aten off with their fists and loud
yells. If one tries to seize the female of another, he is caught on the
ground, and all unite in boxing and biting the offender. A male often
carries a child, especially if they are passing from one patch of forest
to another over a grassy space; he then gives it to the mother.

I now spoke with my friend Mohamad, and he offered to go with me to see
Lualaba from Luamo, but I explained that merely to see and measure its
depth would not do, I must see whither it went. This would require a
number of his people in lieu of my deserters, and to take them away from
his ivory trade, which at present is like gold digging, I must make
amends, and I offered him 2000 rupees, and a gun worth 700 rupees, R.
2700 in all, or 270_l._ He agreed, and should he enable me to finish up
my work in one trip down Lualaba, and round to Lualaba West, it would be
a great favour.

[How severely he felt the effects of the terrible illnesses of the last
two years may be imagined by some few words here, and it must ever be
regretted that the conviction which he speaks of was not acted up to.]

The severe pneumonia in Marunga, the choleraic complaint in Manyuema,
and now irritable ulcers warn me to retire while life lasts. Mohamad's
people went north, and east, and west, from Kasonga's: sixteen marches
north, ten ditto west, and four ditto E. and S.E. The average march was
6-1/2 hours, say 12' about 200' N. and W., lat. of Kasongo, say 4 deg.
south. They may have reached 1 deg., 2 deg. S. They were now in the Balegge
country, and turned. It was all dense forest, they never saw the sun
except when at a village, and then the villages were too far apart. The
people were very fond of sheep, which they call ngombe, or ox, and tusks
are never used. They went off to where an elephant had formerly been
killed, and brought the tusks rotted and eaten or gnawed by "Dere" (?)--a
Rodent, probably the _Aulocaudatus Swindermanus_. Three large rivers
were crossed, breast and chin deep; in one they were five hours, and a
man in a small canoe went ahead sounding for water capable of being
waded. Much water and mud in the forest. This report makes me thankful I
did not go, for I should have seen nothing, and been worn out by fatigue
and mud. They tell me that the River Metunda had black water, and took
two hours to cross it, breast deep. They crossed about forty smaller
rivers over the River Mohunga, breast deep. The River of Mbite als