incredible, with the far simpler alternative of using lighted sticks. In both the outer and inner rooms were placed raised platforms of clay, about a yard long and two feet wide, which served as fireplaces. On these hearths three or four conical lumps of clay, shaped like an ordinary flower-pot and inverted, were always found. Three of these, placed close together with the fire between, formed a capital stand for a cooking-pot. This system is common all over the Lualaba and Lomami districts. In other parts of the Congo I have seen the common mushroom shaped ants' nests used for this purpose.

All the houses were infested by a myriads of rats, which were fearfully and horribly tame. Enormous numbers of them used, nightly, to swarm up and down the sides of my mosquito net, and on more than one occasion broke the strings and