of hunger at the earliest dawn of history for amongst _
the remains of the early cave-dwellers, human bones, especi-
ally those of children, bearing cut marks, have been found
in different parts of the world, Great Britain included. After-
wards, doubtless, the pangs of hunger being satisfied a liking.
for human flesh persisted.
After the lapse of many thousands of years we next find”
that religion has entered into it as a deity demanding huma
sacrifices, the worshippers eating (and possibly liking) as
sacrament the flesh of the sacrificed. Added to this we find ©
amongst certain of the Congo negroes the barbarous idea of ©
eating the flesh of the Great Departed with the hope of retain- .
ing in their systems something of their greatness and virtue.
This custom has no doubt come down in prehistoric times |
from ancient Egypt, where the practice had its birth. |
Then again comes a belief in a life after death and the }
* The word “cannibal” is derived from a corruption of the Spanish name |
‘‘Caribales ” or West Indian islandersand invaders, called in English the Caribs. |
170
Wambuba Cannibals
| necessity that certain individuals—beloved or useful—should
| accompany certain persons of importance to that other world
_ when they died, which brings us down to the execrable burial
| murders of the Congo and their accompanying cannibal
: orgies. To this can be added yet another factor, in the craving
of the semi-human Congo savage (without such a thing as
_ pity in his composition or language) for a change from his
_ insipid vegetable diet and for excitement to break the mono-
tony of his forest-bound life, in other words the longing for a
_ “thrill”? which besets even ourselves to this day, good and
bad alike, and which is in fact at the root of the general
| interest taken in cannibals and the wish of my friends to
hear about them.
A great deal of interesting information concerning the
customs and history of the Congo cannibals is contained in that
_ comprehensive work of Sir H. H. Johnston, entitled ‘‘ George
| Grenfell and the Congo,” which should be read by all those
| interested in the development of this amazing country.
Here will be found some of the most gruesome accounts of
| burial murders, ceremonial cannibalism and other diabolical
| customs, that can well be imagined, written of a time when
the natives resembled the worst Carnivora and fought each
other for the flesh on their bones. One of these accounts
deals with the extraordinary customs and murders attending
the death of a Baluba chief, which is so bizarre as to be almost
past belief. In these times, now happily passing away,
burial murders and cannibal feasts were the order of the day,
and no chief of any consequence died without some of his
Wives, as well as numerous slaves, being slaughtered or
strangled and buried with him (in some cases they were
buried alive), the ceremonies being concluded by a feast
171
The Eastern Congo
of human flesh provided by other victims killed for the
purpose. 1
In these days cannibalism amongst the Wambuba is con-
fined to the exhumation of dead bodies and eating them, |
for some of these human hyenas think nothing of robbing
a week-old grave of its contents, such cases frequently coming - '
to the notice of the missionaries in the district. The more :
enlightened natives have to bury their dead secretly to avoid
this ghoulish practice. a
Cannibalism dies hard in the Congo as instanced by the
recrudescence of the practice during the German East African _
campaign, when many authenticated cases occurred of the —
Congo native soldiers eating the dead on the battlefield at
night after an engagement. |
A case of cannibalism that was brought to my notice was _
of a man who practically held up a district by waylaying —
solitary passers-by in a lonely part of the forest, killing them, —
robbing them, and eating them; he was eventually found ©
out in rather an extraordinary manner, for he started selling —
human meat which he disposed of ostensibly as flesh of 7
antelopes. The local villagers knew possibly what the meat |
was, but as the headman was a confederate they did not give —
the game away. Eventually, however, one of his would-be ~
victims escaped although badly wounded and identified the :
man from whom he had bought some meat the day previously. _
The man and his confederate escaped justice by fleeing the —
neighbourhood and, it is thought, joined the Anyioto Leopard _
sect, but in the subsequent hue and cry their retreat in the —
recesses of the forest was found, containing a quantity of —
human skulls and bones which they had partially destroyed q
by burning. |
172 |
Wambuba Cannibals
As may be seen from my photographs of them, the Wam-
buba cannibals look their part, the women adding to their
_repulsiveness by piercing both top and bottom lips, and in-
serting small brass rings. The chief’s wives wear a heavy
iron carved collar weighing about five pounds, a relic of the
old slave days, which has now become a kind of token of
affectionate submissiveness on the part of the wife. In the
same photograph can be seen the type of house in vogue with
_ the Wanandi, Wambuba and some of the Bakonjo natives,
_ this form of hut being found in the forest region of the Semliki
_valley and the adjoining portion of the Congo—Semliki
_ watershed.
The maranaceous leaves with which these huts are
thatched being very tough and durable in texture, form an
_ ideal, completely watertight roofing, far superior to grass,
] lighter, less verminous and less likely to catch fire, and are,
_ moreover, used for thatching purposes all over the Ituri
_ forest. The specially shaped huts I have referred to, however,
are not found outside the districts inhabited by the tribes
- mentioned.*
Among the curious customs of the Wanandi and Wambuba
_ natives is that of loading their babies with wire neck rings
and charms until the poor infants can scarcely breathe, and
the friction of the ornaments wears the skin raw; as they are
handed down from generation to generation as kind of
heirlooms, matters are made worse by the collection of filth
and vermin they contain.
Salt and meat are the two great luxuries that these people
will move heaven and earth to obtain. Over and over again
* The same shaped hut is found amongst the Bakonjo inhabiting the high
western slopes of the Ruwenzori Mountains outside the forest region. Here
they are thatched with banana stems, not with leaves.
173
The Eastern Congo
a native has come up to my camp with a long tale about
something or another—how he had helped carry a sick porter,
or how he had gone to look for elephants, or how he had done
this, that and the other for me—but the end of the yarn |
was just the same and I always knew what was coming— |
a plea for some salt. Eventually I got heartily tired of
giving it out and, moreover, our stock began to run low. |
In these days, since the white man put a check on canni- ©
balism, meat is difficult for the natives to obtain; the favourite |
monkey stew comes their way now and again certainly, |
when a trapper is successful, but not much to fill many |
mouths ; once a year perhaps a windfall in the way of an
elephant, but little enough does each man get of it, when | 3
there are at least two hundred people fighting for scraps. |
So, like the salt, the meat question assumes great importance |
on the advent of a white man, and he is usually worried to |
come out and shoot monkeys, or elephants with tusks (so
they say) the biggest ever seen. ‘ |
Unlike the majority of the Ituri forest tribes, the Wanandi
and Wambuba use very little powdered camwood or ngula |
either as a dye or to paint themselves with. This is rather |
to be wondered at as it is so extensively used throughout |
the rest of the forest region. Regarding this rosy-coloured
camwood, it struck me that there should be a lucrative »
trade with it amongst certain tribes, the Masai for instance; —
for natives who use red dye, and in whose country nothing —
producing it grows, will pay any price for it in blocks or
otherwise. :
For the next ten days we wandered on through the forest _
accompanied by our cheery Wanandi porters, to whom we ©
took a great liking in spite of their nasty customs. Once
174
Wambuba Cannibals
' we caught a view of the resplendent snow-caps of the Ruwen-
' zgori mountains as we mounted some outstanding spur of
_ the Great Rift and then again came down to the curving
| palm-clad banks of the rushing Semliki. The early morning
in the mist-hung forest perhaps gave the most wonderful
effects of all. At this hour one seems to walk in an en-
chanted land, for then the sunbeams push slantwise through
the pearly mist at all angles, forming long ladders of light
_ through the dim trees, and seeming to surround and smother
_ the passing traveller as if in a giant cobweb, as he peers his
_ way along.
After climbing the escarpment and traversing much
difficult and broken country, we found ourselves for the last
time on the Congo-Nile divide, at the southernmost limit
of a plateau country, a day’s march south of the old Belgian
post of Boga. Here, extensive areas of long elephant grass
were interspersed with patches of the now receding forest,
the nights too were cold and the air exhilarating after the
oppressiveness of the valley.
On this southern arm of the Bahuku plateau stands
_ Serimani’s village which we had now reached, and west of
_ this lies a wild, broken and unknown forest-clad country,
Styled for the want of a better name “ Marsula’s country,”
(Marsula being a powerful chief residing there). This is
the stronghold of the untamed element of the Wambuba
~ cannibals.
Having made a friend of the chief Serimani by shooting
an elephant that was laying waste his young maize crop
and presenting him with its tusks, he volunteered to guide
me into it and show me a place where the elephants had big
ivory and a white man had never been.
175
The Eastern Cones
With my licence in my pocket, such a chance was the
very one I awaited, and my faithful Wanandi porters being
ready to follow me anywhere, no time was lost in getting
under way. We struck out due west from Serimani’s, |
literally pushing our way through the veritable tangle of |
bamboo-like grass, wild bananas and thick forest that hide — :
the steep sides of the many affluents of the Itoa River which |
have their source on this side of the watershed. |
On the third day, the forest becoming continuous and }
even more dense than before, it was hard to give credence |
to our guide’s assurance that we would presently emerge |
into open country again, but as he stuck to his contention
I had perforce to believe him. At midday we reached what |
must have been the western edge of the plateau for it was |
marked by a steep escarpment over which we gained ant
extensive view of the central Ituri valley stretching away,
it seemed, almost into the brooding mists of the great Congo |
River itself. On this eminence at an elevation of 4, 700 | :
feet I made camp, as Serimani stated that we were now |
only a short walk away from the open elephant country, |
about which I had heard so much and which by this time |
I was most anxious to see. ce
Being known as Ingelest and not as “ Bulamatari* i
search of taxes,’ in the afternoon we were visited by bodies _
of the most barbaric Wambuba cut-throats that can well»
be imagined. Hung with weird ornaments, some of them |
capped with skin head-dresses and others wearing okapi |
skin belts, and carrying bows and arrows, knives, spears, |
* Bulamatari or Bula-maiadi means literally the stone-breaker, the name |
given to Stanley by the natives and which has now become the designation 4
applied to the Belgians by all Congo natives. The name has its origin in ther
early road-making efforts of Stanley in the region of the cataracts, .
176
—or-
@, Wambuba Cannibals (not Pygmies) cooking
monkey «meat mm. the Semliki. Forest.
@, Pygmies shooting with bow and atrow. The pads or
pouches described by the Author can be seen on
their left wrists. They are standing behind one
of the semi-aerial roots of a giant forest tree.
q@, The Wambuba Cannibals described in this Chapter. Amongst the most degraded and
repulsive negroes to be found in Africa to-day, they still retain their terrible customs
and remain untouched by civilization as they were before the advent of the White Man.
Wambuba Cannibals
axes and knobbed sticks of all shapes and sizes, and others
again with elephant-tusk trumpets slung round their necks,
they were a fearsome crowd that passed that day in review
before us. Where meat was concerned they were tigers,
and later on fought tooth and nail for every scrap of the two
elephants I shot, including their thick hide and bones. At
this bloody battle a terrible sight for any ordinary individual
to witness, I gained, as never before, an insight into the meat-
Just of the cannibal—the human hyzna—knowledge which
seemed to lend a chill to the hot sunshine as if for a moment
-acold wind had passed by. I pictured them in my mind’s
| eye cutting up their dead victim, squabbling over the tit-
bits and afterwards doing other fearful things with those
chipped crocodile teeth of theirs.
| At intervals in the course of the night trumpet signals
| could be heard calling to other “ hyzenas ’’ below the escarp-
| ment (I heard no drum-signalling in this country), no doubt
| spreading the disturbing news of our visit and its object.
I left the camp early next morning and under the guidance
| of two local criminals, we followed the over-night spoor of
some elephants, which took us in the course of half an hour
jou of the forest on to an undulating long-grass country
of large extent, bounded on one side by the dense forest,
on the other by the lip of the steep escarpment I have pre-
|viously mentioned. In many ways it was an astonishing
kind of place—an island of grass in a sea of forest. There
| were but few trees upon it, and the line of demarcation between
‘\grass and forest was sharply defined, as if neither would
‘|concede one inch of the ground they each occupied.
Having got well out into the open I climbed a solitary
_tree, from which vantage point I could look out over the
177 N
The Eastern Congo
tall grasses at the country beyond. To the eye of the hunter
the sight that met my gaze was vastly interesting, for dotted
about the landscape in every direction were lines and bunches
of elephants, most of them at this early hour moving slowly
along feeding as they went. As I looked at the verdant
green of the greater part of this tract of country, the reason
for the presence of this great concourse of elephants became.
apparent in the fact that large stretches of the old, dry grass
had been completely burnt off within the last two months,
a new and succulent crop having sprung up in its place.
This new grass stood about three feet high and its juicy
growth had attracted most if not all the elephants in as
neighbourhood.
Apart from the value of their ivory and the exciting
sport of hunting them, elephants always interest me and ]
have often stood by the hour watching these old-world animals
at their ponderous antics, to my great entertainment. One
time it might be they were taking a mud-bath in which they,
rolled, becoming for the time being a species of mud-cakec
saurian ; on another occasion they were perhaps in a dry
and waterless country, and would cool themselves by putting
the trunk down the throat and drawing off the water from
their stomachs, douching their backs with it; then agair
I have seen them taking an afternoon nap lying flat dowr
on the ground like pigs (this contrary to the tale one hear.
of elephants never lying down to sleep), when a man may
go up and touch them and come to no harm if the wind bi
right. I have, too, seen them butting one another in play —
fighting in earnest, and love-making in earnest too. What
ever they are doing they are always worth watching ani
I can imagine nothing more interesting than a full day spen
178 '
Wambuba Cannibals
at a place like Api in the Uele district of the Belgian Congo,
where the Government have an elephant farm and thirty-six
tame African elephants trained to do various work, such
as ploughing, hauling and lifting.
The elephants that I found in this remote corner of the
- Wambuba country were the tamest I have ever known ;
of a gun if they had ever heard one,
on the air disturbed them not at all. They owned the country
as Serimani has told me, “they had forgotten the sound
” and the taint of man
here right enough, as the natives knew to their cost in rifled
and broken banana groves and smashed huts; they would
get out of the way for nobody and even after I had killed
two of their number and wounded a third, the others moved
on a few hundred yards only and began feeding again. How-
ever there was one thing that did disturb them, for unlike
all the antelope species whose degree of intelligence will
not enable them to connect the smell of blood with danger
' to themselves, the elephant realises it perfectly well, so the
following day’s orgie saw the last of the retreating herds
topping the rise in the far distance.
As there were many cows and calves and but few good
bulls amongst the herds, I had an exciting day’s chase after
the two elephants I eventually bagged. Togo into the details
of the hunt is unnecessary and would doubtless bore the
indulgent reader, as such descriptions have lost their novelty
in these days, and moreover, for those who are interested,
I have added a chapter on elephants and their ways at the
end of this volume.
As I wended my way home to camp after the day’s
| sport, I passed many more elephants quite undisturbed by
_ the sound of my rifle and still unconscious of any danger.
179
The Eastern Congo
The carnival on the following day was literally a putting
away of flesh as the dictionary has it. The human vultures
and hyznas, amongst which were many pygmies, gathered
to the feast from miles around and had only been waiting
for the word “ go.”’ Even before my. men could reach the
carcases in the morning, the local savages had started cutting
away at them and had in fact been doing so most of the night.
It was only with difficulty and after a stand-up fight that
my carriers got any meat for themselves. When I arrived
on the scene what remained of the dead elephants was hidden
beneath a mass of shouting and swaying humanity, surrounded |
by a ring of naked hags who stood to catch pieces of meat
thrown to them as it was cut off by their men-folk on the
carcase. I had grave doubts about ever seeing my tusks,
again, and kind of wondered if these cannibals were in the
habit of eating ivory as well as skin and bone.
Eventually, however, all was over, bar the everlasting’
shouting of the African negro at his worst, when I was)
thankful to get away with my ivory* and take the track te
Irumu followed by our, by now, bloated porters.
On our way to this important Government centre we
passed the valley of the Loya which is also completely over:
run with elephants, but as we neared Irumu we founc
ourselves in an upland pastoral country with the homely»
sound of lowing cattle falling pleasantly on the ear after the !
savagery of the Semliki. |
* These tusks were of the semi-forest type, having a section of blac) \
“ staining ’’ running through the ivory, to which I have referred in Chapter 5 al ft
and were long, without much of a curve to them.
180
CHAPTER XIII
WESTWARD TO STANLEYVILLE—OUR LAST “ SAFARI ”’
—THE ITURI FOREST—GOLD, IVORY,
MAMMALS AND MEN.
=
“And so, at last the hut-tops peer out amid the trees,
And heathen words of greeting come ‘Toating on the breeze ;
Behind the belt of brushwood dark shadows come and go,
Where swaddled shapes, like dancing apes,
Come forth to mouth and mow—
The twilight broods in the heavens,
And all the West’s aglow.’’
“On Patrol,’’ Verse V. By Cullen Gouldsbury.
FTER the cool of the forest the last stages of our
journey into Irumu seemed doubly hot and trying,
both my wife and myself therefore looked forward
with considerable satisfaction to a rest and a few luxuries
on our arrival there. Alas, however, for our hopes in the
latter direction, for we found the stores contained neither
wine, spirits, nor tinned food. Butter, milk and a few
| vegetables we did obtain, however, and so with these we
had to rest content.
_ All that time, ivory was the one thing with which Irumu
seemed to be concerning itself; it had reached an absurdly
high figure owing to a fictitious rise on the home market and
_the price then ruling was something in the neighbourhood
of one hundred and thirty francs per kilo. In consequence
the ivory trade was brisk, to say the least of it, and the search
for the stuff fast and furious. I was pounced upon by both
white and Indian traders immediately I entered the town-
ship, who would hardly believe me when I informed them
that I was not selling my ivory.
181
The Eastern Conwe
As the Irumu district had been a game reserve for ten —
years past and had recently been thrown open again for —
elephant shooting, some very big tusks were being obtained
by Dutch and native elephant hunters, and specimens
weighing over one hundred pounds were frequently being
brought in for sale. Intriguing for ivory was going on from
Irumu to Mbeni and back again. Old tusks that had been
buried for years were being dug up. The word had gone
forth into the forest that ivory was worth a fabulous price
and all the forest tribes were placing their great harpoon
elephant spears in all the most likely places they could
think of, in the hope of winning a fortune. Later on, as
we made our way down the Ituri Valley, we continually
met ivory—ivory being carried in big lots and in little lots—
great single ‘‘ forest ’’ tusks, black and shining, worth one
hundred and twenty pounds or more, perhaps owned by
a pygmy, who passed staggering under the weight of his
possession, or long thin cow tusks tied into loads of three —
or four pieces—all were going to feed the ivory market. —
Yes, the elephant folk were having a harassing time of —
it, through the whim, possibly, of a few Americans who
had an idea of cornering ivory away on the other side of the —
world. The boom broke several traders in the Congo and
crippled many more, for the price dropped as suddenly as —
it rose.
Irumu, which stands at the junction of the Ituri with |
the Shari River, is an uninteresting and rambling kind of ©
a place, made worse, at the time of our visit, by the smoke |
of bush fires which constantly enveloped it. The place
has a neglected appearance, due to some extent to the in-
decision of the Government over the question of its abandon- ~
182
————_—
@, Balega Women from near Irumu. They cover themselves with
small bunches of green leaves in front and a handful of banana
fibres behind, which, however, only succeeds in enhancing
thei nakedness. In spite of their 25 years’ contact with
whites, these natives are untouched, as yet, by civilization.
@, On the left of the photograph an Elephant’s Tusk of
white ivory from the grass country is shown in com-
parison with black ivory from the Ituri Forest.
@, A Mobira Woman with a cut and extended upper
lip, in which is placed a disc of wood. This practice
is dying out. The cause for thus disfiguring
themselves goes back to the old Arab slave
days when an ugly woman had a_ better
chance of escaping slavery than a comely one.
Ee ———
Our Last “ Safari ”
ment for a new site at Bunia on the Kilo-Lake Albert road,
one and a half days’ march to the north-west, where there
is a wireless installation. The south-west corner of Lake
Albert lies three days’ journey to the east of the present
township and the Kilo gold mines are the same distance
to the north.
Dutchmen—and lately some Englishmen—have been
quick to realise the opportunity afforded for farming and
agriculture by the suitability of the neighbourhood, its
healthy climate, heavy rainfall, rich soil and the increasing
market of the Kilo mines. The terms of land tenure are
the most equitable I know of in Africa to-day, and there is
a decided advantage in the accessibility of the district through
the Uganda Railway.
The wealth of the Belgian Congo is perhaps nowhere
better exemplified than in this north-eastern portion of
the territory, for here lie some of the richest alluvial gold
areas in the world, how rich no one can at present estimate,
and they stand in a well-watered, upland country, in every
way suitable for white settlement, where native labour is
abundant and cheap and on the edge of a limitless forest,
containing—as well as giant timbers—oil and rubber and
a never-ending supply of beautiful ivory.
The Kilo-Moto gold mines were discovered by a prospector
named Hannam some fifteen years ago. From the outset
there has been considerable mismanagement over these
wonderfully rich mines, and in spite of good advice, the
Belgians have followed, until recently, a careless policy
regarding them. Rightly handled there should be by this
time a large and thriving township in the vicinity second
to none in the whole colony, but opportunities have been
183
The Eastern Congo
refused or frittered away and the methods employed to |
obtain the gold remained for many years in the same primitive
stage as when the industry first commenced. The gold,
which is found in alluvial form over a large area, has been
scraped and dug for with but little attention to system or
method, with the result that only some fifty-six per cent.
of the actual gold present in the soil has been collected, the
remaining forty-four per cent. being thrown aside with the
deposit containing it into big dumps, after a single washing
over sluice-boxes, resulting in a considerable portion of it
being carried away and lost, by exposure to the heavy rains.
Before and during the Great War, the Belgians, as if afraid
of foreigners within their gates or unable to be masters in
their own country, in a weak moment decided that no one
should be allowed in or around these mines without a special
permit from the Governor of the colony, and the permission
I am told was difficult to obtain. What there was to be
afraid of in anyone viewing the mines without this fuss it
is difficult to see, for alluvial gold is hardly picked up by
the handful even in the Congo.
In spite of mismanagement, however, and the wasteful
methods of working the alluvial wash, twenty-three tons
of gold valued at {3,600,000 were obtained from the State
mines of Kilo and Moto up to the end of the year 1919;
one nugget being found weighing a little less than four
and a half kilos.
In the last eighteen months there has been another period
of increased activity, and the running of the mines placed
in the hands of an organised company with shareholders—
styled the Régie des Mines de Kilo-Moto—under the manage-
ment of one of Belgium’s most able colonial administrators,
184
Our Last “ Safari ”
- Vice-Gouverneur Moulaert, who is carrying out much-needed
reforms and supervising the erection of up-to-date machinery
for the working of the reef. Metalled roads connecting
the mines with Lake Albert on the east and with Redyjaf
and the Nile to the north, at which the Belgians have been
working for several years now, have been pushed forward
and are in a fair way to reaching their goal.
The mines yield at present about three thousand kilograms
yearly, but this output will be greatly added to when the
new machinery comes into operation. The reef yields about
fourteen grammes to the ton, the alluvial deposit three
grammes.
All the creeks and gullies in the Kilo mountains yield
gold, and as prospecting is active, new deposits are continually
being found. There is another promising mine on the lower
Ituri River at a place called Senguli which we shall no doubt
hear more of later; it is being worked by the Forminiére
Company who are also importing machinery to increase
its production. Then farther again to the south, there is
a rich reef running, it is supposed, along the marginal
mountains west of the Semliki and Lake Edward, but as
yet undiscovered and only known to exist through the alluvial
wash brought down by the Ibima and Lindi Rivers and their
affluents.
