out five of the immense brutes round me, so I softly returned
to the canoe and shoved off, stealing along the bank, paddling
under water, until I deemed it safe to run out across the lake
for my island. I reached the other end of it to that on which
the village is situated ; and finding a miniature rocky bay
with a soft patch of sand and no hippo grass, the incidents
of the Fan hut suggested the advisability of a bath. Moreover,
there was no china collection in that hut, and it would be a
long time before I got another chance, so I go ashore again,
and, carefully investigating the neighbourhood to make
certain there was no human habitation near, I then indulged
in a wash in peace. Drying one’s self on one’s cummerbund is
not pure joy, but it can be done when you put your mind to it.
While I was finishing my toilet I saw a strange thing happen.
Down through the forest on the lake bank opposite came a
violet ball the size of a small orange. When it reached the sand
beach it hovered along it to and fro close to the ground. In
a few minutes another ball of similarly coloured light came
towards it from behind one of the islets, and the two waver to
and fro over the beach, sometimes circling round each other.
I made off towards them in the canoe, thinking— as I still
do— they were some brand new kind of luminous insect.
When I got on to their beach one of them went off into the
bushes and the other away over the water. I followed in the
canoe, for the water here is very deep, and, when I almost
thought I had got it, it went down into the water and I could
see it glowing as it sunk until it vanished in the depths. I made
my way back hastily, fearing my absence with the canoe might
give rise, if discovered, to trouble, and by 3.30 I was back in
the hut safe, but not so comfortable as I had been on the lake.
A little before five my men are stirring and I get my tea. I
do not state my escapade to them, but ask what those
lights were. “ Akom,” said the Fan, and pointing to the
shore of the lake where I had been during the night they
said, “ they came there, it was an ‘ Aku ’ or devil bush.
More than ever did I regret not having secured one of those sort
of two phenomena. What a joy a real devil, appropriately put
up in raw alcohol, would have been to my scientific friends !
Wednesday, July 24.th.— We get away about 5.30, the Fans
coming in a separate canoe. We call at the next island
to M’fetta to buy some more aguma. The inhabitants are
very interested in my appearance, running along the stony
beach as we paddle away, and standing at the end of it
until we are out of sight among the many islands at the N.E.
end of Lake Ncovi. The scenery is savage; there are no
terrific cliffs nor towering mountains to make it what one
usually calls wild or romantic, but there is a distinction about
it which is all its own. This N.E. end has beautiful sand
beaches on the southern side, in front o.f the forested bank,
lying in smooth ribbons along the level shore, and in scollops
round the promontories where the hills come down into the
lake. The forest on these hills, or mountains— for they are
part of the Sierra del Cristal— is very dark in colour, and the
undergrowth seems scant. We presently come to a narrow
but deep channel into the lake coming from the eastward,
which we go up, winding our course with it into a valley
between the hills. After going up it a little way we find it
completely fenced across with stout stakes, a space being left
open in the middle, broader than the spaces between the
other stakes ; and over this is poised a spear with a bush
rope attached, and weighted at the top of the haft with'a great
lump of rock. The whole affair is kept in position by a bush
rope so arranged just under the level of the water that anything
passing through the opening would bring the spear
down. This was a trap for hippo or manatee, and similar in
structure to those one sees set in the hippo grass near villages
and plantations, which serve the double purpose of defending
the vegetable supply, and adding to the meat supply of the
inhabitants. We squeeze through between the stakes so as
not to let the trap off, and find our little river leads us into
another lake, much smaller than Ncovi. It is studded with
islands of fantastic shapes, all wooded with high trees of an
equal level, and with little or no undergrowth among them, so
their pale gray stems look like clusters of columns supporting
a dark green ceiling. The forest comes down steep .hill sides
to the water edge in all directions ; and a dark gloomy-look-
ing herb grows up out of black slime and water, in a bank or
ribbon in front of it. There is another channel out of this