ongo's nine
days west, and by south it came sweeping round and flowed north and
north and by east.

Katomba presented a young soko or gorillah that had been caught while
its mother was killed; she sits eighteen inches high, has fine long
black hair all over, which was pretty so long as it was kept in order by
her dam. She is the least mischievous of all the monkey tribe I have
seen, and seems to know that in me she has a friend, and sits quietly on
the mat beside me. In walking, the first thing observed is that she does
not tread on the palms of her hands, but on the backs of the second line
of bones of the hands: in doing this the nails do not touch the ground,
nor do the knuckles; she uses the arms thus supported crutch fashion,
and hitches herself along between them; occasionally one hand is put
down before the other, and alternates with the feet, or she walks
upright and holds up a hand to any one to carry her. If refused, she
turns her face down, and makes grimaces of the most bitter human
weeping, wringing her hands, and sometimes adding a fourth hand or foot
to make the appeal more touching. Grass or leaves she draws around her
to make a nest, and resents anyone meddling with her property. She is a
most friendly little beast, and came up to me at once, making her
chirrup of welcome, smelled my clothing, and held out her hand to be
shaken. I slapped her palm without offence, though she winced. She began
to untie the cord with which she was afterwards bound, with fingers and
thumbs, in quite a systematic way, and on being interfered with by a man
looked daggers, and screaming tried to beat him with her hands: she was
afraid of his stick, and faced him, putting her back to me as a friend.
She holds out her hand for people to lift her up and carry her, quite
like a spoiled child; then bursts into a passionate cry, somewhat like
that of a kite, wrings her hands quite naturally, as if in despair. She
eats everything, covers herself with a mat to sleep, and makes a nest of
grass or leaves, and wipes her face with a leaf.

I presented my double-barrelled gun which is at Ujiji to Katomba, as he
has been very kind when away from Ujiji: I pay him thus for all his
services. He gave me the soko, and will carry it to Ujiji for me; I have
tried to refund all that the Arabs expended on me.

_1st March, 1871._--I was to start this morning, but the Arabs asked me
to take seven of their people going to buy biramba, as they know t