Sunday is always an interesting day in a State Post, for the Chiefs with many followers come in for a friendly chat and to ask advice.  October 2nd was particularly exciting for a new Chief had been elected in a village near Banzyville, and great rejoicings consequently followed.  Singing, shouting, dancing and a general hubbub, went on from morning to night, and if the desire to make a noise is any criterion of happiness, these people must be the happiest in the world.  There are many forms of dances; sometimes each one shuffles his legs without moving more than a foot or two and then swings his arms, head and body solemnly backwards and forwards; sometimes a number will form a ring, and one after the other will leap into it and rapidly rotate themselves; but whatever the form, all seemed to be keenly excited and to enjoy it thoroughly.

The natives near the Ubangi have a very distinctive tatouage.  It consists of five elevated knobs of skin which form a straight line continuing the line of the nose up the forehead.  These are formed by making for each knob two parallel incisions in the skin about half an inch apart and lifting the flap between.  A piece of ivory is then inserted under the flap and left in until the wound has healed, the result being a knob of skin elevated above the level of the rest of the surface.  All the tatouage in the Congo consists in raising the skin in this manner, but in each district the design is different.  Simple tatooing by pricking in colours does not appear to be practised at all.

Fishing here is very simple and very effective.  Large baskets tapering to a point and open at the broad end are fixed by ropes, or rather by the strong vines which function as ropes here, just at the top of the rapids and the water rushes through with great force.  The fish are carried into the baskets, but cannot pass through or return against the current, and are then simply speared and lifted out.  They have firm, white flesh and are good eating.

On October 3rd the Chief of the Banzas comes to the Post to call.  He is a fine, intelligent-looking man and rules his people, who are very numerous, admirably.  In this part of the Congo, the chieftainship descends from father to son, but in some districts the succession passes through the family of the wife of the Chief.

Numerous petty Chiefs drop in to the Post at intervals during the day and are rather a nuisance, for they are always begging for clothes and offering lances and presents in exchange.  They do not realise that one does not carry a superfluity of clothes when travelling, or that one or two lances are quite sufficient to keep as curios.  Probably they think we are traders for we are not bulamatadi, and no one I believe, has ever ascended the Ubangi on a pleasure tour before.  The newly-elected Chief was very anxious to be given a suit of clothes as he had none and wished to make an impression on his new subjects.  He described with many gestures, that he was elected