COW HIPPO AND CALF.
With our newly-found friends as guides we were soon on the trail of our game, and by their aid we ran into and killed late in the afternoon. Our friends were simply overjoyed at the sight of so much meat. They became extremely friendly, cutting grass for my bed, fetching wood and water, ready to do anything. From being rather surly and reserved they became very communicative. As they roasted tit-bits from the elephants on their fires nothing but shouts of laughter and merry chatter could be heard. And when, later, we had all eaten and everyone was smoking—for they carried tobacco—they told me more of themselves. I found that they all talked Sango. They said that every dry season they came to the Bahr Aouck to hunt hippo or elephant, but that so far they had had no luck. During the rains the whole country for miles on either side was under water. No villages existed nearer the river than theirs. They knew the river up to the point where it issued from Lake Mamun. This item was a complete surprise to me, for I had never heard it even suggested that the Bahr Aouck issued from that lake. I pressed my enquiries among the older men, and arrived at the information that shortly after leaving the lake the Bahr Aouck was joined by another river which came from a country I knew to be within the Egyptian Sudan border. I asked after the natives of Lake Mamun, who were supposed to live on the waters themselves, constructing for that purpose huts on piles. They told me that since the slave-raids had ceased, when Senussi was shot by the French, the natives had abandoned their lake dwellings and now lived on the shores like normal people. They said that the whole country ahead was teeming with game. I had learnt more in half an hour round the camp-fire with full bellies than weeks of intercourse in the ordinary way would have yielded. Such is the power of meat on the African.
ARAB SPEAR FOR HAM-STRINGING ELEPHANT.
This system of penetrating the country by feeding the natives has the disadvantage that if you kill a large animal they dry the meat they cannot eat and take it home to their villages, when it can be bartered for all kinds of commodities. Therefore you have constantly to be making new acquaintances. Everything else is entirely in its favour, not the least being its economy. They will carry light loads for you for days through the bush, hunt diligently for game, chop out and carry to the base any ivory you may get. If you are within fifty miles or so of villages the women bring food of all sorts, and it is seldom that a few eggs—more or less fresh—are not forthcoming for the white man. Then they hold dances in the camps. When there are plenty of young girls about these dances become rather loose affairs. The usual restraints of village life seem to be relaxed in the bush, and everyone enjoys himself or herself to the utmost. Abundance of animal food has a curious effect on natives. Where they inhabit stockless country they go months without flesh, with the exception of an occasional rat or mongoose or bird. The craving for meat becomes intense, and is, in my opinion, the cause of cannibalism. Then when they suddenly become possessed of almost unlimited meat they simply gorge themselves. A man will eat 15 lb. or 20 lb. in the twenty-four hours. All night long he eats and dozes, then eats again. This turns him a peculiar dull matt colour and yellow in the eyes. On the third day he has completely recovered from this and is again full of energy. In a very short time he wants his grain food again, and if he has the choice will eat a large portion of grain to a small portion of meat. If, as with elephant, there is a good proportion of fat, natives become extremely fit on these rations. As an example of this I can cite the case of a “kilangozi,” or head porter, of mine. This man, of slight build, carried a tusk weighing 148 lb. plus his mat, blanket and rations, another 15 lb., for sixty-three days’ consecutive marching. The shortest day was five hours, and some were very long indeed. He had as rations throughout this march 2 lb. of native grain each day and as much meat as he cared for with elephant fat. His condition was magnificent throughout.
PORTAGING CANOES.
THE KILANGOZI OR HEAD PORTER WHO CARRIED THIS TUSK (148 LBS.) FOR SIXTY-THREE CONSECUTIVE MARCHING DAYS.
In the morning I pushed off to look for elephant. The natives promised to cut out the tusks and to bring them to the canoes, which they faithfully did.