their wont, a rather mawkish, but not altogether unpleasant
smell, and volumes of smoke which finds its way
out through the thatch, leaving on the inside of it a rich
oily varnish of a bright warm brown colour. They give
a very good light, provided some one keeps an eye on
them and knocks the ash off the end as it burns g ra y ; the
bush lights’ idea of being snuffed. Against one of the openwork
sides hung a drum covered with raw hide, and a long
hollow bit of tree trunk, which served as a cupboard for a few
small articles. I gathered in all these details as I sat on one
of the hard wood benches, waiting for my dinner, which Isaac
was preparing outside in the street. The atmosphere of the
hut, in spite of its remarkable advantages in the way of ventilation,
was oppressive, for the smell of the bush lights, my wet
clothes, and the natives who crowded into the hut to look at
me, made anything but a pleasant combination. The people
were evidently exceedingly poor ; clothes they had very little
of. The two head men had on old French military coats in
rags ; but they were quite satisfied with their appearance, and
evidently felt through them in touch with European culture,
for they lectured to the others on the habits and customs o f
the white man with great self-confidence and superiority. The
majority of the village had a slight acquaintance already with
this interesting animal, being, I found, Adoomas. They had
made a settlement on Kembe Island some two years or so
ago. Then the Fans came and attacked them, and killed and
ate several. The Adoomas left and fled to the French
authority at Njole and remained undfer its guarding
shadow until the French came up and chastised the
Fans and burnt their village; and the Adoomas—
when things had quieted down again and the Fans had
gone off to build themselves a new village for their burnt
one came back to Kembe Island and their plantain patch.
They had only done this a few months before my
arrival and had not had time to rebuild, hence the dilapidated
•state of the village. They are, I am told, a Congo region
tribe, whose country lies south-west of Franceville, and, as
I have already said, are the tribe used by the French
authorities to take convoys up and down the Ogowe to Franceville,
more to keep this route open than for transport purposes ;
the rapids rendering it impracticable to take heavy stores this
way, and making it a thirty-six days’ journey from Njole with
good luck. The practical route is vid Loango and Brazzaville.
The Adoomas told us the convoy which had gone up with the
vivacious government official had had trouble with the rapids
and had spent five days on Kondo Kondo, dragging up
the canoes empty by means of ropes and chains, carrying the
cargo that was in them along on land until they had passed the
wo/st rapid and then repacking. They added the information
that the rapids were at their worst just now, and entertained us
with reminiscences of a poor young French official who had
been drowned in them last year— indeed they were just
as cheering as my white friends. As soon as my dinner
arrived they politely cleared out, and I heard the devout M’bo
holding a service for them, with hymns, in the street, and this
being over they returned to their drum and dance, keeping
things up distinctly late, for it was i i . i o P.M., when we first
entered the village.
While the men were getting their food I mounted
guard over our little possessions, and when they turned
up to make things tidy in my hut, I walked off down to
the shore by a path, which we had elaborately avoided when
coming to the village, a very vertically inclined, slippery little
path, but still the one whereby the natives went up and down
to their canoes, which were kept tied up amongst the rocks.
The moon was rising, illumining the sky, but not yet sending
down her light on the foaming, flying Ogowé in its deep ravine.
The scene was divinely lovely; on every side out of the
formless gloom rose the peaks of the Sierra del Cristal.
Tomanjawki, on the further side of the river surrounded by
his companion peaks, looked his grandest, silhouetted hard
against the sky. In the higher valleys where the dim light
shone faintly, one could see wreaths and clouds of silver-gray
mist lying, basking lazily or rolling to and- fro. Olangi
seemed to stretch right across the river, blocking with his
great blunt mass all passage ; while away to the N.E. a cone-
shaped peak showed conspicuous, which I afterwards knew as
Kangwe. In the darkness round me flitted thousands of fire-
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