Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-09
was Eleng Mimic, literally "Young Man,
and we subsequently, found him very use

|
and we subsequently found him very use
| tul companion.
| The Lulangu people had been accustomed
to the sight Of an occasional passing steamer
going up the Congo to Bangala or Stanley
Falls; but we were now leaving the great
highway and following where only Grenieli
and Vaugeli "a Belgian officer who ascended
| the Lopori, second and smaller tributary
| of the Luiungu than the Malinga) had gone
before us many months previously. The
Lulangu natives were very friendly, and
crowded the banks in long lines of aged and
| youthful loveliness as we steamed past the
| two or three miles of huts fronting the
| Lulungu.
AT noon we arrived off a village we were
| informed by Elenge Mimic was called
Bolongo, on the left bank. We put in here
and halted for the day. The chief, an old
man named Nzemba, insisted on making
blood brothers" with US, and then regretted
his inability to give us anything save fire.
wood, on account of the siege his village was
enduring, owing to the attacks Of neigh
boring settlement
NOVEL PROTECTION AGAINST INVADERS.
Landing, we found that the place con-
sisted of about 200 huts, surrounded by
high barricade of tree trunks, old canoes
and banana stems, and beyond this lay
cleared space and then an encircling wall of
forest. Climbing over the fence jumped
on the ground outside, but cries from the
natives who followed my movements ar
rested by steps. One man climbing the
barrier came after me, and STOPPING down,
with smile, revealed many sharp splinters
OF bamboo hidden beneath the grass, and SO
| pointed that they would enter the unpro-
tected feet of an advancing enemy.
thanked the friendly natives, but showed
them the thick soles of my shoes, which
were sufficient protection against bamboo.
saw, in Bolongo, the highest and biggest
native house 1 ever came across in Africa.
The center pole was good thick tree about
30 feet high, the roof was of grass thatch,
circular, and reaching to within one foot of
the ground where it was supported by a
circle of upright bamboos, with two low en-
frances into the interior. Inside was a
blacksmith's shop and room for couple of
hundred people if closely packed. We
quilted the friendly Bolongo people early
next morning, and steamed up between
torest-clad islands, and banks of high trees
amid which troops of silver-gray and black
monkeys were sporting.
THE VILLAGE OF BUKUTILA.
Toward 9 O'Clock, as we steamed up the
broad channel OF the Lulungu, we observed
long line of brown huts crowning the high
left bank OF the river, and almost overshad-
owed by the bright green foliage of the ba-
mana and plantain groves which here supply
the natives with the chief article of their
diet.
The district we were approaching, we
learned from our guide, was Bukutila, and
on drawing near we were greeted by an i'm
mense crowd of men, women and children, 4
calling out to us to come on shore, and by a
regular f1otilla of small canoes which put off
to us.
On putting the steamer in to the bank
and coming to anchor alongside the shore,
we were crowded by the numbers of people
desirous OF seeing us and selling US pieces of
frewood (of which our stock was never too
ample), and eggs. These latter we purchased
for single cowrie she'll each, which gives
about % or % eggs for cents.
The population of Bukutila struck us as
being of somewhat finer build than the
Bolongo or lower river people, although
they cut their features with the same tribal
marks as do the natives of the Equator and
Lulanga districts-a series of horizontal in
cisions about an inch in length extending
down the forehead from the hair to between
the eyes, with similar incisions on each
temple.
HOW THE WOMEN DRESS.
The women were generally clothed in
grass string cloth-a costume consisting of a
belt of woven grass the thickness of a piece
of twine from which depended innumerable
strips of dried grass, dyed either black, red
or yellow-brown, reaching to the middle of
the thigh, and entirely encircling the per-
son.
Some of them were not content with ouly
one such costume, but had supplemented
the original black garment by attaching a
second red, and even a third yellow herbal
arran cement on top of it, SO that they pre-
sented the appearance of a row of lightly
clad premieres danseuses of the comic opera
stage; and the agility with which they
changed their reposeful attitudes of rspt ad-
miration or wondering regard of our strange
looking selves when the engineer blew the
steam whistle, into frantic attempts to es-
cape up the bank or disappear behind
brushes or huts, heightened the
resemblance. How we laughed at this
sudden disappearance, and how timidly
the affrighted ladies, after quiet had been
restored, would peep out to see if the coast
was clear, or if there was any likelihood of
recurrence of that dreadful sound, ere they
again surrendered themselves to their nat
ural curiosity to observe the strange white
creatures who had come to their village and
returned to their posts of vantage on the
river bank. The men were nearly as
frightened as the women on first hearing the
steam whistle-and we found it never
failing source of amusement. And then it
was we learned the true value of steam
whistle on board a steamer.
ROGER EASEMENT.