WEIRD STORIES OF THE CONGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2929, 4 May 1910, Page 79

WEIRD STORIES OF THE CONGO.

Quaint stories of African travel were told, says the Daily Mail, before the Royal Geographical Society by Mr E. Torday, who, with Mr Hilton Simpson and Mr Norman Hardy, made an expedition between October, 1907, and September, 1909, to invesigate the native tribes in the Kasa basin, in the centre of the Belgian Congo. Mr Torday said that amongst the Baso.ngo Meno tribes belief in transmigration was found. One of the most interesting points among the Bakutu tribe was their use of a conventional throwingknife as currency. The Bakutu were almost the only tribe of this region who had been successful up to the present in resisting the advance of the white man. This fact was due to their skill in forest warfare. The way leading to their village was defended by poisoned spikes -hidden by leaves. They used bows and arrows set like traps in -the form of" primitive spring guns, and were quite ready, if a white man was expected, to bait such traps with a live ■ baby, being sure that the European would be unable to resist the temptation to pick up an aparently abandoned child. The poison they used was absolutely deadly. The expedition, Mr Torday continued, entered the territory of the Bakongo never before crossed by white men. The "coinage" of the tribe took the form of bars of iron weighing 21b, and valued in English money at exactly eevenpenee. Concerning this, Mr Torday told an entertaining story. As soon as the people heard that the travellers' stock of iron was nearly finished they began to- show hostility. "The chief brought about the climax by ostentatiously stealing our chickens, and this was, of course, a declaration of war. We were not in an easy situation, for though we could have held our own in the event of a breach of the peace, we should have had to fight our way back to civilisation. "At length a less important chief gave me the means of an escape from the difficulties. After the theft of the chickens, he came To me and explained that he had no bad intentions himself, but that the great chief had decided to kill us. I replied that if he wanted war he could have it, and I would slay all his people with my elephant. Fortunately, among the many objects which we carried with us was a clock elephant, which was capable of waving its trunk and humming and walking along. Relying on the imagination of the negro, I proposed to show him my elephant. "Mr Hilton Simpson accordingly took him before my tent, which I entered. I wound up the elephant, and made it walk on some boxes, and then the tent door was thrown open; our friend, seeing the uncanny beast, wanted to run away. Mr Simpson -insisted that he should have another look, but this was too much for the chief, for, shouting, T am going to fetch those chickens which I have been stolen,' he ran back to the village, and in a few minutes our property was restored to lis.

"I followed up my victory by proposing to fight everybody and everything with my elephant, and threatened to set fire to the rivers. To illustrate our powers, we burnt some whisky, and this quite convinced the natives that the white men were able to destroy anything. They were naturally very keen to get rid of the magician, so the next day they volunteered to carry our loads to another village called Makusu."