MEETING THE MBUITI.
CHAPTER XXXV.
WE GO UP THE RIVER TO N'CALAI BOUMBA—A SEVERE ATTACK OF FEVER—THE TENDER CARE OF THE NATIVES FOR ME—ANGUILAI ACCUSES HIS PEOPLE OF BEWITCHING ME—I GO OUT AND QUIET HIM—A BOY CUT TO PIECES FOR WITCHCRAFT—A USEFUL IDOL—THE EBONY TREES.
With Quengueza I resumed the ascent of the river Ovenga. We were bound to the town of a chief named Anguilai. The place was called N'calai Boumba.
We left Obindji early in the morning. On the way we passed several Bakalai villages, the largest of which, Npopo, I afterwards visited. The river banks, all the way up, were densely wooded, but very sparsely inhabited by beasts. We saw no animals the whole day, except one monkey and a few birds.
Anguilai, who was one of the vassals of Quengueza, and a powerful Bakalai chief, and whom I had met at Obindji's, received us well.
Anguilai's town is the hottest place I ever saw in Africa. N'calai Boumba was set in a hollow, and the houses were so small and close as to be quite unendurable to me. The village was only a little more than a year old. The people had come lately from the interior. Plantations of plantain trees were very abundant.