ng 50 lbs, walks at 3-1/2 miles an hour over
rough roads for three or four hours with scarcely a stop. Having crossed
the river the caravan is formed and at once strikes along the path
through the villages on the opposite bank to Djabir.

We are now on a frequented route and the villages and people show far
more signs of the influence of the white man than those on the Ubangi.
The huts are square, thatched with leaves and have verandahs while most
of the men and many women wear clothes. The tatouage also is here very
different for the vertical line on the forehead is not seen and a
horizontal line of small elevations just above the level of the eyes is
very common; there are however, various other devices on the cheeks and
the lobes of the ears are sometimes pierced for the insertion of a ring
of ivory nearly as large as a serviette ring. The natives are very
polite, every single one giving a salute so that at the end of a long
village one's arm aches with returning it. Chicken and eggs can be
bought here for cloth at about the price one pays in an expensive shop
in London. Some of the natives said nothing and were satisfied while
others grumbled but did not take back their goods. One man sold nine
eggs for about 2/- of which only three were fit to eat and demanded
4/- for a chicken little larger than a pigeon.

The natives here seem to have been spoilt by the whites who must have
given them very high prices for food at first, and these have never been
reduced. Naturally demand and supply affect the price considerably. A
native refused to sell us a duck at Coquilhatville for 14/-, for ducks
are rare. On the other hand in remote villages rarely visited by white
men, the people will sometimes give two chickens for an empty wine
bottle and would practically sell themselves for salt so fond are they
of that substance. This they eat alone and relish immensely for the
native salt is very unpleasant. It is made from water lilies and certain
forms of grass which are burnt slowly under a fire, the resulting ash
containing a large quantity of sodium chloride. It is however, mixed
with sulphur, charcoal and other impurities and to remove these the ash
is placed in water when the sodium chloride and other soluble salts
enter into solution. This is then evaporated to dryness in the sun and
forms native salt.

Once clear of the line of villages which extend for two or three miles,
the path enters dense forest and the walk becomes p