but there is a distinction about it which is all its
own. This N.E.
end has beautiful sand beaches
on the southern side, in front of the forested bank,
lying in smooth ribbons along the level shore, and
in scollops round the promontories where the hills
come down into the lake. The forest on these
hills, or mountains—for they are part of
the Sierra del Cristal—is very dark in
colour, and the undergrowth seems scant. We presently
come to a narrow but deep channel into the lake coming
from the eastward, which we go up, winding our course
with it into a valley between the hills. After
going up it a little way we find it completely fenced
across with stout stakes, a space being left open
in the middle, broader than the spaces between the
other stakes; and over this is poised a spear with
a bush rope attached, and weighted at the top of the
haft with a great lump of rock. The whole affair
is kept in position by a bush rope so arranged just
under the level of the water that anything passing
through the opening would bring the spear down.
This was a trap for hippo or manatee (Ngany ’imanga),
and similar in structure to those one sees set in the
hippo grass near villages and plantations, which serve
the double purpose of defending the vegetable supply,
and adding to the meat supply of the inhabitants.
We squeeze through between the stakes so as not to
let the trap off, and find our little river leads us
into another lake, much smaller than Ncovi.
It is studded with islands of fantastic shapes, all
wooded with high trees of an equal level, and with
little or no undergrowth among them, so their pale
gray stems look like clusters of columns supporting
a dark green ceiling. The forest comes down steep
hill sides to the water edge in all directions; and
a dark gloomy-looking herb grows up out of black slime
and water, in a bank or ribbon in front of it.
There is another channel out of this lake, still
to the N.E. The Fans say they think it goes
into the big lake far far away, i.e., Lake Ayzingo.
From the look of the land, I think this river connecting
Ayzingo and Lake Ncovi wanders down this valley between
the mountain spurs of the Sierra del Cristal, expanding
into one gloomy lake after another. We run our
canoe into a bank of the dank dark-coloured water
herb to the right, and disembark into a fitting introduction
to the sort of country we shall have to deal with
before we see the Rembwe—namely, up to our
knees in black slime.
CHAPTER VIII. FROM NCOVI TO ESOON.
Concerning the way in which the voyager goes from
the island of M’fetta to no one knows exactly
where, in doubtful and bad company, and of what this
led to and giving also some accounts of the Great
Forest and of those people that live therein.
I will not bore you with my diary in detail regarding
our land journey, because the water-washed little
volume attributive to this period is mainly full of
reports of law cases, for reasons hereinafter to be
stated; and at night, when passing through this bit
of country, I was usually too tired to do anything
more than make an entry such as: “5 S.,
4 R. A., N.E Ebony. T. 1-50, etc., etc.”—entries
that require amplification to explain their significance,
and I will proceed to explain.