It is worthy of note that most of the great divides of
Africa hold mineral riches, and it has always been a source
of astonishment to me that so little attention was ever paid
to prospecting on the Anglo-Belgian frontier at the southern
extremity of what was known as the Lado enclave. This
is the more to be wondered at when the significant fact of
the proximity of the Moto mine to this divide is so evident.
185
The Eastern Congs
It was therefore with little surprise that I read the announce- ~
ment of Mr. Robert Williams, that his group had at last
formed a.syndicate (the Nile-Congo Divide Syndicate) to
prospect this promising area. There is every reason to
suppose that the venture will be highly successful.
I had it in mind to visit that interesting district known
as the Uele which borders on the Bahr-el-Ghazal, but deciding
that for entomological purposes the great forest of the Ituri
would yield me a richer harvest than the Uele valley, I
decided to terminate the expedition by adopting a homeward
route across the four hundred and sixty-five miles of forest
that separates Irumu from Stanleyville on the Congo River.
Both my wife and myself were beginning to feel wayworn
after our long journey and the hard life we led, so we decided
that if we accomplished this last excursion, we would be
due a holiday and would have made a thorough biological
survey of the eastern Congo.
Having come to this decision we lost no time in making
preparations for the last lap, as we termed it. Owing partly
however to an outbreak of smallpox and the consequent
restrictions on the movements of natives, as well as other
causes, we were condemned to a tiresome wait at Irumu
of nearly three weeks. It was therefore well on into March
before porters could be obtained for us and we set our faces
to the west.
Our porters on this occasion were a band of half-breed
pygmies from the lower Ituri, few of them over four feet six
inches in height, who carried our loads on their backs with
fibre slings passed around the forehead; so if the load
happened to be a fairly large and long one, the carrier became
completely hidden behind it. This method of portage, as
186
‘ainzoid ay} JO JYSTI VY} 0} DATZEU dy} UO UVES 9q 0} aIe sUOTy
~PSLIJEOIO YJaQMpU BY, ‘sTeS IOF JIoqqny pur sodojszuy AwsAg
peyous ul zyYsnoIq oAeY OYM ‘eUIeJe_ 4e SoaeN Teqrea ‘pM
@, The Ituri River at Penghe.
Our Last “ Safari ”
might be expected, caused us much tribulation and gnashing
of teeth, for our goods and chattels not being adjusted to
meet this topsy-turvy method of carriage, suffered
accordingly.
’ Some of these little devils took it into their heads to
run away the day after we left Irumu, thus causing a further
delay until others could be obtained. Whilst this was
being done we put up in a rest-house on the Ituri River.
The river at this crossing is about one hundred yards broad
and forms the division between the long grass country of
the plateau and the dense forest of the lower Itrui basin.
When the runaways were replaced therefore, we once
more plunged into the great forest, which was to continue
without break for the remainder of our journey.
As the season of the big rains was commencing, heavy
afternoon storms were our lot as we made our way through
the damp forest, the discomforts of travelling at this season
being mitigated, however, by numerous rest-houses en route,
built by the order of the Government for the use of their
officials.
Comparatively speaking—with the exception of the
Glossina palpalis, the carrier of sleeping-sickness, in the
neighbourhood of the rivers—insect pests are not too ob-
trusive in the central Ituri forest. Owing to its good
drainage and lack of marshes, mosquitoes are infrequent ;
that dangerous, grey, night-feeding tick (known colloquially
in the Congo as the kimputu), which has become such a
scourge elsewhere in Africa as the carrier of the dreaded
relapsing or spirillum fever, is non-existent ; the white ants
are small and not often met with, and there are few if any
jigger fleas (the bane of the porter) away from the white
187
The Eastern Congo
settlements ; excepting sand-flies comparatively few noxious
flies are encountered and roofs of houses are no longer the
prey of the borer beetle. Regarding diseases in this forest
region, smallpox and dysentery are rare, yaws and elephan-
tiasis prevalent but not common. Leucoderma is one of
the commonest diseases that has come before my notice,
and may be easily mistaken for leprosy by reason of the
whitening of the affected parts. It appears to be a harmless
disease in its less severe forms, as it does not incapacitate
the sufferer in any way, and many of our porters, who were
carrying heavy loads, had it. All the natives in the number-
less villages we passed seemed an exceedingly healthy and
strong race of men, and we ourselves never experienced a
day’s illness during our four months’ sojourn within the forest.
The nights are often very oppressive but walking beneath
the forest shade on a fine day, without the glare of a tropical
sun to sap the strength, is a pleasure, and there is always the
ever-turning kaleidoscope of nature to watch as one passes
along.
From the foregoing it may be gathered that travelling
through the Ituri forest is not as bad as it is often painted.
The trip from Irumu to Stanleyville is an education in itseli
and may well be made by anybody in these days—taking
ordinary precautions—without any ill-effects to the health.
From the first crossing of the Ituri River near Irumu,
the track carries one due west along the north side of the
valley to the Haulo or Epulu River which is reached after
six days’ marching, and three days beyond the old Arab
town of ‘‘ Mombasa.” This river, with its coffee-coloured
water, is exceedingly picturesque, especially where we crossed
it one day above its junction with the Ituri. Here it is
188
Our Last “ Safari ”
deep and broad, and the dark forest trees overhang it as if
they fain would clasp their giant limbs across.
- The Haulo* River comes down from the Uele-Ituri water-
shed through an unexplored valley and to the east of the
little known Wamba forest, a stronghold of the elephant,
the red buffalo, the bongo, the okapi, the giant forest hog,
and the dwarf mountain elephant (the yiya of the Mombutu).
Here one hears tales of curious animals perhaps unknown
to science—a few of them, however, recognisable from the
native descriptions, such as the water chevrotaint and the
tree hyrax.
Through the English papers we had of course heard of
the brontosaurus and the proposed expeditions that had
set forth, or were about to set forth, to find it. Of course
amongst them there was the inevitable American expedition
which, it was said, had offered a million or two for a specimen,
dead or alive. Then there was, I think, an English army
captain, lately demobilised, who, it was reported, was taking
a Mannlicher rifle and a shot-gun—or was it a Lewis gun ?>—
as well as his pet fox-terrier, to aid him in his search amongst
the swamps of Lake Leopold II. As we now know, nothing
came of it and nothing more was heard of the expeditions ;
possibly they did not carry their search far enough or did
not reach the right place. Regarding the origin of the report
of such an animal having been seen, the yarn goes that a
prospector with a penchant for practical joking met an
American missionary on “ safari,’’ to whom he spun a yarn
about a fabulous monster he had seen the night before. The
* This river is named the Epulu on modern maps of the Belgian Congo,
but it is known locally as the Hawlo or Haulo.
+ The native name of the chevrotain is mgungu and the tree-hyrax
(Procavia marmota) is named uguyu,
189
The Eastern Congo
missionary being a “ tenderfoot’”’ believed him and wrote ©
to his friends in America, where Reuter’s reporters got hold |
of the story. Be that as it may, the natives in many parts
of Central Africa believe in the existence of a gigantic water
animal* which has been described to me by the Buanga
natives inhabiting the swamps of the south of Lake Bang-
weulu, as a water rhinoceros ; they had even a name for it,
which was chimpelw1, and described it as able to kill a hippo-
potamus with which it was in the habit of fighting ; the bones
of one of these animals, they averred, were to be found in
the swamps.
An authenticated case of a white man having seen such
an animal was told me by the man himself, an acquaintance__
of mine named Defries. It is, of course, necessary to state —
he is an extremely abstemious man, besides being a good
sportsman, a trained naturalist, and for a considerable period
rubber conservator for North-western Rhodesia. When
carrying out his duties in the latter capacity he had reason
to pass by a small lake between Lakes Chaa and Kapopo
on the upper Kafue River. This lake or rather lakelet
is so deep as to be unfathomable, and has moreover no visible
outlet.
Defries put up his tent near by and towards evening
whilst strolling to the water’s edge with his rifle, he was
astonished to see a massive form lying or floating on the
water. Now, Defries was a very old resident in Central
Africa and knew a hippo as you, dear reader or I, know a
bull in-a field, perhaps better, and he emphatically states
it was not a hippo. He describes it as a long, dark floating |
body, at which he fired and which he hit, being not more
* This is also the case on the Victoria Nyanza.—H. H. J.
190
Our Last “ Safari ”
than sixty yards from it, whereupon the animal disappeared
amidst a considerable commotion in the water. He never
saw the beast again although he waited the whole of the
next day on the off-chance, and moreover he examined the
complete circle of the lake for spoor, but could find no large
_ tracks of any description either leading to or from the water.
He reported the matter to Sir Robert Codrington, who was
then the Administrator of Northern Rhodesia, and wrote
a report to some museum authorities and there the matter
_ dropped.
This is the only authentic case, as far as I know, of a
_ trained observer having seen, and reported intelligently,
such a discovery. Knowing the man personally and having
_ heard the account from his own lips, I am inclined to believe
in the existence, or the recent existence, of a gigantic saurian.
Native tradition, legend or belief, call it what you will,
bears out this theory. You find it always in lacustrine
districts and the report has come to me from many piaces—
_ from the Albert Nile, from the Highlands of the Great Craters
west of Kilimanjaro, from Lake Leopold II, and from Lake
Bangweulu. My own actual experiences concerning such
an animal confine themselves to the accounts given me by
the Buanga natives of Bangweulu, and a large-sized native
drawing of a beast resembling in all essentials a bronto-
saurus, which I found on a hut in the Ituri forest. I will
conclude this diversion by remarking that we know such
animals did, at one time, exist in Africa, for the largest fossil
specimen ever discovered—which is known as the giganto-
Saurus and over one hundred feet long—came from German
East. It is, however, improbable that one of these great
_Saurians still exists, although possible that some large water
IgI
The Eastern Congo
animal may yet be undiscovered, as we have seen from Mr.
Defries’ experience.
To continue our narrative: two more days brought ush
to the new poste of Penghe on the Ituri River, and as the
Belgian official was absent we were greatly pleased when,
two days after our arrival, an Englishman rolled up, by name
William Cross, one of the most able prospectors of the Kilo
Mines. Neither of us realising each other’s nationality, we
greeted one another with “ Bon jour, je suis un anglais,”
at which we laughed heartily. He was a Lancashire man
and a great raconteur, with an astonishing fund of anecdote, |
and having travelled widely he kept us interested for hours
at a time. If I remember rightly it was also his birthday, |
and Penghe happened to be the point at which, by his having ©
reached it, he had completed a circle round Africa, so we |
asked Monsieur Ericksson, the agent of the Anglo-Belgian —
Intertropical Trading Company then at Penghe up to.
dinner and made a night of it over our solitary bottle
of whisky. + |
Avakubi, a poste founded by Stanley, is the next Govern- |
ment station down-river from Penghe, and is reached from
the latter place in three days by canoe or five days overland.
Having had such a lot of foot-slogging we of course took the .
canoes, into which we piled our (by now very dilapidated)
kit. We occupied a leaf shelter in the centre of one canoe, ©
our boys enthroning themselves on our baggage behind,
and thus, after saying good-bye to our friend Cross, we pushed
into mid-stream and were soon being borne swiftly along on
the strong current helped by our lithe Wabali paddlers.
With my camera lashed to the canoe I exposed many
feet of cinematograph film on the rich river scenery as it :
192
Our Last “ Safari ”
passed, and again at different stopping places en route I
obtained some beautiful pictures of feeding butterflies, which
attracted especial admiration when I had them screened
in London and Brussels. On the second day after leaving
Penghe, some rapids having to be negotiated, we had to
unload the canoes and send our gear round by land. We,
however, staying where we were, were dexterously piloted
through the leaping water by our expert oarsmen who accom-
panied the feat with their musical boating song. Other
rapids are met with just before reaching Avakubi but these
being easily negotiated we soon found ourselves across them
and tying up in front of the boma.
Oil palms are not to be seen in any quantity until one
approaches Avakubi, but from here right down to the Congo
River they fill the landscape, for the Belgians have fostered
‘the oil industry by the good idea of insisting on the natives
planting annually a certain number of palms, and moreover,
| planting them along all the made roads as well. As the
Palm tree grows, the leaves are cut away or fall off, thus
forming an ideal lodging place for parasitic ferns and mosses,
: each stem becoming after a time a miniature fernery, and
thus enhancing the already wonderful forest scenery.
_| Avakubi is buried in palms and mangoes, planted there
‘in Stanley’s time. It is quite a pleasant place, with some
very good brick houses, and close by a mission station of
ithe Sacred Heart. At the time of our visit the Adminis-
trateur, amongst the multifarious other jobs of a Belgian
official already noted previously in this book, was about to
set out to find the last resting place or rather the resting
place before the last, of an American prospector who had
_ died miles away in the forest (in the kind of place one would
I93 O
—— —
The Eastern Congo
expect a prospector to die in) seven years ago. The relatives.
had arranged to have his body exhumed and had supplied
three special nested coffins for the purpose, which were to
accompany the Belgian official on his weird quest.
There was, before the drop in the price of rubber, a brisk
trade in this product at Avakubi and throughout the Stanley-
ville district. It was collected principally from the Funtumia
rubber trees which grow to a gigantic size in the Ituri forest,
but also from the Landolphia vines. The “ green” rubber
is brought in for sale sometimes in big blocks or more usually |
in thick coils, which have to be cut up into sections and dried
on frames to prevent decay. If this drying process is delayed
too long, fermentation sets in: the smell thus engendered
being some ten times worse than a tannery. For this reason
the neighbourhood of one of these drying houses is very
much to be avoided. The usual price paid by the trader
to the natives for the rubber is one franc per kilo and for
ivory, three to five francs.* A licence for buying rubber
costs twenty-five francs, and for ivory and general trading
five hundred francs, but if a plot is rented from the Govern-
ment and buildings put up, no licence is required for buying.
ivory. The export duty on ivory is two francs ten centimes_
per kilo.
On the northern bank of another great river, the Lindi,
which runs down to the Congo on a roughly parallel course
to that of the Aruwimi, is Bafwasende, to which we now |
turned our steps. The distance is about fifty miles, forest —
and palms all the way. This strip of country between the
two big rivers is the haunt of a fair abundance of game for
* Palm oil can be bought at 50 centimes a pint, other nut oils—ground nut igs
melon seed, kola, and castor oil—at 1 franc per pint.
194
Our Last “ Safari ”
those who have the patience to hunt in the forest; there
are many chimpanzis, and the giant yellow-backed duiker,*
as well as the bongo, the red buffalo and the red forest hog ;
there is also a small red tufted duiker and the grey pygmy
duiker, the latter being netted and dried for sale in consider-
able numbers. We of course saw nothing more of them than
their spoors, although we several times heard the call of a
chimpanzi. Nothing more exciting occurred on this part
of our journey than the snatching away of a little nondes-
cript dog by a leopard, in the early hours of the morning.
The poor little beast was the idol of a native woman accom-
panying our “ safari,’” who was so attached to it that she
would wash and comb it daily. It was a dear little thing,
and as it used to knock about our camp and follow us on
the day’s march both my wife and I became quite fond of it
too. The owner, although a grown woman, cried like a
'child at her loss.
_ At Bafwasende we were amongst an interesting and
intelligent race of negroes called the Wabali, some of whose
strange characteristics and customs are well worth recounting
here, especially as very little information has ever been
| published concerning them, and moreover, I think it probable
|
| that the photographs in this chapter illustrating the Mambela
-ceremonials are unique.
/ The Wabali are of Bantu affinities and their country is,
jroughly, contained within the districts administered from
‘the postes of Avakubi, Bomili, Panga, Kondololi, Bafwaboli
and Bafwasende; it does not extend, however, to the north
‘side of the Aruwimi River. The Mambela secret society
| * The yellow-backed duiker is known amongst the Mobali natives as the
Moimbo. The red forest hog as the Ngwia. The bongo is Bargana, and the
black giant hog is known as the Boko. The pygmy duiker is the Mburi:ku.
195
The Eastern Congo
and the Anioto sect of Human Leopards are amongst their —
savage customs. These are as singular as any to be met with
in Africa to-day.
In spite of these natives being the wildest savages and
using nothing but bark cloth to cover themselves with, they,
nevertheless, old and young alike, present a rakish (not to
say “‘nuttish ’’) appearance, with a strut on them that might _
possibly put an old time hussar in the shade. The said
appearance is obtained by the men adorning themselves —
with brass armlets and anklets, snake and monkey-skin —
belts, bags, bandoliers and other trinkets, but principally —
by the bobbed, plumed and furred head-dresses they wear,
set on the head’ at a rakish angle. Some of these hats are
works of art, mostly made out of. parrot plumes and monkey |
skins, and sometimes held on with ivory pins; others again
have a bunch of plumes dangling at the end of a piece of
springy bamboo, The resemblance of these headgears to
the whimsical Paris fashions is so striking that one is |
led to believe that the latter must have originated on |
the Congo! |
Regarding the curious customs of the Wabali, the following |
notes on the Mambela ceremonials and other customs are
interesting. They were very kindly supplied by my friend
Monsieur R. d’Adéut, the Admuinistrateur of Bafwasende, a
Belgian official of much intelligence and much liked by the
weird Wabali.
SOME CUSTOMS OF THE WABALI TRIBES.
Amongst the various tribes which inhabit the Oriental
Province of the Congo, the Wabali are remarkable for their —
famous religious rites called the Mambela, characterised by ;
196
@, Atubengwele, a Wabali Chief. A savage and interesting per-
sonality, with just that touch of the born leader that enabled
him to hold out for ten years against the Belgian régime. He
had his lip pierced and extended, as an example to the
Wabali women to do likewise and so escape the fate of slaves,
ise aoe gece ORR
ee
pe oes
Is an ishumu ;
@, The Mubali native on the left
Both
the ceremonial costume of the mambela.
the man on the right a tatakamambela.
are in
——
a=
ed et ee |
Our Last “ Safari”
intricate ceremonies accompanied by wearisome rites and
great cruelty. The order, as it were, is under the high
presidency of the Tata-ka-mambela, which title is equivalent to
“Grand Master of the Mambela.’’ He alone acts as the
supreme chief of several clans, when these are not too far
apart or too numerous.
The Tata-ka-mambela is appointed by birth. He is
succeeded in his functions by his own son, or, failing a son,
one of his nearest relatives. The Tata-ka-mambela is the
custodian of the fetish. He is assisted by several soothsayers
or headmen called Jshumu, usually found in most of the
largest villages, and these are also from birth appointed
to act later on as Ishumu.
The Tata-ka-mambela does not bear any distinctive
insignia, whereas the /shumu are distinguishable by several
rings which they wear on the fingers, a broom made of palm
fibres and several tattoo marks shaped thus =) GC which
cover their chest, abdomen, shoulders and arms. Probationers
have the same marks, but on the chest and abdomen only.
The executive power is vested almost exclusively in
the Ishumu, which is the reason why they enjoy such a high
prestige amongst the Babali tribes. Many of them have
indeed the powers of a minister of State.
The Babali see in the Mambela rites a system of physical
culture for children. Initiation is carried out in the following
manner :—
All the Babali of the male sex must be initiated. When
the Tata-ka-mambela, upon the advice of his IJshumu,
announces that the time of the Mambela is drawing nigh,
all the boys between ten and fourteen years of age are
_ presented to the High Priest by their father, or, in the absence
197
The Eastern Congo
of this latter, by a near relative. Boys stricken down with ;
illness are allowed to await their recovery. As to those who |
may have left their native village when still too young to
be initiated, their return would not exempt them from the
Mambela rites, for no exemption is admitted and neither
age nor marriage would justify any dispensation being ©
granted. :
On the day of the ceremonies the probationers are brought —
together in the early hours of the morning in the village
square, where the initiated have been dancing for the greater
part of the night ; and where they have got ready a quantity
of twisted rods from two to two and a half metres in
length, from which, at one end, part of the bark has been
peeled off.
At a given signal the women who happen to be in the
village must withdraw; they may not, under any pretext,
get near the place where the initiation rites are being carried
out. Indiscretion on their part would mean instant death.
When the initiated have made sure that the women have
withdrawn, a second signal is given. This is the moment
for the initiated from the neighbouring clans to repair to
the hut of the Ishumu appointed to preside over the ceremony. _
They all carry several rods as weapons, and fall in, in two —
files, the one behind the other. The probationers to be —
initiated, issue from the hut of the Jshwmu and join up to the
ranks of the initiated, who rain upon them an avalanche
of blows. The boys are beaten all over the body by all
the men present, and this is done with such brutality that
it is not unfrequent for some boys to lose an eye or an ear
or to be made an invalid for several years to come. However,
accidents or injuries resulting from flagellation are never
198
*‘SoTUOUIDIOD Y7aquiv py oy} JO Javed uses AT}U9zI0A
-peul sutaey s0f poddiym Ssureq usul0OM TTeEqeAA ‘Dp
{ The mattres de danse.
@, The Spartan Feat of a Mubali Native, whose
half mnaked-body is being’ slashed with
the knotty whip sticks of the mambela.
Our Last “Safari ”
made the object of any quarrel. Blows and injuries and
wounds are borne patiently and without protestation by
- the probationers, and the loss of a limb is even considered
by them as a good omen. Usually, in this flagellation, which
| is called Kupisa mbaka mulefu and lasts for several hours,
all the neophytes are covered with blood.
This performance is followed by the Woko. A delegate
of the Tata-ka-mambela or of the Ishumu strikes twice each
one of the boys with a rod which is somewhat shorter (about
two metres), in order to announce that the first sitting of the
flagellation is at an end. Whereupon the neophytes return ~
near the hut of the /shumu, where they remain until the next
day. During the night great festivities are in progress.
All the initiated attend as guests. Meanwhile scenes of
a particularly disgusting nature take place. For instance,
any initiated who has to relieve nature may do so all over
the body of one of the wretched neophytes.
The next morning the Mogo ceremony is gone through.
All the people of the village go out to the palisade erected
the previous evening by the initiated with the rods which
had served for the flagellation. This palisade has an aperture
called “‘ Door of the Mambela.”’ The initiated go through
that door, and, provided with fresh rods, fall in in two files.
The neophytes, stark naked, then go through the door and
join the ranks of the initiated, who perform anew the flagella-
tion rite with the same brutality as the first time. The
neophytes, during this second performance, very often are.
beaten unconscious and lie motionless on the ground. This |
flagellation is called the Mogo.
Next follows the Mukokoneki rite. Several small and
very flexible wands have been gathered together wherewith
199
The Eastern Congo
to strike the neophytes on the hands and knees, after which
one of the delegates seizes a rod and drives them away
towards the glade, some thirty or forty metres distant from
the palisade. This anodyne performance is called Poboli.
When they manage at last to reach the glade, each one of
the neophytes is administered another stroke of the rod.
This flagellation is called Makwabo.
TATTOOING
When the Jshumu, delegated to perform the initiation
rites, accompanied by the other elders, reaches the glade,
the neophytes are lined up blindfolded. The Ishumu, armed
with a small knife called soda proceeds, by small leaps
and bounds, towards the neophytes, and very skilfully makes
eight incisions on their skin, four to the right and four to
the left, shaped thus: = G@ _ Whilst this operation
lasts other Jshumu are fanning the chests of the neophytes
with feathers of the bird called Nasasa, whilst others, with
small boards, very flexible and revolving round a pivot,
imitate the flight of the sacred bird, the gongs meanwhile
being beaten en sourdine. It is supposed that the Nasasa
bird itself, with his bill, is making the incisions.
This ceremony over, the neophytes cover themselves |
with banana leaves, which serve as a dressing for their
wounds. They are then led back to the hut of the Ishumu, |
retracing their steps through the door of the palisade. There,
they are given very severe instructions. They must in
particular keep the most absolute secret concerning the ©
Mambela, on pain of being put to death by poison. They |
must believe that the agency was the sacred bird Nasasa,
whose flight they heard and whose wings they felt on their
200 |
Our Last “ Safari”
chest, which made the incisions. This bird is an object of
worship and must never be killed.
