the great heads as they are raised from the water.

After a walk of about a mile, we arrive at the place where the captain's
boy was supposed to have killed the hippo. The truth was he had _fired
at_ a beast who, as the spoor clearly showed, had walked calmly into the
river and not a trace of blood could be seen. After a time, with
practice perhaps, one will be able to gauge the truth from an ordinary
Congo statement.

Next day we reach the mouth of the Kasai, a large tributary which drains
much of the Equatorial District of the Congo. Here is a State Post,
Kwamouth, with a few well constructed houses and a Catholic Mission
where pretty walking sticks with ivory handles can be purchased and
where the Fathers make a few cigars from Congo tobacco which are not at
all bad smoking. A little further up the river, is the deserted Catholic
Mission of St. Marie which has evidently been at one time well arranged
with a large manioc plantation and garden. Here however, the Sleeping
Sickness appeared and the mortality was so heavy that the place was
abandoned. The disease had no doubt existed before, but it was this
terrible epidemic which first attracted the serious notice of Europeans.

It is becoming clear that there are a great number of nationalities
represented in the Congo. Most of the political and military
appointments are held by Belgians, but there are many Italian military
officers also. Nearly all the marine are Scandinavians and the language
of the river is therefore, chiefly English, although every State
official must speak a certain amount of French. A few Germans also hold
appointments, and the trading houses are run chiefly by English and
Dutch, while there are missionaries of several nationalities. In the
army, orders are given in French, but on the ships and in the stations,