On the next day another
"gorilla palaver," when a large male was reported to have been
shot without a shadow of truth, detained me: it was the last
straw which broke the patient camel's back. After "dashing" to
old King Langobomo one cloth, one bottle of absinthe, two heads
of tobacco, and a clay pipe, we set out betimes for the fifteen
miles' walk to Mbata. Various obstacles delayed us on the way,
and the shades of evening began to close in rapidly; night
already reigned over the forest. Progress under such
circumstances requires the greatest care; as in the streets of
Damascus, one must ever look fixedly at the ground, under penalty
of a shaking stumble over cross-bars of roots, or fallen branches
hidden by grass and mud. And the worst of these wet walks is
that, sooner or later, they bring on swollen feet, which the
least scratch causes to ulcerate, and which may lame the
traveller for weeks. They are often caused by walking and sitting
in wet shoes and stockings; it is so troublesome to pull off and
pull on again after wading and fording, repeated during every few
hundred yards, that most men tramp through the brooks and suffer
in consequence.
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