_ This flagellation, which was administered to them with
so much cruelty, has for its object the hardening of their
body into endurance, and serves as a sort of preliminary
_test before making the incisions, which are very painful
~ “men
and cause a great loss of blood.
On the third day, in the small hours of the morning, there
takes place the final flagellation, the object of which is to
exercise and render more supple the limbs of the neophytes.
This is called Mbaka mulefu. It does not last more than
an hour after which the newly initiated are led into the forest
where they are to spend several weeks in deep meditation.
Arrived at the place where they are to remain in seclusion,
they may wash their body for the last time until their wounds
have completely healed up, and then they may anoint them-
selves with palm oil.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE RULES AND INSTRUCTIONS TO BE
COMPLIED WITH DURING THE TIME OF PROBATION,
(1) From the moment the tattooing (incision) ceremony
is over, the newly initiated bear the name of Maganza—
which means young men. They are put, several together,
into one hut and placed under the supervision of a guardian.
This supervision lasts two or three months—even as long
_ as six months—according to the customs peculiar to each of
the various Wabali tribes.
_ The probation period being over, the newly initiated are,
_ according to the native expression, ‘‘ ducked into the water,”
and are hereafter entitled to be called Babali, that is to say
)
.
201
The Eastern Congo
(2) Theprobationers may not have their hair cut whilst —
they are undergoing probation.
(3) The Maganza wear round their neck a heavy. collar
made of palm-wine tree (raphia) fibres. ;
(4) During the period of probation the Maganza are for-
bidden to look at any of the large beasts of the forests, such
as buffaloes, elephants, antelopes, under penalty of being
flagellated for their so doing.
If a Maganza should come across such a beast, dcadlll
or stricken down, he must immediately inform his father t
or a near relative, who would at once repair to the spot in —
order to remove the head and the feet of the animal and hide —
them. When this has been done the rest of the carcass may _
be looked at. |
(5) Whilst they are on probation the newly initiated may }
not approach a woman or even look at her. i
MPS NBR ot «+ ait SE
THE MADUALI r
The Maduali—also called Nyama ya Mambela—which ©
means “the Beast of the Mambela’”’—is nothing else but
the fetish entrusted to the custody of the Tata-ka-mambela.
In other words, it is a roughly carved piece of wood representing
the sacred bird Nasasa. When rain is wanted, or when —
it has been raining too long, or upon the occasion of certain
festivals, they remove a few pieces from the Maduali figure-
head, cover them with foliage, and the men go in procession —
through the village, singing and shouting. Women and ©
children must keep away and not look at the Madualz. |
EVOLUTION OF THE MAMBEILA RITE.
(t) The Mambela rite is observed by all the Wabali
202 |
qa, A Wabali Dance in Progress.
@, A Wabali Dance in Progress—Another View.
Our Last “ Safari ”
tribes, without exception. General observances are every-
where the same, and may never have been altered, at any
rate in recent times.
(2) Flagellation is of a somewhat milder form in those
clans which are nearer to the Government station.
(3) The seclusion of the newly initiated in the midst of
the forest was formerly of much less duration ; those whose
wounds had not as yet healed up were allowed to complete
their recovery in their own village, although in a hut intended
for that purpose. The longer period of seclusion in the forest
is attributable to the immigrant Arabs, who caused same to
be imposed so that they themselves might have better chance
of going hunting.
(4) In normal times, flagellation may be tolerated and
considered as an amusement rather than as a religious penance,
for in this case it is carried out with much less cruelty, inas-
much as the probationers have their body well protected
against the strokes of the rod. Custom will have it that,
upon the return from a hunt which has been fructuous, to
cite but one instance, the hunters are welcomed back to
the village with dancing, one of the features of which is
| reciprocal flagellation with rods.
‘THE BARUMBI AND BAKUMU OF BAFWASENDE. PALAVERS :
MARRIAGE FOR A Dowry.
Palavers between natives in the territory of Bafwasende
are mostly in reference to women. Certain rules are scrupu-
lously observed by the natives as to the way such palavers
‘Should be conducted. These rules are frequently as follows :
_ (a) If a husband should die, his heirs claim the wife
and legitimate children of the deceased.
Se
|
i
The Eastern Congo
It very often happens that the widow refuses to cohabit’
with one of the heirs; in this case, a portion of her dowry,
very often a moiety thereof, is returned to the heirs. If |
the widow re-marries a man who does not belong to her
deceased husband’s clan, she is allowed to have the custody
of her children until they are of marriageable age.
(b) If a wife should die in the hut of her husband, this
latter, in such case, is not entitled to claim any portion of
her dowry, but he has the custody of the child
of their union.
(c) If a wife should die away from nates in the midst
of her own family, or if she has been dismissed by her husband
or gone away with his permission, the husband, in suc D
case, and if he has no children, is entitled to a portion only
of his wife’s dowry. But if he should have a child, he is -
barred out altogether. The child or children, issue of nis
union, remain with him. |
(d) If the wife should run away from home and desert .
her husband in order to get married elsewhere, the husband, |
in such case, is entitled to the whole of her dowry and has
the custody of the children issue of his marriage.
(ec) If the husband should repudiate his wife and drit e
her away from the conjugal domicile, he is, in such casé i
entitled to a portion of her dowry proportionately to the
length of time his wife lived with him. If there be any
children issue of the marriage, they reside with their mother :
until they are of age to arrive at a decision as to what they
intend to do. If the children are girls, their father will
later on be entitled to claim part of their dowry.
(f) If a polygamous wife or a wife acquired by heritage |
should be desirous of regaining her liberty, she is given every :
204 |
i Fens “a
Se
@, African Bugs (immature forms of Fulgoride sp?)
mimicking a spray of flowers. From the Katanga
Highlands of the Belgian Congo. The abdomen of
this insect is covered with fluff resembling feathers.
io Hh e. Ai
DE alae LOO.
q, The Aard-Vark (or Ant-bear). This animal, although common in many parts of Africa,
is seldom seen owing to its nocturnal habits. It feeds exclusively on white-ants, for
which it digs with its formidable claws. It walks with its fore-claws doubled inwards.
Its weight is 130 lb., and the flesh, which is white, is very good to eat. Its tongue
and snout are highly specialized to feed on and smell out its food. To dig these
animals out of their burrows requires endless patience and several days’ hard work.
Our Last “ Safari ”
| facility to do so, but a portion of her dowry goes to the husband
or to the heir, proportionately to the length of time spent
with her husband.
In case a polygamous wife should leave her husband
to go and get married elsewhere, a portion of her dowry
would be handed back to her.
A Few CUSTOMS OF THE BABALI.
(rt) Epremi. The Babali meet from time to time to discuss
| together some new undertaking, as, for instance, the selection
of a new site whereon to rebuild their village, new planta-
| tions to be cultivated, some elephant hunt, and so on. Every
man is entitled to express his opinion on the subject under
discussion, one of the elders having, in the last instance,
a casting vote on the resolution which must be carried out.
: (2) AMBEMBE. When a notable, or some woman par-
ticularly esteemed, fall seriously ill, the women and girls
of the village meet together in front of the hut of the sick,
_and each of them goes in turn into the hut and leaves a drop
of her saliva on the face of the sick to wish him or her a
‘prompt recovery. This custom is called Ambembe.
(3) EXCHANGE OF Wives. The Babali exchange their
wives. The dowry is always represented by another woman,
very often by a young girl of ten to fourteen years of age.
If both women so exchanged should bear children, their
marriage is confirmed, also if they have no children. But
| if one of the wives so exchanged is fruitful and the other
sterile, the husband of this latter is entitled to indemnifica-
tion in the shape of another wife. Europeans are greatly
opposed to this exchange of wives, and still more so to the
Surrender of young girls by way of dowry.
205
I
pi
(e |
4)
Sy
From the foregoing it will be seen that the Babali are”
indeed a curious mixture—intelligence and barbarity, vanity,
cruelty and superstition are mixed up with such likeable
qualities as politeness, good nature, cheerfulness, unlimited
patience, and dog-lke trust in the white man, with no real |
malice or vice in their composition. One takes a liking to —
them as one would to a good dog and in spite of oneself. |
Dog eats dog sometimes but nevertheless they may still
be likeable. The fact is one cannot judge the Babali by
human standards. If one attempts to do this one is filled —
with loathing at their barbarous customs and cannibal
propensities. |
The sinister streak of extravagant superstition in their
natures has been appealed to in some way by the cannibal —
sect known through West Africa as the Society of Human —
Leopards—but known amongst the Babali as the Amtoto
—which claims many devotees amongst them. |
As far as I am aware, until the last few years, this 4 sect |
confined its unhuman practices to the west coast of Africa |
—Lagos, the Gold Coast, Liberia. The sect was hunted
}
|
down and stamped out in the British Colonies some years —
ago, but would seem to be rampant in the negro state of
Liberia as will be seen from the a cutting, out of ©
The African World :—
The Eastern Congo
“THE SOCIETY OF HUMAN LEOPARDS. |
‘The artificial civilisation of a superstitious race never
altogether eradicates their superstitions, but it may modify —
them. Man in this respect is like the performing dog escaped
from the circus; he readily goes back to nature. There
is a savage side to certain African aborigines which is only ~
206
were
Our Last “ Safari ”
to be satisfied by the mystery of a secret society with murder
and frequently cannibalism as its aim. The suppression
jn British territories of the barbarous leopard societies has
not led to their entire disappearance from the coast. Presi-
dent King, in his address to the Liberian’ Parliament, re-
ferred to an extensive recrudescence of the savage activities
of leopard societies amongst the aborigines of the Montserrat
and Gora districts of the Liberian Republic. Land and water
travel has become increasingly unsafe. Unhappily, we are
told that legal technicalities have been responsible for failure
in the prosecution of members of these societies, and con-
sequently their prestige has been enhanced. The President
of Liberia reports that plenary powers have been secured,
and it is to be hoped that the activity of this reversion to
savagery and barbarism may be stamped out. It is a grave
menace to peaceful trade and existence in the hinterland
of the Republic.”
|
It is curious to note how the eradication of this Leopard
sect in one part of Africa has led to its re-establishment
elsewhere, and how the cult has taken hold of the native
mind. Judging by the comparatively recent formation of
such a society in Congoland, one is led to believe there may
even have been some kind of propaganda at work.
The tale of the Aioto Leopards of the Aruwimi is enough
to make the blood run cold and keep the imaginative awake
at nights, but fortunately the prey of this sect are blacks—
‘Principally young and defenceless women and children—not
whites. When we arrived in the part of the forest—between
_ Batama and Bomili—which they frequented, their campaign
of revolting murders had reached its height, when no less
| 207
The Eastern Congo
than one hundred and twenty-eight victims had been killed —
and eaten by them, and thus terrorising the neighbourhood. —
Eventually things came to such a pass that the authoritie: |
at Stanleyville decided to take action and send a punitive |
expedition to try and round up this nest of murderers, |
under the guidance of certain natives who knew their lair, |
and with Monsieur A. Laurent, the resolute Administrateur
of Stanleyville as intelligence officer. The expedition was
quite successful as far as it went, but it failed to stamp out i
this pest—over forty murders having since occurred. 7 |
The expedition consisted of Monsieur Laurent, Lieutenant |
Patfoort, Judge Wauters, a Roman Catholic priest and sevent 1 |
five native soldiers. The Amioto were located in a trackless |)
part of the forest between the Lindi and Aruwimi Rivers, |
and being taken by surprise in the early morning, ten of them | |
were captured, some shot and a few escaped. Those that |
were taken prisoners were tried on the spot, and incriminati g
evidence being found against them, they were immediately i
hanged. Amongst the belongings of these horrible people |.
were found the instruments of their sect, in several pairs of 1 |
the steel leopard-claw knives* for attaching to their hands 3
when on murder bent. Some of these gruesome knives con- |
sisted of four sharpened steel claws for tearing the body, |
whilst others were straight, three-pronged knives for stabbing |
their victim to death. Portions of their ceremonial costum |
which they wear when on their diabolical work were also dis- 7
covered. This consists of brown bark cloth stained to the
semblance of a leopard skin which is worn round the loins.
and over the head in the form of a cowl and pierced with twe |
|
i
* Illustrations of these steel, clawed knives are given in my book, “ George ©
Grenfell and the Congo.’’—H. H. J. ‘i Z
208 4
@, A beautiful Dracrena Tree, used by many Central
African Tribes to mark the Burial Place of their Chiefs.
SS ee
iB Beg
q, A close-spotted Hill Leopard feeding on its “‘ Kill.”
Our Last “ Safari ”
holes to see through. The dress is finished off by a leopard
tail being fixed to a belt behind. Other things included
_pbottle-shaped sticks, with the thick end roughly fashioned
into the shape of a leopard’s pad, with which to give the
finishing touch to their ghoulish deeds.
__ Even if the expedition had not quite the desired result,
/some interesting facts came to light about the Human
Leopards. For instance it was found out that the novitiate
of an Amzoto consisted in his having to live in the forest
alone for eight weeks on food he has to kill or find for himself
as best he can, but firstly, before he can enter on this stage
of the initiation, it has to be known that he has killed a man
of his own tribe. Having accomplished these two feats,
he is tattooed on the chest above the Mambela cicatrisations.
A notable Anioto tshumu or “ high priest,’’ who was captured
| and hanged, had three such cicatrisations on each side of the
| chest as a mark of his order, and as the identity of these
Amioio is unknown save by these cicatrices, everyone is on
the look-out for them when passing natives in the forest.
Three men have been hanged for being in possession of the
Anioto knives.
It may be taken as said that we were glad to leave these
| wild and godless tribesmen behind as we pushed on towards
|Stanleyville. Ever since leaving Irumu the geographical
|\features of the country through which we passed had been
mostly hidden by the impenetrable forest, but three days
jafter leaving the poste of Bafwaboli on the Tshopo River,
the traveller overlooks the steaming lowlands of the central
Congo basin, and may imagine to himself the vast inland lake
that once stood there in early Mesozoic days, when the gigan-
'tosaurus and his brethren ruled over its wide expanse, which
* 209 P
es
me
|
The Eastern Congo
must have been many times greater than even the broac
Lake Victoria.
Having descended the last spurs of the forest highlands
we soon found ourselves approaching Stanleyville along th
newly made motor road that runs towards them across |
those lowlands, and which it is hoped will one day reach the
Kilo gold mines. Our arrival at Stanleyville was somewhat
of an occasion for us two, for we had completed the last lay |
of over two thousand miles; it was moreover the greatest
relief to realise that we were to be free henceforth from th
eternal petty worries of native porters and servants, and that
instead of having to get ourselves along it was now possible
to hand over the arduous business to a tireless machine,
This last lap had tried our endurance to the utmost,
especially so as the latter end of the trip had been marked
by violent thunderstorms which occurred daily, making
the nights terribly oppressive and the paths wet | |
slippery. |
The Stanley Falls which I visited, and which lie close abot
the township of Stanleyville, are not imposing or spectacular
in any way, although the bar or barrage, reaching right |
across them from bank to bank, is a remarkable structure.
It has been put together pole by pole in a wonderful way
by the river fishermen for the purpose of trapping fish. The
uprights being of considerable size and weight could only
have been placed in position with the utmost difficulty and
perseverance; they seem to be held in position by being jammed
into “‘ pot-holes ”’ formed in the solid rock along the lip of ©
the fall. As it kept the none-too-well provided town below
supplied with fresh food, the loss of this fishing industry
must have been felt by the residents of Stanleyville, for
210 |
Our Last “Safari ”
shortly after we left the whole structure was washed away
owing to a considerable rise in the river.
We arrived at Stanleyville three days before the departure
of the ss. Sémois—one of the best boats of the “ Citas ”’
Company—which was to take us down the Congo to Kinshasa.
She was a most clean and comfortable boat, and thoroughly
well looked after by her energetic captain, a Norwegian by
the name of Lindvalle. She was a twin-screw flat-bottomed
boat and could carry 470 tons of cargo, mostly in her two
: barges which were roped on either side. Her cargo con-
‘sisted of rubber, copal, palm kernels, rice and ivory, on this
' occasion.
_ With thirteen other passengers we were soon comfortably
“ensconced aboard and with hoots of farewell were speeding
‘our way round the bend below Stanleyville on our way to
‘the sea.
|
|
|
|
|
|
—
211
CHAPTER XIV
A THOUSAND MILES DOWN THE CONGO
“ Shadow and sunshine, and plateau and plain,
Vacant horizons and silence supreme,
Mile upon mile of a heathen domain
Framing the scribbler’s dream,”
‘African Authors,” Verse 5. By Cullen Gouldsbury, L
@ Bex voyage down the mighty Congo on which we ha
now embarked has so often been described in detai *
by better pens than mine, that no doubt the long-
suffering reader who has been indulgent enough to follo
me thus far, would prefer that I give but a passing reference 4
to the incidents of the voyage or to the places at which w
touched en route; rather would he prefer to gain an insigh _
into the economic welfare of so great a territory if he be :
speculator or financier, or into its social life if he be a r 7 -
sionary or student. To the scientists I have little more 1 r
say, hoping they will have picked out from the forego
narrative what they can find of interest. a!
What better place could be found for the purpose mer i
tioned than the clean deck of the ss. Sémotis, as she bears
us down on the bosom of this great artery of Africa?
will therefore attempt to place before my mixed audience
aforesaid the Belgian Congo as it is to-day. Pa
The colony progresses rapidly. Even between so short °
a period as the time taken to commence and finish this ie 4 ie
events have occurred of far-reaching importance, princt
among which is the discovery of coal to the south of Bukan ma
in the Katanga, which will revolutionise the copper smelt ‘ing
212
=.
Down the Congo
industry. Secondly may be mentioned the surprising in-
crease in the output of diamonds by the Belgian-American
Company, the Forminiére, which is likely to reach 250,000
carats in 1921, and the number of new “ finds”’ that their
prospectors have made.
But this is not all, for in Monsieur Franck, Belgium
would seem to have had a Colonial Minister with an imperial
mind, and, what is quite as necessary, imagination. The
| results of his African tour are already bearing fruit. He
has in the first place put his finger on the key-note of suc-
‘cessful colonial enterprise, viz., rail and river transport.
His policy includes the immediate construction of another
line between Matadi and Kinshasa; reorganisation of the
‘upper river steamer service and additional steamers for the
lower Congo and its tributaries, as well as a large steamer
for Lake Tanganyika; and the construction of warehouses
and facilities for handling cargo where congestion has occurred
previously—large brick warehouses being now practically
complete at Stanleyville, Ponthierville, Kabalo and Albert-
ville. Lastly comes the important construction scheme of
the Lower Congo—the Katanga Railway and the joining up
of Joko Punda (the navigation terminus on the Kasai River)
with the present rail-head at Bukama. This section is only
ight hundred kilometres in length, and as construction
plans are complete the usual hesitation inseparable from
railway projects should be quickly overcome. The more
far-reaching, the grander scheme of the Lobito Bay Railway
as by no means been lost sight of, and the final survey of
the 650 kilometres from Fungurumi and along the Congo-
Zambezi divide to the valley of the Upper Kasai has lately
deen completed by Belgian engineers.
213
The Eastern Cotes
The Belgian Colonial Minister has long ago realised the
value of colonial propaganda; hence one hears and reads -
vastly more than one used to a few years ago of the progress |
of Congoland, to the benefit of both Belgium, the Belgian —
Congo and African affairs in general. The Congo is losing |
its bad name under this influence and attracting a better |
class to the territory ; even one hears, although with much |
scepticism, of Belgian settlers. I say ‘“‘ with scepticism ’” a
as it is not in the nature of Belgians to settle abroad ; few, |
if any, make of their work in their African possession a life
career. |
In all this, Minister Franck has perhaps some of the
ablest and wealthiest advisors and coadjutors of the present
day, in the persons of King Albert and the directors of the.
may concessionnaires and other companies connected with —
the Congo, amongst whom are found such names as Mr,
Robert Williams, the Right Hon. Earl Grey, Lord Leverhulme, -
the American magnate Mr. Guggenheimer, the brothers
Jadot and Mr. Robert Goldschmidt, as well as the many
shrewd members of the Belgian African Club and the Union :
Coloniale Belge. Thén again General Malfeyt, General Tom-
beur, Colonel de Meulemeester and Colonel Moulaert are.
colonial administrators of tried ability. The appointment —
of Monsieur Lippens to be Governor-General of the Congo,
although unpopular with many colonial:Belgians (as he has had —
little to do up to now with African affairs) is nevertheless —
likely to prove a suitable one, as colonial administration —
more than any other is inclined to get into a rut and “ new
blood’”’ is eminently desirable in a tropical colony. I am
therefore entirely in agreement with Monsieur Franck’s _ pt
lately expressed views to the Press on the appointment. a
214
Down the Congo
Although only still half-realising the value of their pos-
session, the broadening effect of the war has left a profound
impression on the Belgians, and has had a great deal to do
with their awakened interest in the Congo. There is now
unity amongst them, a greater esprit de corps bred in the
| trenches of Flanders and on the steppes of German East
Ow
od
———
==
Sa
iii A eee —_- - =
———— OO
Africa, that will carry these sturdy, industrious people, with
the untold riches of the Congo behind them, a very long way
indeed. They have proved their worth in the late war and
in the tenacious hold they retained on the Congo from the
early days—when with a mere handful of white men and
- irregular black troops they broke the Arab power—up to
now, when they have shown such surprising ability in the
training of their native soldiers.
Without going into unnecessary details concerning the
great industries set afoot in the Congo, its labour and food
supply, its problems and its perils, let us first pass in review
the riches that lie garnered twixt the four corners of this
forest empire, that when properly exploited will draw to
them the jealous eyes of all Africa.
The outstanding feature of the Belgian Congo as a colonial
empire, and one which will contribute to its speedy develop-
ment more than any other, is its compactness, “ all its eggs
are in one basket,’’ so to speak—the Congo basin ; and many
of them can be reached and (to carry on the metaphor) hatched
out, through its network of waterways. True, the Kilo
goldfields and the Congo copper belt are on the edge of the
basin, but they are both rich enough to attract to themselves
their own transport systems without outside help. Starting
therefore from the south we find mountains of copper being
blasted away and smelted with the most up-to-date machinery
215
The Eastern Congo
it is possible to devise, and a new concentrating plant about —
to come into operation, upon which, with railway accessories ©
and mine development, the Union Miniére has lately spent
£3,000,000. Then in the same concession to the north and |
north-west we find tin, gold, cobalt, uranium, platinum, and —
now coal, which together with the copper are set in a well- —
wooded, well-watered, well-populated, upland country suitable iy
for agriculture (and on the plateaux suitable for stock raising) ¢
and supplied by the Katanga Railway. Still farther to the ©
north again, but off the Katanga highlands and near the
junction of the Luvua with the Lualaba River, there is the
tich Géomine tin mine with an ever increasing production, —
which will presently reach an output of 1,000 tons of cassi- —
terite annually. Then taking a turn to the east outside
the Congo basin, we find in the newly-acquired kingdom of |
Ruanda, one of the richest cattle countries in Africa, which |
has lately attracted the attention of both the Liebig Meat —
Extract Company and the Kemmerich Meat Company. After
that we pass on north through a wonderful ivory-producing — |
country to the rich gold district of the north-east, where the
Kilo, Moto and Senguli Mines are on the eve of increased
production with modern machinery. Leaving these mines
and travelling west through the largest forest in Africa
we pass across the north central Congo basin where at first |
we find, besides more ivory, vast stores of rubber being ex-
ploited, a large production of good-quality rice; and then, —
farther on still, we arrive at the centre of the immense palm- —
oil industry of the Société Anonyme des Huileries du Congo
with Lord Leverhulme in command, which has expended a
similar vast sum to the Union Minitre for accessories and —
development, and which owns a fleet of five large steamers -
216 io
Down the Congo
on the Congo River. Again passing from the north central
Congo back to its south centre, and after touching the copal-
digging industry,* we reach the Kasai diamond fields and still
another rubber-producing area. The Société Internationale
Forestizre et Miniere du Congo or the Formiere Company work
the Kasai diamond area and now employ over one hundred
and forty whites and more than eleven thousand natives,
Again we find at Mayumbe, plantations of cocoa which in
1920 produced a million kilos of this commodity, and also
_ in the Kasai and Lomami districts the agents of a new firm,
styling itself the Compagnie Cotonniére Congolaise, are at work
on cotton planting and the fostering of the industry amongst
the natives: two ginning mills are in course of construction
and a supply of hand gins are being placed at various centres.
