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-18-

The little village, with its small round huts and pointed thatch roofs, looked most picturesque in the bright moonlight. Somewhere in the background was a strange noise, like a far-off roaring of a multitude. The Chief told us that a child was ill and the women were wailing for it. Before we went to bed the child died, and the wailing ceased.

We hear amusing stories of what our boys think of the leader of the expedition. "What is his name?" they asked, and were told "Dr. Mann." "But what was his name before he was a doctor?"
And as to the announced object of the expedition, of course they would not be stupid enough to believe that anyone would really come all the way from America to collect animals from Liberia. They have finally decided that he is out of a job, and just traveling around the country waiting for Firestone to take him on.

March 23 -
It was a long, hard pull to Belleyella, starting before eight in the morning, and going pretty steadily all day. Frequently we crossed small streams and rivers, where the boys deserted their loads or their hammocks to go swimming. There were miles of shaky bridges, and one hammock or monkey bridge over the Tumeh River that was especially nerve-racking. The foot part was less than twelve inches across, and consisted of small saplings bound together with rattan. A wide rail on each side made the [[strikethrough]]basket [[/strikethrough]] bridge something like a long deep basket, but the railing was so far apart that when you stood in the middle you could not reach both sides at once. And of course the whole contraption shook and swayed as you felt your way across it. The Tumeh River is the boundary between the KPessi and the Belli tribes, and it was another two hours walk to the village of Belleyella. We got in at six o'clock, but Si, who had the keys, was behind the rest and did not arrive until nearly seven. The village was not as large as we had been led to believe, and not especially attractive. Perhaps a hundred little round huts, with an occasional square one, clustered together with no tree anywhere in the town. We were greeted as we entered the village by Mr. Duclay, who showed us to our quarters and explained that he was "District Master", which is a representative of the District Commissioner, but with little authority. He gave us, however, two little one-room huts, a wash house, and a palaver kitchen. The huts had barely room for our tin trunks and our cots; we ate in the palaver kitchen, after the usual confusion of sorting out baggage, which was especially difficult tonight as it was long past dark before we could get at our lanterns. 

We are now in the land of iron money. We had passed on the road a man carrying a box of it on his head - long twisted pieces of black, native-smelted iron, one end rounded, the other with a sharp-pointed cross-piece. When we asked about buying some, we found the price was forty for a shilling, or two for a cent. That didn't jibe, but we thought to outsmart the natives by buying irons with coppers. They soon caught on, however, and refused to sell smaller quantities that 20 for a sixpencee.

There is a small garrison here of the Frontier Force, and word

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