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Mar. 30 -

Sergeant Gibson presented Bill with a fine antique dagger, with an ivory handle and a handsomely woven leather scabbard, as a parting gift.  Although the expedition did not accomplish too much up here, we left Belleyella with kindly feelings toward the officials here.  A final token of esteem was the presentation by the Snake Society of their official snake.  Of course, they had promised to go out and catch us a lot of snakes, but said the time was too short.

Breaking camp after a week was a tedious business.  We had to have more carriers on account of the animals, and there was the usual palaver about the loads.  Finally we were in our hammocks and starting off on the long trek back to civilization.  Our bronze caryatids held our hammocks high over hilly trails; termite nests lined the way like small castles on the Rhine; the chants of "Bo lilly" and "Cosio" began again. In about two hours we reached the hammock bridge, found that a new one had been built that was even more terrifying than the old one.  

Not far beyond the bridge, one of our boys spotted a "softly" or potto, in a tree, and with even more than the customary din it was shaken out of the tree, caught, and finally put in a cloth bag.

We got into Gumbeyta about four o'clock, where a nice little house with five rooms and a verandah had been cleaned out and made ready for us.  Commissioner Clark's caravan got in about dusk, and he came over to our house for dinner.  He had sent word ahead to the people that we wanted animals, and we got a nice little collection of fish, snakes, porcupines, a squirrel and a pangolin. 

March 31 -

We left Gumbeyta at nine o'clock, after a cordial farewell from the Commissioner, who gave J an otter skin and me a piece of country cloth.  Towards noon we reached Molekwelle, where word had also been sent of our coming, and we found four hornbills, two porcupines, a ground hog, and a mongoose waiting for us.

On the road Bobor usually walks ahead of me to help me over bad bridges; Bobor is the soul of respectability, and his spare, dignified figure, wearing khaki shirt and shorts and an oilcloth helmet, carrying a black cotton umbrella, a tea kettle, and Bill's gun (for which the ammunition was left behind,)  is one of the landmarks of our caravan.

We reached Digain at four o'clock, and had rather an unhappy evening.  Johnny, our unfortunate steward, accidentally pulled out a chair that J was about to sit on, and she had a bad fall.  The little chimp, who had a bad cold when we left Belleyella, shows definite symptoms of pneumonia; the baby colobus with the gun shot died; and one porcupine escaped in the night.  Moreover Digain, in spiteof the promises made when we were here before, had nothing for us except a baby mongoose and a sooty mangabey with a bobbed tail.

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