As a summary of the foregoing I give the export statistics
of the Belgian Congo for the years 1914 and 1920 in the order
of their value.
Weight in kilos. Weight in kilos.
Product. 1914. 1920.
Copper .. .. 10,343,436 30,000,000
Palm Nuts <3), ORB 770 50,000,000
Palm Oil .. 2,498,386 20,000,000
Rubber .. ee fe 2). Rely 2,500,000
Gold ie a 930 3,800
ory... -» 295,496 400,000
* Copal, which is used in Europe for making varnish and by the Congo
natives for glazing pottery, is a resinous gum obtained from a species of swamp
tree, the Copaifera demeusei. It is obtained from the living plant, but the best
quality is recovered from dead trees deep down in the marshes, where it is located
by means of long sticks. Similar resinous gums are used by the natives of
the eastern Congo for the making of torch-candles: the gum is smeared in
between small bundles of dry rushes and burns smokily with an aromatic smell.
I have never seen any other kind of indigenous illuminant used by natives in
the Congo,
217
The Eastern Congo
Weight in kilos. Weight in kilos. |
Product. 1914. 1920.
OTM) og .. 6,993,063 9,000,000 —
Diamonds ee 24,000 carats —«- 250,000 carats _
Rice pe od eens 10,000,000 7
Tin ihe 30,947 500,000
ie Sees ibs 482,360 I,000,000
SKINS io ike 81,850 400,000
The total value of the exportations from the Belgian —
Congo for 1920 reached the respectable figure of close on _
200,000,000 francs (two hundred million francs). |
The three important centres of the copper, gold and
diamond mining industries are fortunately very favourably _ j
placed for native labour, for the Katanga, Kilo and Kasai _
districts are all well populated and should, if the labour
supply be well organised, meet the majority of the labour —
demands. The latter conditions are to be found in the |
Kasai and Kilo, but in spite of the good treatment and liber a
pay offered to native labour on and around the Katanga —
mines, sufficient local labour is not forthcoming in this district _
and so natives have to be recruited outside it. The popula i i
tion of the Katanga highlands is put down at two millions, - o
and as only sixty thousand natives are required to meet all —
demands, it should be possible to find this number locally. —
Truth to tell, work on the Katanga copper mines has been |
made unpopular with natives, not by reason of their treatment —
by the recruiting bureaux or agents of the Union M inidre
(for this leaves nothing to be desired), but by reason of their —
maltreatment at the hands of unscrupulous contractors, —
mostly Greeks. Doubtless a more suitable adjustment of |
labour and the settlement of other questions in the Katanga |
218 |
Down the Congo
could be better brought about by a more vigorous admini-
stration under a Governor with a freer hand and acting
independently of Boma.
In comparison with English standards, labour in the Congo
is cheap. Ordinary local labour for portage or plantation
_ work costs about thirty-five to forty centimes a day anywhere
in the Congo, with the exception of the Katanga. Here,
: however, the pay of natives has advanced out of all pro-
portion owing to the inducements offered by the contractors,
and a good native now asks from two to three francs a day
inclusive of food. The Belgians keep prices down, the
_ foreigners put them up.
Task work is the order of the day in the Katanga and on
_ the mines, but is not generally adopted throughout the Congo.
_ Giving a set task to a native and paying him for any work
done over and above the stipulated amount, I believe to be
the only way to work natives successfully. The native
population of the Congo is now put at ten millions,
_ but epidemic diseases being kept in check, it is increasing
considerably, which increase should be enough for all ordinary
| Tequirements when properly organised.
It will be seen throughout these notes that the conditions
existing in the rich province of the Katanga are continually
cropping up as differing from those at work in the rest of
the colony, which may be taken as an advocacy for its admini-
_ strative independence. Again in the matter of food for native
_ labour, the Katanga does not supply enough for its needs,
_ having to buy in South Africa, and thus presenting a defect
_ inits agricultural policy or a want of organisation in the supply
_ of food from other districts. Whereas the food supply is
_ more than sufficient, in fact there is a large surplus—for the
219
The Eastern Congo
remaining portion of the great Dominion, the Katanga district
stands out alone as unable to meet its wants in this respect. |
Lastly we come to the perils—the White Man’s Burden— ~
the price of Empire which Belgium, having once put her —
foot on African soil, will one day have to pay; for the
Ethiopian question looms darkly across the horizon, by no |
means of immediate urgency but nevertheless of imperative
importance, as evinced by a report that reaches me as I write ©
of a local native rising in the Lulonga country, headed bya
disbanded soldier. The fact that these insurgents are en-
trenching themselves may be taken as a sign of the times.
What if the White Man’s Burden, heavier day by day,
Should swell like a leaden millstone, draining his strength away ?
“Nay, they are only children! ’—that is the parrot-cry.
Aye! but there have been children whose brains were fashioned awry !
Still are the coils about them, and the cobweb bonds of Fate,
But thunder follows the silence—and issues may lie in wait ;
Issues undreamt and buried down in the deeps of Time,
Issues no man may measure in careless strings of rhyme.
The oft-heard cry in the Belgian Congo, “‘ not in our time,” —
no longer holds good, since the war has speeded the pace
of progress. Issues may lie in wait, for it is not generally S|
realised that the natives of the Congo basin form a homo- —
geneous whole, speaking nearly-allied Bantu tongues, and —
all using the Kingwana (Swahili) lingua franca, undivided — |
by creed or caste and possessing a high order of intelligence _
only equalled by the Arab himself. 4
We have our native problem in South Africa and for many
reasons which need not be given here the issue is scarcely
in doubt, but it is mere child’s play to the proposition that
Belgium has to solve in her trained active and time-expired
native police and soldiers, who form the dangerous factor
220
Down the Congo
in the social life of the Congo. It must be remembered
that after his seven years’ training the native soldier is at
liberty to leave the service and many of them do so, with
the result that as time goes on fresh recruits are trained,
replacing those disbanded, with the result that every village
- in the Congo contains one or more such men. Being idle and
having had just that touch of authority thrust into their
hands sufficient to make them restless, they constitute the
menace to which I refer. There can be no “colour bar”
in the Congo and safety lies only in the co-operation of the
more intelligent and enlightened heads of the people, in
developing the resources of the country along lines that will
give them a share in its prosperity.
The ray of light (as it seems to me) that will enter to
dispel the gloom of menace is education, ot religious psalm-
singing instruction, but an industrial education containing
the elements of religious training that would fit the intelligent
native for industrial and business life, and induce him to
support a stable government. Such a teaching is required
as that given below, which was so finely formulated by the
American—General Armstrong—as long ago as 1870, when
speaking on the education of the American negro, and which
has been taken for the guiding principle of the African
Educational Commission and the Trustees of the Phelps-
Stokes Fund when they designed plans to meet the educational
needs of the native races and the present and prospective
demands of West African Colonies.
“ The education needed is one that touches upon the whole
range of life, that aims at the formation of good habits and
sound principles, that considers the details of each day, that
enjoins, in respect of diet, regularity, proper selection and
221
The Eastern Congo
good cooking ; in respect of habits, suitable clothing, exercise,
cleanliness of persons, quarters and ventilation, also industry
and thrift; and in respect of all things, intelligent practice
and self-restraint.
“In all men, education is conditional not Jee on an | |
enlightened head and a changed heart but very largely on ale
routine of industrious habits, which is to character what thell
foundation is to the pyramids. The summit should glow
=
with a divine light, interfusing and qualifying the whole mass,
but it should never be forgotten that it is only upon a founda- : |
tion of regular, daily activities that there can be any fine and |
peaaanens upbuilding. Morality and industry generally go |
together.”’
If this chapter should chance to be read by those in
authority at the Belgian Colonial Ministry, let me recommend
the work of the African Educational Commission, as a basis
for a successful native policy in the Belgian Congo.
With this chapter and this book, having faintly conjured
up the Congo Wonderland as I see it, a few more lines are
necessary to fill in the picture as the ss. Sémozs completes her
ten days’ trip from Stanleyville to Kinshasa.
We are by now well on our way to Stanleypool and as I
write we are in the neighbourhood of Lake Leopold II. Some
of us are considering the possibility of the existence of a
subterranean lake in Central Africa to which Lake Leopold
may be an entrance, and in which the last gigantosaurus may
have died! We have experienced several tornadoes; we
have passed George Grenfell’s grave at Basoko and many
another too; the many model “ factories”’ of Messrs. Lever
Bros. have gone by and we have seen the Belgian seaplanes,
222
Down the Congo
and the new hangars, and the hundred-and-one varied scenes
of native life. All have flitted by between the islands and
round the bends of the far reaching Congo. Presently we
find ourselves opposite the landing stage at Kinshasa and
about to begin the hunt for sleeping accommodation (which
is one of the crying wants of the town, for the only good
hotel is always overflowing), but not finding it we have to
sleep aboard the Sémots.
In three days’ time we are rattling our way to Matadi
Port and being shaken to bits in the antediluvian railway
carriages of this line. So bad are they that all the women
passengers were sick and the rest of us were tired out with
such an ordeal.
The ss. Anversville lay waiting for us by the wharf at
_Matadi and so we came to the western sea. Having entered
|
|
|
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it
:
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}
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ii
|
Africa on the east by the Zambezi delta we left it, after ten
years, by the Congo estuary.
CHAPTER XV
ON ELEPHANTS; ALSO AN ADVENTURE WITH A CROCODILE ~
“" At first—in other worlds, it seemed—the wilderness was free,
A man might go where’er he dreamzd, nor pause to pay the fee,
Out of the Herd might take his toll earned at the risk of death,
Wander afar beyond control, caressed by Nature’s breath—
The world was wide—the Herds were strong, and killing was no sin,
No Law but sporismanship he knew—no Ring Fence hemmed him in.”
The Ring Fence. Verse I.
S I look back upon the ups and downs of my life in
A Bitica which began twenty-three years ago, that oll
of it spent in hunting elephants for a living stan 1s |
out more vividly than any other. The open-air life, the ever-
changing scene amidst the game-haunted solitudes, appez ed |
irresistibly to a, perhaps, too romantic temperament, and so
has stamped itself indelibly on my memory. : 1
My hunting trips in search of good ivory and rare animals
often took me to all kinds of out of the way places, bringing 7
many adventures, and after many years, an intimate acquaint- |
ance with elephant folk about which I amnow to write. These.
expeditions have taken me into British and Portuguese Nyasa-
land, Portuguese Zambezia, late German East Africa (Tangan-.
yika territory), Northern Rhodesia and the Congo forests. _
In my experience, as a hunting ground for elephants,
there is no region in Africa to-day to compare with the Ituri.
forest, and the long-grass country to the south and north- |
east of it. I believe the record tusks are yet to be obtained
in its vast and untrodden depths, a sufficient incentive indeed
for any big game hunter as the record now stands at 226} s
pounds for a single tusk. :
224
= ———=
‘IOAN TYITWOS oy} resU ‘eroWIed 94} sI10Foq Buissed szueydoaty omy
jo 10y}zny 943 Aq usye} ydeirs0zeUIDUTIO e WOIF JUOUIOSIe[UN Uy ‘p
c,
A Tuskless Female Elephant. The vital spots where to shoot an elephant can
be easily gauged from this photograph. The ear-hole being one (not between
the eye and the ear) ; the heart shot is another. Both spots are marked with
a xcross. The ear of a male elephant reaches farther down the shoulder
than in the female. One of the glands on the temple (mentioned in this
Chapter), in which are to be found pieces of stick, shows wery prominently.
Elephants
» Hunting in the thick forest is of course difficult and
Wlangerous work, but with ordinary precautions, steady nerves
nda heavy rifle, not more so than elsewhere. As heat and
hirst are scarcely to be reckoned with in the shade of the
orest, and there being always the possibility of bagging
are animals such as the okapi and the bongo, the district
mas much to recommend it. Then again the northern
#xtension of the forest is the haunt of a race of pigmy
lephants of possibly greater interest than those to be found
ear Lake Leopold II or in the swamps of the French
ongo.
» Referring to these dwarf elephants, puts me in mind of
Whe so-called ‘‘ bamboo ”’ elephants to be found in the forests
)f the Kivu volcanic region farther to the south. They would
)ppear to be an intermediate race between the large East
.frican species and the pigmy one. From one specimen that
| saw in the Bugoie Forest, although comparatively small
pr what was, without doubt, an adult male, there was little
)p distinguish it otherwise from an undergrown ordinary
ephant excepting its tusks. These were remarkable, in
at they were thin and finely pointed like those of a
Spmale and of a perceptibly pinky-red colour. This ob-
Jprvation proved to be correct, for later on when visiting
Kisenji Monsieur Verhulst showed me a pair of tusks
rom the same forest, coloured in this fashion, and of
he same thin, straight shape. Their bright colouring is
f Once discernible by the most casual observer. These
sain, I was assured, were those of a fully grown
tale. Their weight was, if I remember rightly, about
{teen pounds.
_ Mention has been made in a previous chapter of the very
225 Q
The Eastern Congo
dark brown ivory frequently seen in and about the Ituri
Forest. The tusks in question are so dark,* in fact, th ’
they may best be described as looking as if they had bee
heavily smoked, and are in such striking contrast to the wel
known ivory colour that one is at a loss to account for it
As the elephants to be found in the grass country bordering
on the forest have the usual white tusks and as food in
animals affects to a large extent the growth of their teeth 7
tusks and horns, it is most probably occasioned by the ay
of food that the forest elephants prefer. |
Whether the staining process occurs externally around th
lip of the animal or within the tusk itself, I would not lik —
to say. The fact that the part of the tusk imbedded in th
head is not blackened proves nothing, as the “ bark ”’ of th
ivory may become dark on exposure to the atmosphere a —
the teeth grow downwards. Although the Congo fores —
ivory does not fetch such good prices as the white quality, i
is nevertheless much sought after as the “bark” of th
tusk only is coloured, and not the solid ivory itself. |
It is a noticeable fact and one which may have a bearin’
on the subject, that the droppings of all the forest elephant
are affected to such an extent by the chemicals contained 1
the class of food they eat, that they are, as a rule, blac i
instead of the usual brown colour. ’
The Pigmies, who are located all through the central an lp
eastern portion of the Ituri Forest, are in a way indisper —
sable to the hunter, but too much reliance must not It
placed on them. They all have “‘ their axe to grind,” ar —
in their cunning way will try and make the huay f
—=
* Similarly dark-tinted ivory is found in the dense forests of Liberia! Hei
H.. Bia J. ay
226
Elephants
believe that an elephant he has badly wounded and which
may perhaps be lying dead half a mile away, has only been
slightly wounded or even not at all, afterwards either
stealing the tusks or following up the wounded elephant and
killing it for themselves. Personally and contrary to the
ideas of other sportsmen, I have no time for the Pigmy as a
tracker or guide, much preferring the half-breed Swahili
hunters born in the forest, who besides being intelligent, will,
for hard cash sell you any secret, and take a man to the forest
fastnesses where the big bulls are to be found.
These half-breeds are, of course, adepts at all kinds of
roguery and live on the proceeds obtained from illicit ivory
hunting and trading. When out of powder for their old
muzzle-loaders, they organise the Pigmies in the setting of
| cunning elephant traps, with which the forest abounds.
| These usually take the form of heavy iron harpoons embedded
_ ina section of ten-inch timber, which formidable and dangerous
, weapon is slung high up over an elephant track between two
trees, in such a way that the animal passing beneath sets
| off the trap himself, receiving the weighted spear in the
| centre of its shoulders. With another method, that of large
| pit-falls, the natives are not very successful; the elephant
| in many cases is intelligent enough to heave himself out,
_ at other times being helped out by the trunks of his comrades.
. Before passing on to describe a few out of the many
| hundreds of experiences with elephants that have fallen to
|
\
ee ee
——
—
ee eS
| prefer a more accessible and less dangerous hunting ground
in the Congo, let me recommend him to try either the lower
| Luvua River that flows out of the north end of Lake Mweru,
{ which place is easily accessible by the Cape to Congo Railway,
227
The Eastern Congo
or the Kwengo River, an affluent of the Kasai, which is e aS
of approach in these days, up the mouth of the Congo Rive
to Kinshasa. Anyone who visits either of the places nam ;
will not be disappointed in regard to the trophies they obtai
July being the best month to select for the trip. |
Most people who have visited the South Kensiniglll
Museum of Natural History are acquainted with, and have
stood and admired as I have done, the fine stuffed specime |
of the African elephant standing in the central hall of
building. As this is one of my earliest endeavours in field
naturalist’s work, and moreover has: a certain national in
portance as being the largest stuffed mammal in the Eng ]
museums, I will begin my elephant hunting adventures witl
the first published account of how I obtained it, and the diffi
culties I had in getting the skin to England in one piece.
Early in the year 1905, through the auspices of Sir E. Ray :
Lankester, at that time director of the Natural History
Museum, it was decided to add to the mammalian ae
there an entire specimen of a male African elephant. i Ss.
Rowland Ward and Co., of Piccadilly, the well-known ta:
dermists, were approached on the subject, and undertall
to obtain one up to the required height of eleven feet.
the skin, fit to stuff, was required to be delivered in London
in one piece, more than one African hunter refused such an
arduous undertaking. Eventually, however, I, with many
misgivings, accepted the contract and set about the 7
parations necessary for a prolonged =p in searc
of the father-of-all-the-elephants. i
Before I set out, I was well aware that the task of finding
an elephant reaching to eleven feet at the shoulder was 1
easy one. For, in spite of the fact that on the border betwee
228
7"
en
‘p1odeI uO sysnz 4s
ogy ul dn jos pue
=)
SUOCT 94} JO S[AapOu YIM
‘IoyyNYy
‘
ayy Aq Joys jueydsy purye
uinoesn]y Uuojs
Sse
uISUsyJ YINOS
AN 4S
SAN
IU]
_D
q, A fine old bull Elephant, with massive head, shot
in Northern Rhodesia, the entire skin of
which the Author sent to England in one piece,
Elephants
_ Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia, where I was then, these
animals reach an astonishing size compared to other parts
of Africa, the usual height of old bulls is from ten feet four
-inches to ten feet nine inches. Elephants taping above
the latter figure are exceedingly rare, and I may add, there-
fore, making it very difficult for me to believe the report
_ of a twelve-foot elephant.
However, having undertaken the task, I set out from
a quantity of butcher knives and emery stones to sharpen
| them, with four loads of salt, saltpetre and alum.
In the course of the first two months I had shot several
large elephants both in Portuguese and Rhodesian territory,
/ none of which, however, came up to the required standard.
| In consequence I began to feel a little disappointed, and
decided to shift camp into the Bua Valley of western Nyasa-
This I accordingly did and presently found myself encamped
at a small village situated on the edge of one of those sloping
| flower-strewn meadows (or dambo in the native tongue) for
_which the district is remarkable, bordering a western tributary
of the Bua River. It being August, the nights and mornings
Were extremely cold and, by the edge of the stream, where
| the elephants came to drink, positively freezing !
I was in the habit each morning of following down this
| stream in the hope of picking up over-night spoor and very
early one morning was thus engaged, accompanied by a native
_ tracker called Kamwendo. Now, this man had proved his
worth on many previous occasions but had a failing, like
so many good men, that he frequently became “ bottled”
229
o-oo
The Eastern Congo
(or rather “ jugged’’—for he drank it by the jug-full) on 2
native beer, and when in this state he was quite useless —
but polite—not quite accountable for his actions as you
shall hear.
The sun was just tipping the horizon as we made our way |
along the open but misty dambo on this morning, a |
as we went the different spoors leading to the valley bottom.
Kamwendo, I noticed, had had a “thick” night, but his
conscience pricking him, I suppose, was frightfully willing |
to do his best and therefore was some distance ahead looking . |
for fresh indications of the quarry we sought. The mist was —
thick at the time but he was just discernible, when suddenly,
down he went on hands and knees, and started to crawl away
from me, looking intently meanwhile at something beyond ©
him which, owing to the fog, was lost tomy view. Kamwendo,
of course, knew I was looking for an extra big elephant, but |
I was quite at a loss to know why he was down on all fours,
in an open treeless dambo that would hardly hide a rabbit. |
I watched him for some seconds as he crawled on into the mist
and guessing that anyhow something was up, I ran lightly ©
to join him. Upon reaching the spot, the object he was ©
stalking with such supreme care was at once apparent, for
looming out of the mist, close ahead of us, was the form of —
a big tusker, spouting, as it seemed, a cloud of white smoke |
from his trunk and mouth, as he moved slowly along. This |
weird appearance was easily accounted for by the elephant’s |
condensing breath on the chilly atmosphere. The sight,
however, was one too much for poor Kamwendo. His fuddled |
brain, full of my instructions that he was to make sure before
starting that any elephant we proposed to follow was a big ~
one, combined with the effect of the aforementioned dragon- —
230
Elephants
like apparition, produced the result stated. His idea of
walking on all fours towards an elephant, standing broadside
in the open thirty or forty yards away, to have a look at
_ his tusks, was a joke that fairly tickled me for many a day.
At the time, however, I was testing the wind, with all
eyes on the elephant, who having previously taken his fill
: at the stream was by now engaged in pulling up with his
_ trunk big wisps of grass on the edge of the dambo, and con-
_ veying them to his mouth after giving them a good banging
against his forehead to shake off dirt from the roots.
I watched him for some seconds and although his tusks
were not noticeably big he seemed to be a giant in size, so
approaching with my double 8-bore to within twenty-five
paces, I let fly at his left shoulder, first one barrel then the
other. Recovering himself, however, with astonishing rapidity
from such an onslaught, the elephant had soon reached the
| neighbouring forest and before I could fire a third shot was
lost in the fog that still hung around us.
Kamwendo (who was now sobering up in the keen morning
air) and I lost little time in getting after our quarry, and as
the grass-fires had burnt the bush in patches, spooring was
fairly easy, although at times, owing to cross-spoors and
the dry state of the vegetation, my tracker was at fault,
necessitating circling round to pick up the spoor again. We
also found that in spite of the bad wounds he must have
received, there was little blood on the trail after the first
few miles.
_ Having been going since sunrise, the early part of the
afternoon found us entering a thick patch of forest, whose
cool shade after the baking heat without, invited a rest.
