a bugler, march
off to their respective duties. At 11.15 a.m. bugle call and all the
natives march to the river and bathe. At 11.30 a.m. bathing ceases and
they march off behind the bugler to dinner and rest. At 2.30 p.m. they
assemble again and at 5.30 p.m. finish for the day. The native thus
works eight hours and a half and rests in the hottest portion of the
day. The workers in the plantations are entirely volunteers and so do
not come under the 40 hours' rule, which is only applied to those who
live in the villages and are not in the State service. The women do the
light work in the plantations and thus fare much better, than when
forced to do all the work by their husbands, which happens in all the
villages. It is curious to see them brushing the roads with palm leaves.
Six or eight women walk abreast and push away the dust and dead leaves
which are then collected in baskets and thrown into the river.

As our house looks into the square where the Force Publique drill, we
witness the methods employed. At first the recruit is taught which is
right and which is left. _Droite_ and up goes the right hand, _gauche_
and the left follows. The native corporal, however, has corrupted these
words into _hi hoo_ so that, as is usual in military commands, no mere
civilian can possibly understand them. Afterwards when he comes to mount
guard and relieve sentries, the order _presentez armes!_ might be
anything from the sound.

The band practices also close at hand. First the cornet picks out some
air he has heard, note by note, and like a child who is learning the
piano, always goes back to the beginning of the piece when he strikes a
false note. After many trials the whole air is discovered. Then the
trombones and bass instruments put in the accompaniment also by
experiment, and in the end the result is really quite good for Africans
unlike Asiatics, take kindly to European music.

The method of moving heavy weights is necessarily very primitive, for,
with the exception of a few wheel-barrows, there are no vehicles of any
kind here. A huge tree trunk was carried into the square one day; pieces
of wood had been lashed across it about two feet apart throughout its
length. One or two men on each side of each piece then lifted it and the
whole eighty or hundred men marched the trunk along with ease at a jog
trot. It would indeed be impossible to use heavy trolleys in this part
of the Congo, for the roads are sandy and the wheels w