The heat of the lowlands had
disappeared,--
"The scorching ray
Here pierceth not, impregnate with disease."
The thermometer, it is true, did not sink below 67deg. (F.), whilst
the "Expedition" (p. 118) had found it 60deg. in August, even at
Boma during the dewy nights. The lowest temperature of the water
was 75deg., and the highest 79deg., whereas at the mouth it is
sometimes 83deg.; Tuckey gives 76deg.-77deg.; 74deg. in the upper river above
the Falls, and 73deg. where there are limestone springs. The
oxydization of iron suddenly ceased; after a single day's drying,
the plants were ready for a journey to England, and meat which
wrill hardly keep one day in the lowlands is here eatable on the
fifth.
Whilst the important subject of "dash" was being discussed I set
out in my hammock to visit a quitanda or market held hard by. As
we started, the women sang,
"Lungwa u telemene ko
Mwanza Ko Yellala o kwenda."
"The boat that arrives at the Mwanza (the River) the same shall
go up to the Yellala" (rapids). It is part of a chant which the
mothers of men now old taught them in childhood, and the sole
reminiscence of the Congo Expedition, whose double boats, the
Ajojos of the Brazil, struck their rude minds half a century ago.
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