Throwing myself down and having had a snack of food, I
231
The Eastern Congo
was soon enjoying a comfortable siesta on Mother Earth. —
However, a long rest was not to be mine that day, for, during
my “ forty winks,’ Kamwendo aroused me with the thrilling _
words: ‘“‘ Njovo! Bwana!’ (Elephant! master !) |
To the ivory-hunter who has gotten, for better or worse, —
the fever of the chase, the word Njovo or Tembo uttered in ©
the incisive accents of your black fellow-sportsman (for he
7s a sportsman, when all is said and done), is like the crack a
of a whip to a horse and is calculated to wake a man up every _
time. I was, therefore, up on the instant and listening for 2
the breaking of branches that Kamwendo had heard. 4
Sure enough, coming nearer and nearer in our direction _
could be heard the swish of grass and leaves, that denotes 4
the approach of elephants in the bush. The wind blowing
steadily, on this occasion, in our direction, it was unnecessary
to move from where we were; we therefore stood silently _
expectant, as the animals came on. Presently we made them
out through the screen of bushes. First an enormous elephant — :
which I at once recognised as our friend of the morning, and !
who had evidently turned on his tracks after joining up with © 1
the small elephant that now followed in his rear. | =|
The big fellow was moving slowly, and as he stopped
under a big tree not twenty paces from me I distinctly made — |
out the two dark streaks of dried blood, where my bullets |
had entered his left shoulder. As the elephant was now —
standing diagonally facing me there was no time to waste, |
so resting my small 8-mm. Mauser on a convenient tree, I :
took steady aim at his eye and fired. He dropped as if pole- | |
axed and lay kicking on the ground, shot through the brain. — |
On going forward to examine the great beast I knew, without —
the aid of a tape, that I had at last bagged the father-of-all-_
232
:
Elephants
the-elephants, for which I was searching. His tusks, although
thick and cobby, were disappointing, being worn down to a
weight of a little over forty pounds apiece.
Counting myself extremely lucky under the circumstances,
I now made my way back to camp and pondering over the
matter as I walked, it was borne in on me that the job of
removing the hide of the dead elephant in one piece was going
to tax the powers of my porters and myself to the utmost.
I reached camp towards sundown but it was not until the
| following morning that I again reached the carcass, accom-
panied by half the population of the countryside, whom I had
engaged, on a promise of much meat, for the work in hand.
After pitching camp I made the discovery that the nearest
water was some miles away, so I arranged with the local
chief that every day, twenty-five women, each with a large
earthenware pot, should keep the camp supplied with the
vital fluid. Having arranged this I got some of my men to
work on the skinning operations, whilst others were put
to the task of clearing a space free from shade in which to
erect a low drying frame for the hide, when the time came
_ to spread it out to dry.
[I give here the note of the dimensions made from the
skin at the British Museum :—
|
|
: i|
4]
|
i]
Height, 11 feet 4 inches.
Girth, 17 feet 44 inches.
_ Overall length (taken from tip of trunk, along curve of
back, to tip of tail), 30 feet.
Length from posterior alveolar border of tusk, along body
to back of root of tail, 15 feet 10 inches.
_ Length of trunk, 8 feet.
Length of tail (to tips of hairs), 5 feet 6 inches.
233
The Eastern Congo
Length of tail (without hairs), 4 feet 74 inches.
Diameter of ear, 4 feet 8 inches.
Circumference of fore-foot, 4 feet 5 inches.
Diameter of hind-foot, 1 foot 8 inches. ] |
After this, the first incisions in the skin were commenced.
Starting from below the tip of the trunk a cut was first carried _
through the centre of the lip, along the medial line of the |
belly to the end of the tail. Then, others at the back of each |
leg, joining up with it in the same way as any other animal _
is skinned. The flaps of skin beneath each leg and around |
the chest were then negotiated, leaving the muscles exposed, |
which in the case of the two uppermost legs, were removed,
leaving the bones clear and ready to be severed at the joints. |
After the axe had done its work, I now had the two leg skins ©
with feet attached thrown over the animal’s back, and the |
remainder of the entire skin off one side soon followed. We
were “ hung up’”’ a long time upon the skinning of the head
which proved a very difficult task, the parts round the jaw
and face proving the worst.*
By now, we were well on into the second day of our task
with what appeared to be a sickly white monster lying before
us, the stomach extended to a huge size with the ferment
within. The exposed stomach, meat, leg bones and ribs had |
now to be removed, to enable the carcass (which weighed —
* As most observant elephant-hunters know, the elephant has a gland
on each temple which exudes a fatty oil through a small aperture in the skin.
It is, however, not generally known that almost always, without exception, thin
pieces of stick about one inch long are to be found embedded in these openings. ~
How to account for the invariable presence of these pieces of stick in both glands ©
remains a mystery, yet to be solved ; it is hard to believe that they come there _
by accident when the animal pushes through the branches of trees for instance. |
The natives will tell you that the elephant puts them there himself: perhaps they —
are right! I have always found the pieces of stick to be of nearly equal length ©
and size and never more than 14 inches long. i
234 j
Elephants
some six tons and was impossible to move as it then lay)
to be turned over. Into this job were put “ all hands and the
cook,” and as, by then, I had a following of several hundred
| niggers all crying out for meat, there was such a scramble
for the job that in less time than it takes to tell the carcass of
the dead pachyderm was entirely blotted out from view behind
a screen of wildly excited natives, brandishing dangerous-
looking knives and axes in their endeavours to find a place to
eut at. In the middle of this indescribable confusion there
was an explosion resembling a big locomotive letting off
steam, as the pent-up stomach gases escaped under the
onslaught of spears and knives, sending a shower of the
contents of the stomach mixed with blood over the perspiring
humanity around. By sundown, with the assistance of
“the crowd” I had the remainder of the carcass turned over
and ready for the skinning of the other flank.
_ This proved to be fairly easy, so on the day following
I had the satisfaction of seeing the complete skin being
hauled and lifted on to the drying platform and work begun
on the feet that still retained their flesh and bone, on the
head that required attention, and on the curing process that
consisted in rubbing in a mixture of three parts of salt, salt-
petre and alum.
Under the hot sun the drying process went on apace, and
in a week’s time the skin had shrunk to half its size and was
ready to be folded into a more or less rectangular package,
ready for the cross-country journey to Fort Jameson and
for which, in places, I had to form a special road. Forty
of my best Angoni and Achewa carriers, in two relays, were
detailed for this work. When it reached the township, the
_ skin being dry enough for transport to the coast, I first took
235
————<$<—
ng or
The Eastern Congo
the precaution to paint it with six gallons of crude casto: 3
oil to ward off the attacks of ‘‘ beetle’? and then sewed it
up in its final covering. 1
This was by no means the last of it, however, for by this |
time the size and weight of skin had been exaggerated by —
the natives beyond all conception, with the result that the —
one transport company in the little centre of Fort Jameson, |
known as the African Lakes Corporation, refused to accept |
it for transportation, after offering it to several gangs of |
porters and after it had been adjudged by the authorities —
as too heavy for porterage. For some conse time it
lay in the roadway, near the township, a “‘ white elephant ” |
if ever there was one and a menace to traffic, until, throug |
the assistance of my friend C., a man for whom the Achewa |
would do more than most, it eventually took its way to Tete |
on the Zambezi, a distance of 220 miles, in charge of a good |
headman and forty porters, accompanied by an extra gang |
of men who went in advance with axes to chop down the bush. |
For several weeks after this both C. and myself went in fear |
and trembling lest the headman should turn up with the news |
that the carriers had bolted. It safely reached the river, |
however, and after a time was shipped on a barge and so |
found its way to England, via Chinde on the east coast. |
This is not quite all, for to get the mounted specimen | |
through the portals of the South Kensington Museum |
necessitated an alteration in their structure. I can, there-|
fore, well believe that my friend Mr. J. B. Burlace, the}
managing director for Messrs. Rowland Ward, Ltd., was as |
pleased to see the last of it as I was. :
Knowing the difficulties before me, it stands to my cred |
that a year afterwards I took on another contract and landed ;
236 |
[rez szt dn Surpfoy st ‘opusmurey ‘1ayOeIZ SIOyJNY oY “UNS 9Y4} UI
SI
SutArp ‘(ArojstPFT TernzeN) winssny YSU oy} ur Mou ‘ueydosly oy} Jo ULYS OUT ‘DP
#.
@, An Elephant’s Skin being transported to Fort Jameson en route for the Coast.
The bush in the background is typical elephant country in Northern Rhodesia.
:
ed eS A
Elephants
a similar specimen in London in good condition, the tusks of
this elephant being much weightier than the first. Curiously
enough the stomach of this animal contained several handfuls
of large water-worn pebbles, some of them over one and a
| half inches in diameter and weighing together several pounds.
- As water was scarce in the district, it is to be presumed they
' were taken up in the beast’s trunk in its endeavour to get a
| decent drink from some partially dried up water-hole.
To relate yet another adventure: there is in the Luangwa
_ valley, known to sleeping-sickness doctors, journalists and
_ others as the ‘“‘ Death Valley of Africa”’ by reason of the
| virulent type of sleeping-sickness carried by the Glossina
_ morsitans or common tsetse fly, a narrow but deep, unnamed
_ stream that some years ago nearly proved my grave, and all
but sent me across that other dark water from which there is
no return, and over which poor Lewis, the friend and com-
panion then with me, had he but known it, was soon to pass.
In those days, with one drawback and another, we Northern
Rhodesian elephant-hunting farmers were often hard put to
it to make both ends meet, and in the intervals of losing our
Cattle with “ fly”’ and our cotton crops with “ boll-worm,”
indulged in the kingly sport of elephant hunting to replenish
_ the famished exchequer: to the death be it said of some of
us (although this fact was never taken into consideration
_ by the British South African Company) from sleeping-sickness
_and others from the prod of an elephant’s tusk. I am quite
ready to admit we were a considerable source of annoyance
' to the administration, as we did not always come by our
| ivory lawfully (on both sides of the border) ; but at the same
time some of us “‘ paid the price ’’ which went to even things up.
On the occasion of which I write, three of us, Lewis,
237
The Eastern Congo |
Gways and I, all pretty hard-up at the time, had joine . a
forces for an ivory-hunting expedition to the Luangwa River, _
which drains a deep and narrow valley between the western —
Nyasa highlands on the one hand and the Tanganyika
plateau and Muchinga escarpment on the other. From the
commencement the trip was unsuccessful and Gways hoa
lost himself for three whole days in the bush, becoming dis-_
gruntled in consequence, decided to go off on his own, leaving
Lewis and inyself together. Having previously bagged one —
or two small elephants, we presently found ourselves in a
village on the banks of the river, and the gardens here were
reported to us as having been destroyed by elephants. This —
we found to be true, so much so in fact that the natives were |
threatened by starvation in consequence. q
The proverb, “it’s an ill wind that blows nobody good,” —
might well be applied here, for we were overjoyed at the —
prospect of getting on to some good bulls; the morning |
therefore after our arrival found us taking opposite directions |
to pick up overnight spoor. Soon after leaving camp I came on |
fresh elephant tracks which I followed, and coming up with —
the animals quickly, wounded two bulls out of the troop of —
five. After emptying my magazine I raced after them, |
reloading as I went but to little purpose, as I arrived at the »
bank of the Luangwa River, which was then in flood, just.
in time to catch glimpses of the herd as it headed through |
the thick foliage on the opposite bank.
Where I now stood the Luangwa was quite one hundred —
yards broad besides being deep, with a swift current and ~
impassable save with a canoe. There remained nothing for,
it but to send one of the men back to the village to bring —
round a dug-out, and to remain where I was with what —
238
fe iit he ent =
———————————
Elephants
patience I could muster. Half an hour having gone by in
this way, my friend Lewis turned up, and explained that,
as he had returned to camp early and met my boy, who told
him what had happened, he had followed me up, after ordering
the canoe round. Soon after, the craft arrived, and we put
across the river.
On reaching the far side, we discovered that the recent
floods from the Muchinga mountains had inundated the
_ Mopani* flats on this side of the valley, and the country as
_ far as the eye could reach was ankle deep in water. This fact,
_ together with the wounds two of the elephants had received,
' no doubt accounted for our reaching the troop soon after we
left the river bank. We came up to them standing huddled
together. The biggest, carrying a magnificent pair of tusks,
being broadside on to us, at once received several bullets in
_ the shoulder from both Lewis and myself, and then placing
several other shots into the fast-retreating animals we tore
after them through the water, the state of our waterlogged
_ boots, however, soon bringing us to a standstill.
Taking a rest to talk over the situation, we decided that
Lewis should return to the village, bring our camp-gear across
_ the river, and that he should pitch the tents at the spot where
we sat. I was to follow up the big bull, which, judging by
_ its spoor had now left its companions, and evidently badly
| wounded, had gone off on its own.
* Mopani. The native name given to a handsome tree of erect growth,
resembling the maiden-hair tree, with shiny leaves of a like shape to the fern
of that name. This hard-wood tree is only found at low elevations and will
only grow on waterlogged clay flats, where few other plants can survive the alter-
nating baking by the sun and flooding by the rains. The seed exudes a resinous
gum, smelling strongly of turpentine. The crushed leaves when steeped in
boiling water form a reliable remedy for dysentery. The wood is white-ant
proof,
239
The Eastern Congo
So we parted, Lewis to recross the Luangwa River, |
with a rifle as my only companion, to spoor up the big tuske
and see what had become of him. . f
The succession of miniature water-filled pits that marked |
my quarry’s progress across the veldt were easy enough t 9
follow and presently led me to a dark and muddy backwater
overhung with foliage, which being not more than fifteen |
yards wide the big bull had taken in his stride, soto speak.
To mere man, however, this deep waterway was an —
obstacle not so easily negotiated, so venturing down the bank |
with my cocked and loaded rifle resting on my shoulder, I |
drove my right leg deep into the mud on the water’s edge,
and with my left stretched out into the water, lowered myself |
down gradually to test the depth of the river—with a view |
to knowing if I could wade across or if I should have to '
swim it. i
Not finding bottom I was about to raise myself again, —
when suddenly, without so much as a swirl of the oily water, |
I felt my leg in an awful grip from below, acco Ke .
the river. I just managed to save myself, however, owing 0 q
my right leg being firmly held, up to the knee, in the |
alluvial mud left by the subsiding water. .
crocodile, that terror of African waters, from whose jaws few |
men have ever escaped, I nerved myself for a supreme effort |
by clinging on for dear life to the roots about me as the croc. |
strained to pull me under. ai |
Fortunately for me, to hold on to my rifle when having |
a fall had become a second nature; I therefore still had
this in my grip and it lay, as far as I can remember,
240
dingy EE jase aa ao
a HN +8 wie
ve Pear es S604
sie "a0 ee
nee ee = SEs
aaa ° =i
ns Se 2
\ Sen Ao
E 38
as 3
ao he
ees 65
Ay a
=e 2 &
Sex Bs
oS oa:
te 85
On or
oO oO (x)
ai 2 ey
E ah
q cet
a§ Se
@, The Head and Tusks of a very large Elephant
shot by the Author. The native is standing
up. The tusks weighed about 95 Ib. each.
Elephants
_ (the barrel) in water and half in mud, so without aiming I
| simply pressed the trigger. In the back of my mind I was
not sure whether the rifle was “‘ at safety’ or not, so it can
_ be imagined with what thrilling joy the muffled report came
| to me from below water and I realised that my foe had, at
last, let go his hold.
' I now stumbled back on to the mud, and lifting my rifle
_I jammed cartridge after cartridge into the breach, letting
| rip into the water about me. Anywhere—everywhere—so
' long as I warded off a second attack from the loathsome
reptile.
~ After this I scrambled on all fours up the bank, and
| unrolling one puttee examined my wounds, which consisted,
| apart from minor abrasions, of four deep holes in my leg,
| the edges of two of them being badly torn. I lay here for
| some little time nursing my painful member, the wounds of
| which had completely incapacitated me from walking, and
| wondering if my friend Lewis could have heard the shots and
| So come to my assistance. To make sure | picked up my
| rifle and fired a second volley.
| Lewis, as he afterwards told me, heard both fusillades,
| and thinking to himself, “ By jove, Barns has got the big
| bull,” hurried along the carriers and presently found me
hors de combat as I have described.
: Fearing blood-poisoning after such a dangerous bite and
| Our other medicines having been left in the village, we hit
| upon the expedient of rubbing salt into the wounds. This
| proved to be nearly as painful as the nitrate of silver pencil
| used by the doctor on my arrival in Fort Jameson, which
place I reached in a machilla (a hammock slung on a pole) a
_ week later.
7 241 R
The Eastern Congo
Although all the sympathy I got from my friends was:
‘Well, Barns, I don’t think much of that darned old croc., _
if he selected your leg for a feed!” (referring to my sinewy
member)—the experience is one that few of them would like —
to go through themselves and they little know that the mere |
thought of the encounter had the power, for many months _
afterwards, to bring a chill of fear to my heart and at times _
would make me start up in the night from my sleep, with |
a cold sweat upon me, having dreamt of the living tomb |
that was so nearly mine. |
As a tribute to Krupp steel (if that were necdea I might |
say that the barrel of the German 8-mm. Mauser rifle, that |
saved my life and which I had fired under water, on examin- |
ation showed only a small bulge in the barrel and two weals.
in the rifling, to account for its unwonted treatment. But |
it would only shoot straight at a hundred yards when the
back sight was put up to 350. | |
Lewis, who stayed behind in the Luangwa River whilst 1 |
was recovering from the croc. bite, found one of the elephants |
we had wounded but never got the big one. My comrade,
to my great regret, not long afterwards contracted sleeping- |
sickness on another elephant shoot, from which he ca
on his way to England. |
To close this chapter I will give an account of what was. {
under the circumstances the most strenuous day’s elephant }
hunting that I can remember, and which has been brought —
vividly back to my mind by an account I read lately, of
the old Dutch elephant hunters driving a big herd of ©
elephant into a bog where they slaughtered them indis- ~
criminately.
At the commencement of the Great War my wife and myself tf
242
Elephants
were the very first to leave Fort Jameson for the German
border between Lakes Tanganyika and Nyassa, where we
_atrived before the troops. During the greater part of the
German East African campaign I was engaged in supplying,
| at that time, the only available meat ration for the native
i: troops and military porters, in the form of many tons of
_piltong (dried meat of wild game) and under this category
_ came the meat of elephants.
_ The rainy season having been the heaviest ever experi-
enced in that part of Africa, the Chambezi River which
drains the Tanganyika plateau had overflowed its banks
and flooded the country far and wide. The flats on either
side of the lower part of the river especially had been inun-
dated by the flood, the water standing many feet sh in all
| directions, across miles of open veldt.
| As elephants were reported to be destroying the native
_ crops at a village called Msumpi’s on the far side of the flooded
area, into this watery wilderness in search of them came my
| wife and I. Not only was the bush knee-deep in water,
_ but it rained “cats and dogs” most of the time, so it can
_ well be imagined that after crossing the overcharged Chambezi
' River in dug-out canoes and wading yet another thirty miles
beyond, we were thankful to reach the comparatively dry
‘village and to know that we had not been misinformed re-
garding the elephants. Our arrival was hailed with delight
by the Awemba chief, as the big herd that had located itself
in the vicinity of his village, to escape the surrounding flood,
"was gradually eating up the year’s food supply of himself
and his men.
! After a day’s rest to dry my belongings I took up the
-spoor of three elephants that had fed in the gardens over
243
The Eastern Congo
night, two of whom, judging by the size of their footprints, —
being old bulls. In this portion of Central Africa the ex-
perienced hunter can usually tell by the depth and size of
the spoors, also by the impressions made by the corrugations
at the bottom of the hoof, if he is following an old bull or —
not. With a few exceptions a “‘ heavy” spoor means heavy _
ivory. This does not apply, however, in Equatorial Africa, _
where elephants grow immense tusks but may have small _
spoors. Those elephants to be found in Northern Rhodesia _
are much finer animals, however, than any others I have |
seen, though with light ivory, compensated to some extent —
by being of extra fine quality. |
The high land on which Msumpi’s village was situated |
and across which the tracks now took me was of small extent, —
and whichever way one turned, led into flooded areas for the
most part knee-deep in water, so I was not long in coming | .
up with the herd, which the three bulls had soon joined after —
their night raid on the gardens. This large troop was —
scattered about in all directions, feeding in the thick scrub, |
but the bulls were nowhere to be seen. Selecting a big co |
with fine long ivories, I brought her down without much i
difficulty by placing several shots in her shoulder. | a
The whole herd, now thoroughly alarmed by the firing, |
crashed off, and finding the narrowed space of high ground -
too confined for their fears, took em masse to the water :
beyond. Knowing that there were several bulls amongst
them, I and my two trackers followed. |
Anyone who has walked in water with their boots on, '
even for a few hundred yards, will realise how fatiguing and |
what slow progress is possible in such a country. It “a
therefore well on towards evening before we came. up with -
244
Elephants
_ the tail end of the herd, consisting of one or two stragglers,
_ with small tusks, who were in difficulties with the mud.
The main herd was some distance in advance of these, and
from this direction, shortly afterwards, came the most
indescribable hubbub it is possible to imagine.
Although invisible, the soft nature of the ground on which
we were treading soon became apparent to my two followers
and myself by the fact of our falling into deep holes made
by the feet of the passing elephants in the increasingly soft
mud. From this it soon became obvious we had followed
the elephants into a hidden morass.
Realising now the cause of the uproar which still con-
_ tinued on ahead, and that I had before me the chance of an
elephant hunter’s life-time, I left my natives behind and,
_ filling my pockets with cartridges, I made a detour to avoid
_ the rearmost elephants and the pit-holes, putting forth all
_ my energy into reaching the spot from whence the commotion
proceeded.
: A few hundred yards brought me out into an open expanse
of low bush, and there, splashing, pushing and anon
trumpeting, struggled a heaving herd of some seventy
_ elephants, all with few exceptions completely bogged and
| entirely at my mercy! A fortune in ivory to a poor hunter !
As I stood there in the deep water, too excited to feel
_ tired, wet, or cold, and knowing that by my own endeavour
_ Thad hunted down the great animals before me, I was sorely
_ tempted, like the old Dutch hunters, to grasp my opportunity
_—shoot the lot and be damned to the consequences !
_ Temptation (a curious form of it some people will think) in
__ its specious way whispered, “‘ There are uncountable thousands
' of elephants in Africa. Why worry about those few? They
245
The Eastern Congo
eat up the natives’ gardens so that the natives starve;
they help to breed and feed tsetse fly, from the bite of which
your cattle have died; they are utterly useless animals and
retard the advance of civilisation ! ”’ a
These things occurred to me like a flash, but Moderation
and the Ring-fence won; besides, the job was a big under-
taking for one man. I set myself therefore the task of —
slaying those bulls carrying the best ivory, of which there
were three. The biggest of these was at that moment heaving
himself free from the grip of the bog beneath on to a group
of low ant-hills forming an island, and directly facing me,
at a distance of some twenty-five yards. A younger bull, not
handicapped with so much weight but having a fine long pair
of tusks, had already reached this spot and, apparently i |
undecided what to do next, stood watching the mass of his _
female companions and calves in their endeavour to clear |
brethren aati, was slowly but sled ploughing through the |
foaming mud and water to the haven already reached by
his companions, followed by a line of half-submerged females —
and young. i
The psychological moment to open fire had now arrived, ate
so raising my magazine rifle I fired at the shoulder of the i
biggest bull, following this up with several other bullets in a
quick succession. The excitement and noise at this juncture !
was something to remember! At my third or fourth a |
the wounded bull let forth a resounding trumpet and, turning — |
in my direction, charged out at me, in spite of the bullet |
I planted in his face. Seeing me, however, standing in the |
water and knowing the ground would not hold him, he —
slewed round, offering his shoulder for another bullet as he
246
Elephants
did so. Reloading my magazine, I fired at the second and
third bull, and eventually the three of them, being unable
to escape, fell to my rifle. By this time the remainder of
the plunging herd, being bogged deeper than ever, were
bunched up in groups, and there I left them. When we turned
up in the morning to cut up the three elephants the others
had gone, having managed to pull themselves out of the
marsh in the night.
By reason of its unwonted setting this episode remains
in my mind as one of the most exciting I can remember.
