The players, two parties of some twenty slaves, of
all ages and sizes, mingled, each side striving to catch the
ball, and with many feints and antics to pass it on to a friend.
When it fell out of bounds, the juniors ran to pick it up with
frantic screams. It was interesting, as showing the difference
between the highlander and the lowlander; one might pass years on
the Congo plains without seeing so much voluntary exertion: yet a
similar game of ball is described by the Rev. Mr. Waddell
("Twenty-nine years in the West Indies and Central Africa," chap.
xvii. London, Nelsons, 1863). The evening ended, as it often does
before a march, when rest is required, with extra hard work, a
drinking bout deep as the Rhineland baron's in the good old time,
and a dance in which both sexes joined. As there were neither
torches nor moon, I did not attend; the singing, the shouting,
and the drumming, which lasted till midnight, spoke well for the
agility and endurance of the fair montagnardes.
What lightens Gidi Mavunga's steps is the immediate prospect of
the Munlola or preliminary showers, which, beginning in mid-
September, last, with a certain persistence of fall, till
October.
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