Many others occur to me as [I sit writing, but which will
have to wait for some other occasion—some sad, some cruel,
some laughable, others again so exciting that they still
have the power to thrill; days when the water was all
finished and such a terrible thirst assailed one that one was_
glad to cut open the water-stomach of an elephant and take
a drink or make tea with the insipid fluid; days again when
one was drenched through to the skin and the wood being
wet, one had to sleep as best one could in damp clothes ;
dull days of fever; delicious days of splendid health; in
other words, the storm and sunshine of a hunter’s life.
247
CHAPTER XVI
AFRICAN ENTOMOLOGY
Myr. G. Talbot, F.E.S., Curator of The Hill Museum of Lepidoptera,
Witley, Surrey, has very kindly assisted me in the composition of this chapter, also
tn the arranging of the plates, and my thanks are also due to him for participating ¢
in vevising the manuscript of this book.
HEY say that the first collector of butterflies and —
poor deluded —
creature,” being thought insane, was therefore clapped
into a mad-house by her relatives. This story rather appeals 7
to me and is no doubt perfectly true, for even in these modern |
days an entomologist when outside his laboratory and chasing
an insect across a field ' dubbed as a “ little bit touched, you 7
know—poor chap!” or “ has a screw loose somewhere, rather _
‘¢6¢
moths was a woman and that the
ne
sad in one so young !
In the course of my search for insects in Africa I have t
had some curious and often dangerous—too dangerous— —
experiences. In the first place, I have always been looked a
on as mad, and in some cases whole villages have fled at my —
|
approach, whilst in others the natives have come up to P|
“boo ”’ at the “‘ mad Bwana ”’ out collecting, to see what the a
effect was, afterwards running away. By the medicine men
and native sorcerers, however, I was always treated with the
greatest respect and regarded by them as a fellow- member.
of their great brotherhood of bluff. In a fishing country —
I have been taken as a fisherman out to net fish with my
bottles of bait, and elsewhere as a bird-catcher.
Hunting insects, like hunting animals, takes the collect
far afield, and I have on many occasions been confronted
248
African Entomology
with elephants, buffaloes, lions, leopards, and snakes which
I have run into, having nothing more lethal in my hand
than a net. Sleeping sickness is an ever-present danger to
the entomologist, for rare insects are to be found in the
swamps and forests inhabited by both the morsitans and
_ palpalis tsetse fly, which have caused the death of more than
_ one entomologist in recent years. One notable case especially
_ occurs to me, that of the death of Mr. Dollman* and his wife
_ from sleeping sickness in Northern Rhodesia.
The entomologist-collector is a vara avis and is born, not
_made; he has to be somewhat of an anachronism—a kind
/ of Admirable Crichton and war correspondent rolled into one
_ —for to be considered an expert foreign and tropical collector
he has to have the following qualities: a knowledge of all
_ branches of natural history and woodcraft and a good bump
of locality ; he must have a good memory, endurance, and
_ patience, be fearless, resolute and painstaking, and hard-
_ fisted as well as light-handed as circumstances may demand ;
also he must be a good linguist and draughtsman.
The paraphernalia of an entomologist in the tropics
_ consists of dozens of cyanide of potassium killing bottles,
variously shaped nets and collecting boxes, many forceps
and pins, powerful gasoline lamps for moths at night, as
well as mixtures of treacle, beer, dried fruit, oil of aniseed,
and amyl acetate to attract them. Thousands of envelopes
_ are required and special boxes for posting home the captures,
which are not “set” until they reach their destination,
- * Mr. Dollman was a very painstaking entomologist, who, besides achieving
_ Valuable results from his breeding experiments, amassed a very fine collection
_ of lepidoptera which he generously bequeathed to the British Museum. Mr.
_N. B. Riley, of the Museum staff, has lately published descriptions of new
| species from Mr. Dollman’s collection, but a fine set of paintings illustrating
_ the life-history of many species still awaits publication.—G. T.
249
The Eastern Congo
‘
when they are “relaxed’’ for the purpose. Napthaline is
used as an insecticide against destructive mites, and ¢
solution of formalin is used for preserving larve.
The following entomological field notes required from a
collector concerning his captures will give the reader some
idea of the work entailed :—
ENTOMOLOGICAL DATA REQUIRED FROM A COLLECTOR.
1. LOCALITY.
(a) If name is not on map give approximate position in
relation to a place which is on the map. Latitude —
and longitude is always desirable.
(b) Write a short account of geographical features. This
will include the general configuration, the presence
of water, and distance from the sea in the case of
islands. |
(c) Nature of the flora, noting special types. |
(d) Vertebrate fauna ; abundance or not of birds, reptiles,
mammals. ;
(ec) If a mountain, indicate what side.
(f) Ifa river, indicate which bank.
(g) Height above sea-level.
2. CLIMATE.
(a) General remarks.
(b) Rainfall and humidity. |
(c) Temperatures taken at coolest period, medium period —
and hottest time of day. | 4
(2) Kind of season: wet, dry, or both.
(e) Prevailing winds.
250
African Entomology
3. TIME.
| (a) Month when taken.
- (b) Taken in a.m., p.m., or at dusk or attracted to light
at night.
_ 4. Habits oF ADULTs.
(a) Usual feeding haunts.
(0) What species fly together.
(c) When several forms are feeding or are at rest in one
assemblage, try and net all by waiting for those
that are disturbed to come back. Keep such lots
separate.
(d2) Note any protection afforded by coloration, etc., when
at rest.
(ec) Note whether conspicuous on the wing and if can be
mistaken for another species. |
(f) Note any bird or animal seen catching butterflies, and
what species of butterfly. Very important.
(g) When skinning any birds, note if any remains of
lepidoptera are in the crop.
(A) Resting attitude.
(1) Do the sexes fly together and have they similar habits ?
Do the males “‘ assemble ’’ to the females ?
5. HABITS OF LARVA.
(a) Endeavour to rear larve.
(6) When adult is known, preserve the larva, both by
fixation and by formalin.
(c) Note coloration when alive.
_ (d) Note time when feeding.
(e) Note if conspicuous or protected.
(f) Preserve portion of food-plant, and include flower
where possible.
251
The Eastern Congo
(g) Note month.
(kh) Any habits.
(1) Any enemies observed—also parasites.
) Fix any larve with curious structures.
(k) Resting attitude.
6. Pupz&.
Preserve all pupa-cases where the adult is known.
7. OVA.
Where identified, preserve some in 5% formalin.
with date.
In the course of my travels I have so often been asked,
What use there is in collecting butterflies, that I feel some ©
reply is necessary to refute the implied suggestion and general
belief that the collecting of lepidoptera is just a rich man’s
hobby. |
Firstly, let me say, therefore, that there is the ne ie |
of its great usefulness from an economic standpoint. The —
origin of silk is too well known to need mention here, but le am |
us take the larve of certain butterflies and moths which |
destroy annually many million pounds’ worth of all kinds of — |
vegetable and other products useful to man, and we then |
see that any research that tends to lessen or check this loss _
is of supreme advantage to mankind. Then again its usefulness |
is apparent in assisting geologists, botanists, and zoologists :
in their determinations and the solving of many faunal. ¢
geographical enigmas and thus ably adding to the sum of the i |
world’s knowledge. There are, too, many perplexing questions © to
regarding mimicry in butterflies that when finally settled — i
will throw fresh light on biological research. Then who can -
ponder for one instant on the wonderful metamorphosis of 2 a i r
252 |
African Entomology
butterfly or moth from an egg through its larval and pupal
stages to the mature insect without acknowledging that inquiry
into such a marvellous evolution may not one day lead to
astonishing results.
There are lines of research open to the lepidopterist as
- engrossing and no less important than those of the chemist,
for instance, amongst which may be mentioned inheritance,
variation, phylogeny, the evolution of wing pattern, data
_ bearing on the general question of the origin of species, and
the interpretation of the phenomena presented by mimetic
_ resemblance and geographical distribution.
| A REMARKABLE BUTTERFLY.
As far as is certainly known at present, the Ornithoptera
_ group of Papilios is unrepresented in Africa, but from reports
_ that reach England from time to time it is thought that this
_ group may be represented or that a third species of giant
_ Papilios exists, similar to the antimachus and zalmoxis, or
even perhaps a hybrid between these two. There is, for
instance, an authenticated report of such an insect having
been seen in Liberia which rather bears out my own experience
_-when crossing the higher Lindi River in the Stanleyville
district of the Belgian Congo. I was on my way to Stanley-
ville from a place named Irumu, near Lake Albert, and having
arrived at the Lindi River, which at this point is a good
two hundred yards wide, I was crossing it in a canoe when
from the opposite bank came flying towards me a large insect
of the antimachus type but of heavier build and flight. It
circled over the water and round and above the canoe, where I
got a good look at it. The hind wings appeared to me to be a
rich brown, spotted and barred with black at the edges, the
253
The Eastern Congo
fore wings having each a broad transverse bar across them
of a vivid blue-green on a ground colour of black. The
insect eventually flew away over the trees, and although I
waited there for the rest of the day it never returned. Some — :
five or six miles farther on, and in the forest, I thought 19
saw a similar insect, but I could not be sure that this was é
not a zalmoxts. 4
I put down this record for what it is woes as the insect _
may subsequently be captured by some lucky individual. |
I have of course been asked why I did not stay a week or |
a month on the spot and attempt to capture so great a prize;
the answer is that at that time (not long after the signing of —
the Treaty of Peace) passages to England were exceedingly
difficult to obtain, and having booked and paid for two
berths (for myself and my wife) on a homeward bound
steamer six months in advance, I was unable to give the |
time necessary for the purpose without losing our passages.
As a matter of fact, I reached my port of embarkation with |
only two days to spare.
ENEMIES OF BUTTERFLIES.
From close observation made in the course of my travels |
through Central Africa, which have been spread over a period ©
of twenty-five years, I am of the opinion that African birds —
are not partial to butterflies as food. Always excepting the
African pied wagtail. The number of times I have seen birds
attempting to catch butterflies can be counted on the fingers —
of one hand, and only once have I seen a bird actually with |
one in its beak. |
The pied wagtail, which is found in great numbers —
throughout Africa, is a notable exception to this, and in
254
African Entomology
places where butterflies are common these insects become
their main food supply. These birds are a source of con-
siderable annoyance to the collector, as a male and female
bird will often take up a position at a mud-hole or other place
_ frequented by scarce species, where they continue to disturb
| and eat the butterflies, often under one’s very nose. They
' seem to have a partiality for Papilios and Pierids, but
apparently leave most red and red-brown butterflies alone
_when there are others. These birds know the Acreids quite
well, and even amongst a collection of red and red-brown
butterflies will always select for instance a Lachnoptera iole
| or columbina and leave the Acrzids untouched.
I have seen these wagtails eat various species of Papilio,
| Charaxes, Euphedra, Diestogyna, Pierids, Lachnoptera,
Lycenids, Hesperids, and Nymphalids.
| In the crops of many wild birds which have come under
_ my notice I have never seen a part of any butterfly, but pupe
(and of course larve) frequently. The contents of the crop
of one guinea-fowl that I shot contained thirty-four pupz
of one species of large moth.
Next to the pied wagtail in point of destructiveness to
_ butterflies come frogs and the smaller lizards, which catch
and eat a great number, principally in places where the
butterflies come to drink and feed. Both lizards and frogs
seem partial to Lycznids and Pierids. They also leave the
_ Acreids and red and red-brown butterflies severely alone.
After the lizards may be mentioned the large stink ants
| (Paltothyreus) which, with the larger dragon-flies are, as far
| as my observation goes, the only African insects that
will directly catch a live butterfly with their mandibles. I
have watched stink ants at different times in twos or threes
255
The Eastern Congo
creep up to a collection of Pierids feeding, each catch a large
Pierid (to which they seem partial) in their strong hooked
mandibles, kill them and carry them off to their nest. It
often happens that the ant does not get a vital grip of its”
prey ; there is then a tussle—strength of wing versus weight.
The butterfly will frequently carry the ant a considerable
distance, although the ant is usually the victor, as he never |
lets go his grip. The feeding places of the Pierids are often |
littered with wings and parts of wings, where these ants |
have made a habit of coming daily to catch their food. On 7
two occasions I have observed these ants catch Acreids and
_ take them away to their nests. :
In the plant world the large African sun-dew attracts
Lycenids and Pierids. The dead and dying insects may be
seen caught in its wonderful fly-traps ; again others may be
seen fluttering around entangled in its sticky exudation. _
So much for the enemies of the mature butterfly; but
the moths have more to contend with, for apart from night
birds—the night-jars, owls, swifts, etc.—the small rodents,
lemurs and bats catch and eat all they can see; the latter
are especially numerous in Africa and adepts at catching all
kinds of insects on the wing. Then again at night come o |
that terrible band of nocturnal insects, added to which are
large numbers of voracious spiders, all on the look-out for
the half-awakened moth just out of its chrysalis. = |
Regarding the feeding and flying together of various |
species of butterflies, I have made many notes, but as Pil J j
matter of fact at one time or another both in the forest and
steppe regions (with a few exceptions, such as Euxanthe or |
Mycalests), members of almost every species can be seen |
flying, feeding, or drinking together at one time or another.
256 ri i
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cast
African Entomology
Thus it will be seen that observations under this head are of
little significance .[In the case of mimetic forms the observations
a e important.—G. T.]
__ There appears to be an interesting line of research amongst
the parasitic larve of small moths to be found on other
insects, such as Epipyrops fulvipuncta Dist., a Limacodid
moth whose larva lives in the nest of a Homopterous insect
and feeds on its nymphs, also in the fact of larve of certain
Lepidoptera being found inhabiting some ants’ nests, where
they appear to be fed and attended to by these wonderful
insects. There are also in Africa a number of species of
social moths of the Anaphe group which form “ nests” of
cocoons from which a fine quality of silk can be spun, and
with which the Germans experimented successfully in the
weaving of silk. Then again there is much work to be done
in the breeding of such species as the Euphedra, Euryphene,
Euryphura, Diestogyna and Cymothe to determine the relation-
ips of the many varied forms they present.
The life-history of the greater part of African Lepidoptera
is entirely unknown, and much work remains to be done. A
horough investigation into the life-history of the smaller
moths would be of great utility, as many of these insects
ecome serious pests to the planters or plants.
Such lines of research are only possible to entomologists
with time and the necessary equipment at their disposal, and
who have permanent bases in Africa, such as Government
entomologists, to whom I would commend these notes.
CHAPTER XVII
CINEMATOGRAPHY AND PHOTOGRAPHY
HE equipment of an explorer and collector in these
days cannot be considered complete without a cine-
matograph outfit as well as one for still photography.
I therefore decided some years ago to take up this new art, —
to record and to reveal to others some of the secrets that
wild and savage Nature hides so securely from all save those
who seek her treasures in remote corners of the world. As
I was a novice with a ‘‘ movie” camera it may be of interest |
to some to know how I fared. ]
Let me say at once that as a money-making scheme T
found the taking of moving pictures of wild life a failure.
Possibly on account of the cinematograph trade being’
proverbially a ‘“‘ close’’ one and held by a ring of Jews, or’
maybe because the market is flooded with such pictures, or
because of the lack of business training in myself, or the
somewhat depraved public taste in pictures; in any case,
whatever the cause, I have never received one penny in’
return for several hundred pounds spent on the work. I
have received offers for some of my films, but of such a
nature that, as I told one Hebrew, I would sooner burn the!
lot than dispose of any at such a price. a
Wild life subjects have an immense appeal to the travelled
and scientific classes, but their numbers are comparatively —
few, therefore it is that the taking of Nature pictures in
savage lands is unlikely to become anything more, at present, ~
than an expensive hobby for the amateur.
258
Cinematography
Throughout the expedition that this book describes I
carried a Gillon camera with me, one of the older models
and much too heavy for my purpose; but it had this
_ advantage, however, that it was exceedingly strong. I had
_ with it a Zeiss-Tessar 3.4-inch lens and a Ross “ Xpres”’
. 6-inch lens. The negative stock I had posted out to me in
/ small lots, direct from the makers, to ensure its freshness,
_and after exposure it was repacked and posted home on
_ the first opportunity for development. I also made a practice
| of developing short slips cut off the ends of the rolls, to see
_ if everything was going on all right, and if my exposures
| were correct. Invariably I used the Watkins’ kinematograph
| exposure meter, with pendulum for timing exposures, and
_ found it invaluable.
| At first I experienced some difficulty in turning the handle
of the camera at a uniform rate of speed, but after a little
_ practice this is easy. A good method for the novice is to
count out loud—one hundred and one—one hundred and
_ two, and so on, as the handle is turned; these numbers
| counted out in the ordinary way of speaking give the desired
' speed of two turns or sixteen pictures to the second. A new
_ hand is apt to turn the handle too fast.
I found it of the utmost importance to keep the rather
complicated machinery of the camera well oiled and clean.
| The “ gate’’ through which the film passes to be exposed
is another thing that needs constant attention to keep it
| free from grit and other foreign matter that would scratch
| the film. After exposing each roll I used to rub this well
_ with a lightly vaselined wash-leather, and then again with
_asecond dry piece kept for the purpose.
| The price I paid for Eastmans’ perforated negative stock
259
The Eastern Congo
was 2d. per foot, for developing it 1d. per foot, and for |
printing 33d. per foot. Added to this was the import duty
into England of 5d. per foot on exposed and undeveloped
film, bringing the actual cost per foot of the finished pictures — |
up to 114d., without taking into consideration the cost of ]
obtaining the films, postage, wear and tear of camera, and
losses through damaged and perished film. |
Loss through the latter cause was often a considerable
item. I well remember receiving a consignment of two |
thousand feet of negative stock from a Birmingham firm —
which reached me in Africa. It looked well enough when tt
inspected it with the aid of a small travelling dark lamp,
and having none other at the time, I loaded my camera with —
several rolls, setting forth to hunt up a herd of elephants _
that I knew were in the vicinity of my camp. As luck would ~
have it, in the course of the day I found a number of these _
animals bogged in a marsh and offering a wonderful chance —
for filming them, which I set about doing without loss of —
time. My chagrin can be better imagined than described —
when I came to develop pieces of these films, which I thought :
would be absolutely unique, and found that the stock was
quite hopelessly perished—all of it—not one single foot was |
of any use! The worst part of such a catastrophe in the
African wilds is the fact that the camera-man is quite helpless
on such occasions, for fresh supplies of any kind cannot reach
him from England under many months.
As I passed through late German East Africa shortifi
after the war there was no parcel post organised, resulting —
in a considerable delay in sending my films home for develop- — |
ment. On this account, and owing to other delays at home, |
some of them remained undeveloped for nine months, witha |
260
Cinematography
however affecting them very adversely.* Some of my best
_ animal films I obtained in the wonderful game country of
_ Lake Edward. On the Semliki River I found the elephant
so tame that it was possible to get pictures of them at very
close quarters; the grass being short, conditions were
_ ideal there.
My method of approaching dangerous game to film them
was with the camera and tripod ready fixed, mounted on my
shoulder. Having previously tested the light with the meter
and stopped the lens, it was only necessary to focus it.
Taking advantage of all cover, I went forward in short runs,
followed by one native with my rifle, and on getting as close
as possible I set down the camera and tripod and started the
handle, after adjusting the view-finder and focusing if
necessary. It is usual for the animal cinematographer to
have lenses up to twelve-inch focus and even over, but I
am not in favour of them as being unwieldy, hard of focus,
_ and giving a shaky image; I rather prefer to have a lens of
- medium focus and get nearer the object. On the plains of
Lake Edward I have approached to within twenty-five
paces of elephants, buffaloes, and hippo’. As is usual where
_ quickness is essential, I had my lens mount marked for
various distances, so that it was only necessary to set the
lens on the mark without looking through the focusing tube.
Originality is the high-road to success, and no less so
| with wild life cinematography than with any other branch
_of art. In my efforts I climbed equatorial Alps, peered
_ into active craters, crawled after elephants, buffaloes,
| *A good plan to ensure exposed negative stock reaching its destination
| im good condition is to take plenty of fine adhesive tape and to wind it round the
| Sides of the tins, afterwards wrapping them in several coverings of special
_ absorbent paper, which should be gummed down.
261
The Eastern Congo
lions, and all kinds of game, and—sometimes with a patience
that astonished myself—waited for the psychological moment
when certain butterflies were grouping themselves to the
best advantage. q
My most successful pictures, and those that attracted |
most attention when I lectured with them, were a solitary
old bull buffalo, elephants on the Semliki River, a herd of _
hippo racing through the water, the eruptive shaft of the |
Niragongo volcano, alpine vegetation on the Ruwenzori |
mountains, and the snow-capped Stanley peak, the Ituri
River scenery, the Watusi dances, the pygmies and insects.
I had the finest opportunity to film a troop of gorillas”
that ever fell to the lot of man, but it is impossible to shoot |
animals and film them at the same time—it must be either
the one or the other; both cannot be undertaken togetiia |
successfully. On this occasion I decided that a bird in the
hand was worth two on the film, so used my rifle 1 in the place |
of the camera. . |
With regard to ordinary still photography, I have tried |
all sorts of cameras and am never without one. I consider |
the pre-war lenses and cameras far superior and more a |
to give lasting satisfaction than those made to- ‘day. There”
1914 camera and one made in 1920 ; the former is a far bette: | |
article. For this reason I would advise an intending purchaser |
to go to a good firm dealing in second-hand cameras and
selecting one of the pre-war makes with a pre-war lens, having
the latter repolished if need be. An all-round lens that has of
given me the utmost satisfaction for the past fifteen years, |
and is still as good as ever, is a Beck-Steinheil Orthostigmat. — .
To meet all requirements of a long expedition I think
262
Cinematography
/
four cameras are necessary, viz., a quarter-plate combined
hand and stand camera and a quarter-plate reflex fitted with
a full range of lenses, interchangeable for either camera.
Thirdly, a Panoram Kodak for survey work, and lastly, a
vest-pocket camera.
Roll films are anathema to me. I always take glass
plates as giving far and away the best results, as much in
point of their keeping qualities as in the resulting negative,
E although stiff films and film packs are both serviceable and
reliable. As a quarter-plate negative will enlarge well up to
almost any size, a larger camera than this is unnecessary
when weight and general handiness are to be considered.
Needless to say, I have always undertaken my own
developing, and have found a lightly coloured solution of
permanganate of potash a useful hypo eliminator in hot
climates, where softening of the emulsion is inevitable.
I think the making of a successful photograph lies in
knowing and selecting the most suitable place from where to
take it; this should never be done haphazard if a pleasing
result is desired. Another thing worth remembering is, take
the photograph on the slowest plate that the subject and
light will allow. A camera should be loaded with both fast
_ and slow plates—the continuous use of fast plates of the
same speed is by no means desirable or necessary.
Reverting again to cinematography, it may save the
unwary amateur from a pitfall if I record the fact that there
is a law passed in England which disallows the importation
of cinematograph films as traveller’s baggage. I know this,
as I once arrived at Plymouth with some two thousand feet
of exposed film in one of my trunks, which I duly declared
' on arrival and handed over to the customs authorities for
263
The Eastern Ceres
forwarding to the Bonded Film Warehouse at Endell Stre
When I received the account for the importation duty.
fivepence per foot I was astonished to find there was hk
additional twelve pounds added on as a fine for having don
this. After some difficulty I managed to get this fin
remitted to one of twenty shillings, with a caution and <
note to the effect that pleading ignorance of the law was
no defence. q
264
ae
Tb
-
OU
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ao
<
Mr. Barns’ Paeetions and Aspects
of Butterfly Life in Africa.
By G. TALBOT, F.E.S.
_ THE country traversed by Mr. and Mrs. Barns was calculated to yield
some novelties in butterflies and moths. The Katanga district of the
_ Belgian Congo, the region around Lake Kivu, and the Ituri Forest,
have not received so much attention from the entomologist as the
_ better-known regions of the west, the south, East Africa and Uganda.
_ The dense forest region of the Congo hinterland still holds many
_ surprises for the butterfly and moth collector. The existence of an
unknown species of giant Papilio, already referred to by Mr. Barns,
_ must be considered as one of the most wonderful butterfly discoveries
of recent years. Mr. Barns is once again in Africa in quest of this
_ rare insect, but at the time of writing no specimens have been seen.
_ Confirmation of the existence of this butterfly has been supplied by
_ my friend Monsieur F. le Cerf of the Paris Museum. |
| A certain Sergeant Monceaux (now Captain), when employed on
_ the Franco-Liberian Boundary Commission for the delimitation of the
_ frontier between Liberia and French Guinea, made a collection of
Over 4,000 Lepidoptera which he brought to the Paris Museum. He
stated as having seen 1n the region of the Upper Sasandra River a
large butterfly drinking at a pool of water on the road. It closed and
opened its wings alternately, and the observer was able to get fairly
close to it before it flew away. The sergeant stated that the wings
of this butterfly were very long and for the greater part of a brilliant
blue colour.
Monsieur le Cerf showed Sergeant Monceaux several species in
_ the museum including P. zalmoxis, but he recognised none of them as
_ being the insect he had seen. The sergeant pulled out some other
drawers and seeing P. antimachus, exclaimed: “‘C’est comme cette
espece ld, mais avec beaucoup de bleu brillant et encore plus grand.”
pt is like that species there, but with a lot of bright blue and still
arger.)
- This butterfly has been observed also on two occasions in Nigeria.
The total number of specimens collected by Mr. and Mrs. Barns
Was 4,300. These comprise over 760 distinct forms of butterflies,
and considerably more than 250 species of moths. Most of these
_ have been worked out, and we have described as new to science, 78
forms of butterflies and 57 moths, with one moth forming the type
267
Aspects of Butterfly Life
of anew genus Descriptions of these and figures of most of them are |
given in “‘ The Bulletin of the Hill Museum,” Part I, roar. > |
The collection is the finest that has been made in the Kivu regic ei
and in the Ituri Forest, and is remarkable for the great number of —
species and new forms. The majority of the specimens were in fine
condition and accompanied by a precise statement of the date and ~
locality. In many cases Mr. Barns was able to add some notes on
the habits of the insects. 4
The collection adds much to our knowledge of the distribution —
of many forms. Most African species range over the whole continent —
south of the Sahara, and the occurrence of species hitherto known |
from South Africa, as far north as the Semliki Valley, is a abe |
illustration of the wide range of African butterflies. It is interesting
to note that these Semliki and Lake Edward specimens exhibit no
divergence from their South African brothers. The two environments — |
are most likely very similar. With a difference in the physical environ-
‘ment we generally find some divergence from the typical form of the ©
insect, though mostly not sufficient to constitute an entirely distinct
form or species. Many of the new forms described from the collection |
represent what are known as geographical races or species in the making.
The definite wet and dry seasons which prevail in most parts of
Africa, have their effect on the butterfly fauna. Some species exhibit _
two quite different-looking forms, one flying in the wet, the other flying _
in the dry season. There are often two forms of male and two forms _
of female. One species of the Pierids possesses seven forms of female _
of which Mr. Barns took four, The dry season form of butterfly is —
especially common in the grassy steppe regions, whilst in the evergreen —
forest belt of the west, the butterflies are larger and more richly
marked. These two types of country support quite different species —
and forms, but as these areas cut into one another we can see why !
the species are so widely distributed
The grassy steppes of the east are the habitat of a multitude oft A
butterflies belonging to the family of the ‘“‘ Whites,’ amongst which,
species of the genus Tevacolus are conspicuously common, with their
red- and purple-tipped wings. Together with these are great numbers —
of red-brown and yellow-brown spotted Acraezds. |
As one reaches the forest lands of the west, the butterfliall |
characteristic of dry country disappear, but whenever long grass _
country intersects the forest, these denizens of the steppes may be seen, _
A rich diversity of butterflies and moths is found in the vast ever- —
green forests of the Congo basin, and it is remarkable what a number
of species live in the gloomy depths of these forests where sunlight
does not penetrate and where flowers are seldom seen. These insects
find their sustenance in tree gums, sap, decaying animal matter, and
268
Aspects of Butterfly Life
_in the excrement of animals. The life and feeding habits of many of
_ these beautiful butterflies is quite contrary to the popular idea which
_ associates them with flowers and bright sunlight.
_ The different types of country traversed by the expedition exhibit
different types of butterfly fauna. The Lufira Valley is very rich in
‘Species. Here one finds all types of butterflies ranging from the west
| coast, the Cameroons, Angola, the Congo Forest, East and South
Africa. Though many of these remain unchanged, others are to be
distinguished as races or as species whose further distribution is not
fully known. Four butterflies and ten moths were new to science
_ from this district. These include a very fine species of Agaristid moth
_ which we have named Mitophrys barnszi.
The district around Albertville produces dry country forms of
_ East and South African types. Four butterflies are described as new
_ from here.
The Ujiji, Ruanda, and Ruindi districts are mostly grassy
_ steppes supporting South and East African elements. Two butterflies
_and thirteen moths are described as new from this region. The grassy
_ steppes were found to be the habitat of a form of the English ‘‘ Small
_ Copper” (Chrysophanus phlaeas pseudophlaeas Luc.), scarcely dis-
_ tinguishable from our own. There also occurred more commonly
| the “Short-tailed Blue’’ (Polyommatus boctica L.), formerly found in
_ England but occuring in Jersey and distributed to Polynesia. It
' occurs in suitable localities throughout Africa.
The volcanic region of Lake Kivu exhibits a type composed of
_ modifications of East African and Ruwenzori forms, some species
_ being identical even with those met with on Ruwenzori. Light
| butterflies and eleven moths are described as new. These include two
| distinct Acraeids one of which, quite unlike any previously known,
| we have called bettiana in honour of Mrs. Barns. It was taken flying
| over the hot and dry lava plains. A remarkable Lycaenid (Harpen-
_ dyreus reginaldi Heron) only previously known by one specimen from
Ruwenzori, was observed visiting the flowers of giant heather around
' the Niragongo Volcano. A species of Fritillary (Argynnis excelsior
' Butl.) only known before from Ruwenzori, Lake Tanganyika and the
_ Cameroons was found around the volcanoes visiting the flowers of
_ thistles and similar plants. Four African species are known of this
' genus and a race of an Indian form occurs in Abyssinia.
The mountains of Ruwenzori on the west side where Mr. Barns
collected, show a mixture of Congo and Uganda types. A number of
_ small moths were found flying at 13,000 feet, and some of these proved
' tobenew. From Ruwenzori we have four butterflies and eight moths
_ which are new. A very pretty Noctuid moth from the Semliki was
_ mamed Diaphone barnst.
269
GNTARIG
Aspects of Butterfly Life
The Ituri Forest is very rich in species whose allies may be found
in Uganda and across the western forest belt to the coast. Twenty
three butterflies of which fifteen belong to the family of the “ Blues”
were found to be new, as well as six moths. One of these moths is
the representative of a species of the Saturnid family hitherto known __
only from Sierra Leone. It is remarkable for the hind wing being —
produced to a very long tail.. This new form is much larger than its —
relative It has received the name of Eudaemonia argiphontes barnsi, |
The Leaf Butterfly (Kallima cymodoce Cram.) was observed feeding on _
small flowering plants in the Ituri district. When disturbed it flies
into the undergrowth where it defies detection. A rarer species, but 4
more strongly leaf-like in its markings on the underside, is Kalima — !
ansorget Roths., of which several specimens were eaece in the dense |
forest.
similar forms to those found in the Ituri. There were, however,
several forms new to science not represented in the Ituri ‘Collection.
These comprise eJeven butterflies and four moths. One of the former,
a richly coloured blue species of Lycaenid, we have named Epamera
barnst.
Scarcely anything is known as yet of the habits and life history
of the majority of the African butterflies and moths, though many of
the South African species have been worked out. In recent years,
the life-history of many Southern Nigerian insects, especially the re-
markable association of Lycaenids with ants, has been made known ~
through the labours of Dr. W. A. Lamborn and Mr. C. O. Farquharson.
Interested readers are referred to the transactions of the Entomological
Society of London for r913 and 1921. Most of the Lepidoptera have
a very short period of flight, so that a collector who visits a locality _
at different times of the year will obtain a greater number of species
than at any single period. On this account a vast number of species
must await discovery on the African Continent.
270
The forest region of the Lindi and Congo rivers contains very rf
q
wed aN cod
|
List of Forms of Lepidoptera New to
Science Collected by Mr. & Mrs. Barns.
By G. TALBOT.
DEscrIpTIONs of these insects and figures of most of them are published
in “The Bulletin of The Hill Museum,” Part I, 1921, and the types are in
the collection of J. J. Joicey, Esq. A certain number of moths remain to
be worked out, and it is probable that a few other novelties will be
established. |
The Noctuidae were worked out by Miss A. E. Prout, F.E.S., and the
Geometridae by Mr. L. B. Prout, F.E.S.
BUTTERFLIES.
Family PIERIDAE
Mylothris interposita.—Bafwasende, April, one male.
Mylothris latimargo.—Lufira valley, one female; Urindi District, one male.
Type from Kavirondo, E. Africa. (Coll. Neumann )
Mylothns ruandana Strand.—The female. One male also taken on the
lava plains, Kivu, October.
Pieris solilucts Butl.—Female form sabulosa.—Two females from Ituri
district, January and February.
Pinacopteryx vidua Butl.—Female form primulinanw—Two females from
Ruanda, August.
Family DANAIDAE
Amauris egialea similis—Type from Kivu, October, also two males from
Semliki. Also known from Uganda, East Africa and Kilimanjaro.
Family ACRAEIDAE
Planema macaria hemileuca Jord.—The female; also one male; both from
Ituri, Februaiy and May.
Acraea eliringhami.—One male from Ruanda, September.
Acraea bettiana.—Kivu, September and October, five males and one female.
Acraea bettiana, form kissejensis.—One male from Kivu, September.
Acraea disiuncta Grosesmith, form alciopoides.—Resembles very strongly a
common species called Acraea alciobe Hew. Two males from the
Ituri, January. Also known from Uganda.
Acraea leucopyga latiapicalis—One male from the Upper Congo, June.
271
List of New Forms of Lepidopteml
Family NyMPHALIDAE — | |
Ergolis enotrea suffusa.—Male and female types from Albertville, June;
also one male from Sabaka River. Also known from Uganda and
Angola. a |
Ergolis albifascia.—Male and female types from Semlikiand Lindi, December |
and April; also four males and one female from Ituri, January toMay. |
Also known from W. Africa, Cameroons and Uganda. |
Ergolis personata.—One female from Ituri, March. Types from Upper Kasai
district. (Coll. Landbeck.) |
Byblia ee cramer Auriv., form nigrifusa.—One female from the Lindi
pril. |
Precis archesia Cram., form obsoleta.—Type from Ujjiji district, July. Also
known from Angola and Rhodesia. |
Hypolimnas salmacis Drury, female form ochreata.—Found together with
normal white females of the species from West Africa to Uganda.
Aterica galene Brown, form albtmacula.—Found together with the typical
form from West Africa to Uganda. |
Cymothoe theobene D. & H., female form umbrina.—Two from Ituri, January
and March. Also known from Ashanti, Cameroons and Upper Kasai.
Cymothoe erts Auriv.—The female from Tshopo River, April. Also known
from Kasai River.
Euptera semirufa.—One female from the Ituri, March.
Euptera hirundo lufirensis—Lufira Valley, May. Twomalesand onefemale.
Euryphura porphyrion congoensis.—Female from Ituri Forest, January. |
Male known from the Kasai River.
Euryphura plautilla Hew., female form albtmargo.—One specimen from Ituri,
January.
Diestogyna umbrina Auriv.—One specimen of the female from Ituri,
February. |
Euryphene laetitioides.—A series of eight males and seven females from Ituri, _
January and March, and Semliki, December. Also known from |
Cameroons, May and June. |
Euryphene brunnescens.—Ituri, January to March, three males and two |
females; Semliki valley, December, two males. |
Euphaedra ceres Fabr., form phosphor.—Three males from Albertville, June.
Euphaedra preussi Stgr., form obsoleta.—One female from Ituri, January.
Euphaedra lupercotdes Roths.—One specimen of the female from Lindi, April.
Euphaedra eleus Drury, female form coerulea.—One specimen from the Ituri,
February.
Euphaedra eleus nigrobasalis.—Lufira valley, May ; one male and two females.
Charaxes imperialis albipuncta.—One male from Ituri, March. Also known
from the Cameroons and Upper Kasai.
Charaxes eupale latimargo.—Ituri, January to May, seven males. Also
known from the Cameroons, Congo and Uganda.
Charaxes subornatus minor.—Ituri, January to March; twomales. Known
also from Uganda and Nairobi.
Euxanthe crossleyi intermedia.—Two males from the Ituri, January.
272
Hy List of es Forms of Lepidoptera
: 4
Family SATYRIDAE
| _ Mycalesis asochis congoensis.—Lindi district, April, two males ; Congo, May,
one male.
| “Mycalesis persimilis.—Ruwenzori from 1,500 to 2,200 metres, December,
B. four males and one female.
| Family ERYCINIDAE
| Abisava barnst.—One female from the Semliki, December.
Family LYCAENIDAE
} Telipna angustifascia.—One male from Bafwaboli. Also known from Upper
i" Kasai, the Cameroons and Uganda.
Telipna subhyalina, —Ituri, March, two females.
| onemale. Alsoknown from Upper Kasai.
| Pseuderesia neavei.—Five males from Semliki, January. Also known from
| Uganda.
me avec congoensis.—Ituri, January, one male ; Semliki, December, one
| emale.
_ Citrinophila terias.—Ituri, January, two females.
_ Liptena ilma lathy:.—Five males from Kivu, November.
_ Eresina_ toroensis.—One female from Ituri, January. Also known from
| Uganda.
_ Epitola ammon.—One female from Ituri, March.
_ Epttola viridana.—One male from Ituri, "March.
_ Epitola iturina—A male from Ituri, April.
Epitola urania tanganikensis. —Albertville, June, three males.
_ Hewitsonia kirbyi Dew., female form intermedia.—Two specimens from Ituri,
| January and February. Also known from Uganda and Cameroons,
| Hewitsonia boisduvali congoensis——One male from Ituri, January. Also
ie known from Upper Kasai.
_ Hypokopelates ituri Bethune-Baker, form lineosa.—Lindi district, April, five
| males ; Ituri, March and April, four males.
_ Hypokopelates canesens.—One male from Albertville, June.
Tanuetheiva prometheus congoensis.—One female from Albertville, June.
| anni silaris 1turensis.—One female from Bafwaboli, April.
Epamera fuscomarginata.—One male from Bafwaboli, April.
_ Epamera barnsi.—One male from Bafwaboli, April.
| Epamera fratey —Lindi district, April, three males.
Hypolycaena buxtoni puella. —One female from Ruwenzori, 2,500 metres,
| December; one female from Ruanda, September.
| Zeltus antifaunus latimacula.—One male from Ruindi district, July ; four
males and two females from Ruanda, August; one female from
Ruindi plains, November. Also known from North Rhodesia and
| Uganda.
_ Cupidesthes cuprifascia.—One male from Bafwasende, April.
: meshes minor.—One female from Ituri, April.
Lycaenesthes discimacula.—Ituri, January to May, three males.
273 Zz
List of New Forms of Lepidoptera’ 4
Lycaenesthes bipuncta, —One male from Semliki, January ; one female fr on
Lindi district, April.
Triclema ituriensis. —Tturi, March to April, six males.
Oboronia rutshurensis. —Seven males from Kivu, November. i)
Catochrysops celaeus kivuensis.—Ituri, February, one male and one fea e;
Kivu, September and October, three females. |
Catochrysops kisaba.—Kivu, September, seven males.
Family HESPERIIDAE
Sarangesa pandaensis.—Lufira Valley, May, two males.
Celaenorrhinus mozeekt kivuensis——One male from Kivu, October. Z
Ceratrichia flava semlikensis.—Semliki, December, four males; Ruwenzori, —
2,200 metres, December, one female ; Ituri, January, one male. ;
MOTHS.
Family AMATIDAE
Apisa subargentea.—Ruanda, August, one female.
Metarctia virgata.—Kivu, 2,400 feet, September, two males. a
Metarctia ochreogaster.—Ituri, January, two males; Semliki, December,
one male. 5
Family ARCTIIDAE
Spilosoma rufa.—Kivu, September and October, two males.
Maenas nigrilinea.—One female from Ruanda, August.
Maenas paucipuncta.—One male from Ruanda, August.
Family NOCTUIDAE
Timora joiceyi.—Lufira Valley, one male.
Craterestra sufficiens——Urindi district, July and August, one male.
A spidifrontia contrastata.—One female from Lufira Valley, March.
Diaphone barnsi.—Semliki, December, two females.
Graphania tortirena. —Ruwenzori, December, one female. *
Plustophaés metallica.—The type of a new genus. One male from i
Urindi District, July and August. |
Achaea determinata—One male, probably from the eastern Kivu district. &
Achaea tornistigma.—One male from Ruanda, August. +
Nagia dentiscripta.—One female, Congo River, May. *
Argyrolopha punctilinea.—Lufira Valley, November and December, one male.
Gorua polita.—One male from Congo, May. Also known from Gold Coast:
Egnasia scoliogramma.—One female from Ituri, March.
Bleptina cryptoleuca.—Semliki, December, one male. :
Hypena albirhomboidea. —One female from Ruwenzori at 2 500 metres
December.
Hypena euthygramma.—Urindi district, August, one male.
Hypena semliktensts.—Semliki, December, one male.
274
List of New Forms of Lepidoptera
| Hypena ituriensis.—TIwo males from Ituri, January and February.
_-Hyblaea euryzona.—One male from Lufira Valley, May.
:. Family AGARISTIDAE
Mitophrys barnsi.—Lufira Valley, December, one male.
Family LyMANTRIIDAE
Laelia conjunctifascia.—One male from the Malagarasi Valley, July. Also
known from North-east Rhodesia.
Family HyPsiDAE
Phaegorista prowti—One male from Lufira Valley, November to December.
| Family GEOMETRIDAE
| Prasinacyma neglecta.—Urindi district, July and August, male and female.
Also known from Nyasaland.
Eois oressigenes.—One female from Kivu, 2,800 metres, September.
Xanthorhoé latissima.—One male, probably from the eastern Kivu district.
Larentia barnst.—Ruwenzori at 4,000 metres, December, seven males.
| Larentia altipeta—Ruwenzori at 3,000 metres, December, one female.
- Calostigia conchulata.—One male from Kivu, October.
_Calostigia phiara.—One male from Ruwenzori, 2,300 metres, November.
_ Euphyia altisbex.—Two males from Kivu, October, one at 4,000 metres.
_ Epirrhoé euthygramma.—One male from Kivu, October.
Hydrelia sjostedti mionoseista.—Kivu, August to September, three males.
_Asthenotricha semidivisa euchroma.—One male from Kivu, October.
Asthenotricha straba.—Kivu, September and October, two males. Also
known from East Africa.
Asthenotricha malostigma.—One male from Kivu at 2,600 metres, October.
Lobidioptervx stulta.—Ituri, January, one male.
Cleora inaequipicta.—One male from Lufira Valley, November to December.
Pitthea sospes.—One male from North Rhodesia, January. Also known
from North-west Rhodesia.
| Pitthea neavei aurantifasciaa—Ruanda, August, four males and one female.
_ Terina tanyeces.—One male from Ituri, January.
Ereunetea acrogyra.—Urindi district, July, one female.
Amnemopsyche charmione lufiran—Lufira Valley, February to April, five
| 3 males and one female.
| Zamarada hero.—Congo, May, one male.
Zamarada enippe.—Congo, May, one male.
_ Zamarada acosmeta.—Urindi district, July to August, one female; Mala-
| garasi Valley, July, one female.
Family SATURNIIDAE
)
ep heli basiflava.—Congo, May, one male.
_ Exdaemonia argiphontes barnsi.—Ituri, March, one male.
275
Te? ge a
; Sat = ary iy
- ae aa,
List of New Forms of Lepidoptell
Family LiACcoDIDAE ae
Thosea rufimacula.—Lufira Valley, November, one female. Also kn
from Portuguese East Africa. “
‘ es , ;
Family URANIIDAE oe
Epiplema costilinea—One female from Ujiji district, July. Also *
from Uganda. } ‘
Family ZyGAENIDAE
Netrocera jordani.—Kivu, October, two males.
Pedoptila nigrocristata. —North- east Rhodesia, April, one female.
Semioptila lufirensis—Lufira Valley, September, five males.
276
.- Tables
| T HE following tables give the rainfall for the north end of Lake
_k ivu, a high mountainous region intermediate between the steppes
of the east and the forests of the west. Similar rainfall conditions
| may be said to prevail as far south as the second degree south of the
Equator, after which the duration of the dry and the wet seasons
de omes more marked, until they emerge into the clearly-defined
six wet and six dry months experienced in the regions of South
Tanganyika and Nyasaland.
RECORDED AT BOBANDANA. NortTH Kivu REGION
1,534 METRES A.S.L. |
4 No. of days on Amount in
Year. Month. which rain fell. millimetres.
1916. January .. A .. Unrecorded —
February ne ct II ie 45
March .. wh os 17 i II5
Apnl = .. at i 23 eh 350
May ag a a 26 +r. 276
June a 9 — 8 ss 75
July gi as eA 5 uy 33
August .. o $3 8 a 38
September eo e 13 ¥% 169
October .. a es 9 ke 107
November 8 261
December x re II i 192
Totals. ae 1,661
277
Tables i
* su
No. of days on Amount in
Year. Month. which rain fell. millimetr 2s.
1917 January .. a ... Unrecorded .. ae
February. . st i 17 af 165
March .. sie AP. 23 ie 158 a
Ah me iis 27 =f 414
Bee ta Weta 26 be 376 4
June MP Hi s 9 es 45-9
July Me is EOE Rs ah 18
August .. Ra 9 ie 19
September a a 20, Sena 184
October .. 4 its v5 zs 230
November é iy 16 ie 93 2a
December + be 10 ~ 79 a
LOCAL. i) os as L772
No. of days on _ Amount in
Year. Month. which rain fell. . millimetres.
1918 =©January .. ‘ie a es wi 218 @
February. . ‘ie ee 5 re 64
Marth: «. of rx 15 a 118
April = a ba 13 id 240
May is i és — is 164
June 6 et is — os 39 =
July ye ny “es ae et a 17
August .. * 8 a soa
September ae ie 15 5 II4
October .. Bs Be 17 a 206
November ri tee) 9 ae 63 @
December f re 5 . 9 4
Total 5 es 1,343
Tables
tai No. of days on - Amount in
<6 Year. Month. which rain fell. millimetres.
G 191g. January .. as os 15 e 117
February. . i 9 13 ss 88
March .. i Rs 13 at 75
; P| Sr us oF 22 me 114
May is is ne 18 eS 207
June ait Bh a 7 a 54
July a ‘3 si 4 — 614
August .. aes 7 is 925
September i af 14 ce 65
Unrecorded after September.
| The following records were made at Avakubi on the Ituri River,
in the central Ituri forest region about 1° 20’ north of the Equator,
AVAKUBI, ITURI RIVER.
580 METRES A.S.L.
No. of days on Amount in
Year. Month. — which rain fell. millimetres.
1g17 January .. ie fs 9 a 64
_ February os % 8 ae 87
March 4 131
April o be 9 ope 145
May a *} Ae 13 7 285
June 7 103
July 5 112
August is 4 me 49
September ES +. Unrecorded .... ——
October .. i. es 5 tr 67
November ne a 5 e- 664
December - ie 3 * 50
Nie 1,1593
279
Tables
No. of days on
Year. Month. which rain fell,
1918, January P =p Nil.
February an sa 8
March .. a ay 13
April, */ i. ee ss II
May se vi 9
June ~v ap Ss 6
July <i ie i 5
August .. Be ve IO
September 8
October .. 8
November 8
December 6
Total
No. of days on
Year. Month. which rain fell.
1g1g. January .. ek: ey 7
February “it asad II
March .. ap “a 9 een
ratios! Rae ~ e a
May ae at win 14
June a tis is 15
July a by 16 12
August .. = ae Io
September = he 17
October .. i ris 12
November ais Meret ©
December “s 5% 12
Total
280
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—
Aard-Vark, ill. facing p. 183.
Acacia thorns, 105
African Education Committee, 222
Africa, peopling of, xxviii, xxix
Akanyaru River, 35, 38
Albertine Rift Valley, xxxiv
Albertville, 9, 213
Albino Negro children, ill. facing p.3
Alpine flora, 82, 88, 138, 140
Amissi (Pygmy-Arab half cast), 160
Ankora, 7, 8
Antelope, near L. Edward, 102, 111, 113
Ants, stink (enemies of butterflies), 255 ;
white, 56, 187
Aout, Mons. d’, notes on Wabali tribes by,
196 et seq.
Apes, anthropoid, xxi et seq.; fossil
remains, xxvii
Api, elephant farm at, 179
Armstrong, General, on Negro education,
221
Avakubi, oil industry of, 193; rainfall of,
275; rubber industry of, 194
Awa-ruanda, 92
Awemba, the, 19
Babali, the, 195 et seg.; customs of, 204
et seq.
Baboons, on shores of L. Edward, 124
Bafwasende, 195; marriage laws, 203
Bahuku Plateau, 175
Bahuni, the (Cannibal tribe), 116, 125, 132
Bahutu natives, 97
Baira, native market at, 26
Baluba natives, extermination of, 7
Ballez, Mons. (Customs officer at Kasindi),
126
Bamboo, 26, 136
Banana, 25, 135, 148; method of planting,
163; Pygmies’ staple food, 163
Bangweulu, Lake, 190
Barundi, burial customs of, 29; descrip-
tion of, 33; love of cattle, 27, 33;
Se porters, 27
Bats (enemies of moths), 256
Battel, Andrew, xxii
Batwa natives, pastimes of, 45, 46
Baunga natives, 190
Beans, at foot of Ruwenzori Mts., 135
_ Bega, the, a Watusi clan, 42
Index
Belgian administration, appreciation of,
92; African Club, 214 ; Congo, develop-
ment and resources summarised, 212
et seqg.; statistics, 215; future of,
220 et seq.; Game Laws and Licences, 99
Beringer, Oscar, xxi, xxiv
Biltong (dried meat of Big Game), 243
Birthplace of man, probable, xxviii
Bobandana, Mission Station, 89, 90;
rainfall at, 273
Boga (old Belgian post), 175
Boll worm, 237
Bongo, 189, 195
Bonneau (Father Superior of Mugera
Mission), 31
Brontosaurus, story of, 189; local belief
in, I9I
Buck, 103; see also bushbuck and reed-
buck
Buffalo, holds up camp, 103-4; near
L. Kissale, 7; near L. Edward, 119, 129;
pygmy red forest, 151; red, 195
Bugoie (Kasiba) Forest, chimpanzi hunt
in, 51; dwarf elephants in, 225 ; dwarfs,
49
Bukama, coal discovered south of, 212;
description of, 5
Bunia, 183
Burial murders, 171 ; customs of Barundi,
29
Burlace, J. B., 236
Bushbuck, description of fight with
python, 37
Bustards, 111
Butahu (Butagu) River, 134, 135
Butterflies, a remarkable specimen of, 253 ;
enemies of, 254; feeding and flying habits,
256; forms new to science collected by
author, 277; found on summit of
Niragongo, 76; in Semliki Valley, 166 ;
utility of collecting, 252
Camus, Captain, 17
Camwood, 174
Cannibal tribes, 125, 147; grave robbing
by, 172; Lt. Demanie killed by, 132;
see Bahuni, Wakobi, Wanandi, and
Wambuba.
Cannibalism, history of, 170 eé¢ seq.
Cape to Cairo Railway, 2
283
Index
farm at Api, 179; hunting adventures, q
Cardamoms, 160
Carriers, see porters
Cattle, 25,59; Barundi and Wahutu love
of, 27, 28; of Ruanda, 216; in Ujjiji
district, 48 4
Cerebro Spinal Meningitis, 89
Chaillu, Paul du, works on Gorillas, xxiii
Chegera, 90
Chevrotain, water, 189
Chimpanzi, distribution of, xxiii, xxiv;
first accounts of, xxii; hunt, 51; sleep-
ing place of, 51
Chimpelwi, belief in existence of, 190
Chohoa, Lake, 32, 34, 35
Cinematography of wild life, ch. XvII,
266 ef seq,
Coal, 212, 216
Cobalt, 216
Cocoa, plantations of, 217
Compagnie des Grands Lacs, 8
Companies and Financiers interested in
the Congo, 4, 186, 214, 216
Congo, Belgian (see Belgian Congo) ; con-
formation of Basin, xxxiii; Nile Water-
shed, 96, 100, 175; report on Entomo-
logy of the, 257
Copal digging industry, 217
Copper smelting, 212
Cotton planting, 217
Crocodile, in the grip of a, 240
Cross, William (Prospector of Kilo Mines),
192 i
Customs, see Native
Dances, native, 44, 45, ill. facing p.52; 152
Defawe, Lt. (in charge of Niansa), 39
Deforestation, effects of, 15
Defries, his story of unknown water
animal, 192
Demanie, Lt. (killed by Cannibals), 132
Diamond mines at Kasai, 217
Diseases of natives, Cerebral Meningitis,
89; Elephantiasis, 188; Leucoderma,
188 ; Sleeping Sickness, 130,155; Yaws,
188 ©
Dollman (Entomologist) 249
Dragonflies; 255
Drum signalling, 148;
ciency of, 168
Duiker, yellow-backed, 195
example of effi-
Education of natives, 221
Edward, Lake, 98; Big Game round,
ch. IX, 107 et seg.; Cannibals of, 99;
fishing in, 121
Eede, Major van den, 39
Elephants, ‘‘ Bamboo,” 225 dwarf, 225;
175 et seq. 228 et seq.; hunting grounds
recommended, 224, 227; habits, 178;
Natural History Museum _ specimen,
dimensions of, 233; story of capture,
228 et seg.; near L. Kissale, 7; skinning
an, 234-5; sub-species of, xxi; traps,
227
Elizabethville, development of, 2;
of living at, 4
Epulu (Haulo) River, 188
Entomologist, field notes of, 250 ef seq.;
qualifications of, 249; outfit of, 249
Entomology, African, 248 ef seq.
= statistics for 1914 and 1920, 217,
21
cost
Financiers interested in Congo, see
Companies.
Fish-eagle (on L. Edward), 119
Fish-fauna of L. Tanganyika, 12
Fishing (on L. Edward), 121
Flies, see tsetse and mayflies
Flying squirrel, 166
Forest hog, 111; lands of C. Africa, 146
Fossils, of gigantosaurus, 191; of an-
thropoid ape, xxvii
Foster, the brothers, hunting feats of, 89,
95; story of elder brother’s death by a
lion, 105, 106
Fourget, Mons., 101, 112, et seq.
Fox-bat, 141
Fraas, Professor, xxvii
Franck, Mons. (Belgian Colonial Minister)
213
Frogs (enemies of butterflies), 255
Funda River, 52
Fungarumi, 2
Funtumia rubber trees, 194
Game laws and licences (Belgian), 99;
in Ituri Forest, 224; in Ruindi Plains, —
103 et seq.; in Wamba Forest, 189;
round L. Edward, ror et seq
Genet, 167
Geomine tin mines, 216
‘‘George Grenfell and the Congo,’’ by
Sir H. H. Johnston, 171
German East Africa, 29; Campaign, 9;
Railway plans, 92, 93
Geysers, IOI
Ghouls, see Cannibals
Gibbons (Game Hunter), 126
Gigantosaurus, fossil of, 191
Glossinia Palpalis, see tsetse fly ;
Gold mines, 183, 216; district of N.E.
Congo, 216
284
eae
my “i
make oy piel
Ps A ~
oS et Rita DR PE ee
> y aT a - = 4
—
Index
Goldschmidt, Robert, 214
Gorillas, discovery of and first eastern
specimen, xxi, xxii; distribution of,
xxiv-vi; favourite food of, 82; hunt,
83 ef seq.; measurements of, 87; sleeping
place of, 82
Gottorp, salt mines and works at, 18
Gouldsbury, Cullen xiii, quotations from,
as chapter headings throughout book
Gétzen, Count von, 65, 67
Grenfell, George, grave of, 222
Grey, Earl, 214
Guggenheimer, 214
Guides, see porters
Guinea fowls, 111
-Gways (companion of author on elephant
hunts), 238
Hailstorm, a terrible, 144
Haulo River, see Epulu
Heath fire (on Ruwenzori Mts.), 138-9
Heather, 74, 136
Hippos., in Ruchuru River, 102; near
L. Edward, 117 e¢ seq.
Hog, giant forest, 111
Hollants, Commander, 72, 89
_ Hyrax (tree), 189
Ibima River, 147
Irumu, ivory trade of, 181 ; description of,
182
Ishumu (high priests of Mambela rites),
197, 198
Itoa River, 147,176
Ituri Forest, 88, 174; hunting oppor-
tunities of, 224; insect pests of,187, 188
Ituri River, 182; Valley, ivory trade
of, 182
_ Ivory, changes in colour, 126, 225, 226;
a
cost of, 194; trade, 181-183
adot, the brothers, 214
anlag Sir H. H., discovery of Okapi,
133, 154; introduction by, i-xxxv;
notes by, 63, 69, 70, 79, 116, 150, 157,
169, 190
Joicey, J. J., dedication to, acknowledg-
ment of help from, xiv
Joko Punda, 213
Jurassic Sea, theory of, 12
Kabalo, 8; new warehouse at, 213
- Kabare, 98, 123
Kagera River, 35, 92
Kalambo Falls and River, 12, 13
Kalengwe River, 5
Kalimba (Watusi sub-chief), 25
Kalongi (village at foot of Ruwenzori
Mts.), 135, 136
Kalule River, 5
Kamsonsa River, 136
Kaninya Mission, 35
Kanyamwamba River, 136
Karema mica mine, 30
Karisimbi, 75, 76, 77; description of
68-69; ascent of and flora, 88
Kasai diamond mine, 217; River, 213
Kasali Mountains, 98, 102
Kaseke, 92
Kasiba Forest, see Bugoie
Kasindi, 98
Kasulu fort, 23, 24
Katanga, climate of, 3; Comite special
de, 4; food supply of, 219; labour
conditions of, 218-219; methods of
approach, 2; minerals of, 1
Katushi (village), 166
Kibati, dearth of water at, 73
Kigoma, 9; bombing of, 10; Bay,
development of, 14, 15; Tabora
Railway Line, 17
Kihofi, 27
Kilo-Moto Gold Mines, 183 e seq.
King Albert, 214
Kisenji, 55, 56, 72, 89, 225
Kinshasa, railway plans for, 213
Kissale Lake, centre of palm oil in-
dustry, 7
Kitega, 29; native celebrations of Belgian
Independence Day at, 30, 31
Kivu Lake, 34, 48; cost of living in
district, 58; description of 56 eé/ seq.;
rainfall statistics, 273-76; volcanic
eruptions near, 65 et seq.
Kob antelopes, III, 113
Labour, see Native labour
Lakes. Chohoa, 32, 34, 35; Edward, 95,
98, 99, 107, 116, 123; Kissale, 7;
Kivu, 34, 47, 56, 273, 276; Leopold II,
222; Mohazi, 36; Moho, 102; Mutanda,
100; Mweru, 3, 8; Tanganyika, 8,
ch. I, 11 et seg., 30; Towa, 9
Lankester, Sir E. Ray, 228
Lemurs (enemies of moths), 256
Leocque, Lt., 72
Leopard, the forest, 157, 195
Leopards, Human Society of, 206-8;
claw knives used by Human Leo-
pards, 208; initiation into Society,
209.
Leopold II, Lake, 222
Lesi, 170
285
Index
Leucoderma, 188
Leverhulme, Lord, 214, 216
Lewis (companion on elephant hunts),
238 et seq.
Licences, Belgian game, 99
Likasi, copper mines at, 3;
development of, 3
Lindi River, 125, 194
Lions, Native superstitions re, 109; on
Ruindi Plains, 103, 106, 109; parental
affection of, 108; race suicide of, 107
Lippens, Mons., Governor-General of B.
Congo, 214
Lizards, small, ill. facing p. 6, 255
Lobito Bay Railway, 213
Loya Valley, 180 |
Lualaba Valley and mines west of, 1
Lufira River, 3; Valley, 4
Lufubu River, 3; Valley, 4
Lukuga River, 8
Luvua River, 8, 227
railway
Maduali, the (fetish of the Wabali), 202
Maji-ya-moto (boiling springs), ror
Malagarasi River, 23, 25, 20
Malfert, General, 16, 214
Mambela (secret society of Wabali tribes),
195 et seg.; ceremonies, religious rites,
initiation of probationers, etc.
Mangoes, 193
Manika Plateau, agricultural conditions, 4 ;
position and climate, 5
Marabou storks, 13
Marriage (in Bafwasende district), 203
Marsula’s Country (Cannibal area), 175
Matadi, 213
Mayflies (on L. Edward), 116
Mbeni,127; sleeping sickness hospitalat, 130
Mbusi Bay, 51.
Mecklinburg, Duke of, 67
Meulemeester, Colonel de, 214
Mgahinga Volcano, 63, 70
Mhutu guide, 83
Mica mines, 30
Mikeno Volcano, description of, ill. facing
p. 60, 69; ascent of, flora, 88
Minerals of B. Congo, 216
Miners, conditions of, etc., 2
Mines, Coal, 212, 216; ‘cobalt, 216;
copper, 3, 212; diamond, 213, 217; gold,
I, 183, 195, 290; mica, 30.5 dalg, 1s;
tin, 216
Mobira Woman, ill. facing p. 182.
Moera (a Wanandi chief), 147, 159, 163
Mohazi Lake, 36
Moho Lake, 102
Monkeys, collection of skins of,-167
Moore, J. E. S., 12, 53, 67
Mopani (tree resembling maidenhair), 239
ph ei at Kabalo, 8; in Ituri Forest,
187
Moths, enemies of, 256; parasitic lave of,
257; Specimens new to science dis-
covered by Author, 280
Moto Gold Mines, 216
Moulaert, Colonel, 185, 214
Mountain sickness, 142
Mountains of the Moon, see Ruwenzori
Mts.
Mount Stanley, 142
Msinga, Sultan Juhi, 41, 42;
harem of, 43
Muganda boy, a, 20
Mugera Mission, 31
Muhavura Volcano, 63, 70
Murunda, 49
Mutanda Lake, 100
Mweru Lake, 3, 8
visit to
Namlagira, 79, 95, 100
Nasasa (sacred bird of Wabali tribes), 200
Native labour for mines, 2, 218, 219;
market at Baira, 26; customs and
superstitions ve charms for babies, 173 ;
death, 29,158; heather, 145; lions, 109;
rain, 97; pythons, 37; of Wabali
Tribes, 196 e¢ seq.
Neanderthaloid man, xxv, xxvii
Niansa (Nyansa), 39, 43, 44, 47
Nightjars (enemies of moths), 250
Niragongo Volcano, ascent of, 72 et seq.
description of, 67; flora of, 73
Njawarongo River, 47
Njundo Mission, 52
Nyakasu escarpment, 28
Oil palms, 7, 193; industry, 7, 216
Okapi, description of, 152; hunt, 150;
finding of, in Semliki Forest, 161;
range of, 133, 147; Sir H. H. John-
ston’s account of his discovery of —
154
Ordnance Survey Maps, 35
Oso River, 103
Owen, Professor, xili
Owls (enemies of moths), 256
Palms, borassus, elais, ivory, nut, oil, 7
Palpalis (Glossinia), see tsetse fly
Paltothyreus (stink ant), 255
Papyrus, 7, 38
Parrot, grey, 156
Pelicans, 121
Penghe, 192
286
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Index
Pére Lens, 147
Photography, outfit for tropical work,
difficulties of, etc., ch. XVII; 266
et seq.
_ Pieters, Mons., 24
Platinum, 216
Pombe (native beer), 159
Ponthierville, 213
Porters, native, training of, 18, 19;
Achewa, 235; Angoni, 235; Barundi,
27; Batwa, 50; Mhutu, 83 ; Muganda,
20, 21; Swahli, 18, 19; Waha, 19;
Wahutu, 77; Wanandi, 134
Portuguese Angola, native miners of, 2
Potto Lemur, 157
Pygmies, as trackers, 227; dance of, 152 ;
distribution of, 162; home life of, 164 ;
hunt, 149; language of, 162 ; music of,
152; weapons of, 16
Python, 36; fight with bushbuck, 37
Railways. Cape to Cairo, 2; Kigoma-
Tabora Line, 17; Kinshasa, plans for,
213; Lobito Bay, 213
Rainfall statistics, see Appendix, 273
Rainy season, the, a warning, 34
Raphia palms, ill. facing p. 7
Reed beds, 117
Reed, buck, 111
Rhinoceros, range of, xxxi
Rhodes Cecil, favourite lion story of,
123
Rice, 216
Rift Valley Mountains, 112, 129
Rinderpest, 98
Rivers. Akanyaru, 35, 38; Bua, 229;
Butahu, 134; Chambezi, 243; Epulu,
feo; Funda, 52; Ibima, 147; Itoa,
147, 176; Kagera, 35, 92; Kalambo,
12; Kalengwe, 5; Kalule, 5; Kamsonsa,
136; Karyamwamba, 136; Lualaba;,
1; Luangwa, 238; Lufubu,3; Lukuga,
8; Luvua, 8, 227; Lindi, 125, 194;
Malagarasi, 16, 18, 19, 23, 26; Njawa-
rongo, 47; Oso, 103; Ruchugi, 16;
Ruchuru, 98; Ruindi, 102; Ruvubu,
34; Sabaka, 23; Semliki, 124; Shari,
182
Rowland Ward & Co., 228
_ Ruanda, Belgian occupation of, 93, 94;
King of, 25, 27, 35, 38; races of, 40
Rubber, cost of, 194; in North Central
Congo Basin, 216
4 Rubengera, 47, 48, 49
Ruchugi River, 16
- Ruchuru (Government station), 98, 99;
plains, fruits and flowers of,
River, 100, 101
fOr;
Rugari, 96
Ruindi Plains, 91;
102, 105 .
Ruvubu River, 34
Ruwenzori Mountains (Mountains of the
Moon), 28, 122, 127; ascent of, 134
et seq.; earlier climbers of, 134; flora,
136; insects and animals on, 143;
records of previous climbers found, 140,
141
River (unmapped),
Sabaka River (haunt of Big Game), 23
Sabinyo Volcano, 70
Sacré Cceur Mission, 133
Salt mines and works, 18; Pygmies’ love
of, 149
Saurian, belief in existence of gigantic,
IQI
Schweinfurth (explorer), xxiii
Semliki Forest, 146 et seq.; River, 124,
127; Valley, tsetse flies in, 127
Senecios, 74, 76, 88, 138
Senguli Gold Mines, 185, 216
Serimani (native chief), 175
Settlers, need for encouragement of and
opportunities for, 4, 58
Shari River, 182
Sharpe, Sir A., 53; description of volcanic
eruption by, 66
Signalling, drum,
148, 177
Sleeping Sickness, extermination of Baluba
Natives by, 7; Hospital at Mbeni, 130,
263; in Luanga Valley, 237
Society of Human Leopards, 206 ef seq.
Spicer-Simpson, Commander, 9
Spiders (enemies of moths), 256
Squirrel, flying, 166
Stanley and Sir H. H. Johnston, 154
Stanley Falls, 210
Stanley Mountains, 142
Stanleypool, 222
Stanleyville, 99, 210, 213
Steamers: Baron Dhanis, 13; Baron
Janssen, 6; Baron von GéOtzen, 14;
Semois, 212
Storks, 13, ill. facing p. 94
Sundew, African, 256
Superstitions, see native
Swahili natives, 19
Swamps, papyrus, 7, 38 _ ;
Swifts (enemies of butterflies), 256
148, 168; trumpet,
Tabora Railway, 9, 92
Talbot, G. (Curator of Hill Museum),
acknowledgment to, xiv, 248,
Tanagra Collection, xxvi
287
Tanganyika Lake, 1, ch. I1 et seg.; fish-
fauna of, 12; geological formation of,
56; isolation of 11, 12; Territory, 29;
Naval Expedition, 9
Tania, 13
Tata-Ka-Mambela (Grand Master of the
Mambela), 197
Tin, 216
Tobacco, 54
Tombeur, General, 214
Topi, 11
Towa Lake, 9
Trade. Banana, 25, 30, 135, 148, 163;
cattle, 25, 27, 28 ,48, 59; coal, 212, 216;
cobalt, 216; cocoa, 217; coffee, 95,98;
copal, 217; cotton, 217; diamonds,
217; gold, 1, 183, 216; ivory, 126, 181,
194, 226; mangoes, 193; mica, 30;
oil, 7, 93, 193; platinum, 216; rice,
216; rubber, 194, 216; salt, 16, 18;
tin, 216; tobacco, 54; uranium, 216
Traps, chimpanzi, 51; elephant, 227;
monkey, 167; of Semliki natives, 167
Trumpet signalling, 148, 177
Tsetse fly, decrease of, 4, ; in Ituri Forest
187; in Luangwa Valley, 237; in
Semliki Valley, 127
Turaco, the blue, 156
Ujiji, 14, 15, 23, 24
Ulimbi Mountain, 138
Union Colonial Belge, 214;
Haut Katanga, 1
Uranium, 216
Urundi, 16, 26;
93, 94
Miniére du
Belgian occupation of,
-Vanderghorte, Mons., 98
288
Index _ b
Verhulst, Mons., 225
Veronica, purple, 26
Victoria Nyanza Basin, 29 _
Virunga (Mfumbiro) Sountaill
60 ef seq.
Visoke (Kisasa or Bisoko), Vol
Vulcanology, 60 et seq. details of v.
composing Virunga Range, 67 ¢
description of volcanic eruption, ¢
Wabali, the customs of, 195 et seq. oe
Wa-bisa Women, ill. facing p.19
Wagtail, pied (enemies of butter
254
Waha porters, 19
Wahenga, the, 33
Wahutu herdsman, 48
Wakobi, the, 125
Wambuba Cannibals, ch. XII, 166 et
description of, 176
Wambute, the, see Pygmies
Wanandi, the, huts of, 173; paddles
Wanya- ruanda, the, a curious custom of
97; ill. facing p. 101 - of
Wart-hog, 111 Ro
Water buck, 110 “4
Watusi, the, 33, ill. facing p. 22 ; Knee
39; history and eulogy of, 40} :
of, 43, 44
White Fathers, the, 31, 49, 52, 53
Williams, Robert, 186, 214
Willmar, Gernaert-, 29, 31
mt
A ea
“
Yiya (dwarf mountain elephant), 189
Zebra, range of, xxxi
Zerophite, 105
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