Evening Star Newspaper, May 16, 1926, Page 90

a -~ THE SUNDAY STAR., WASHINGTON, D. C., MA\‘v 16, 1926—PART 5. Explorer Has Mortal Battle With. Crocodile in African Waters Encounter With an Enragcd Buffalo Gives Added Life to Journey Into the Wilds—At Close Huge Gorilla—In Cannibal Sect—Where Murder Is a Quarters With the Region of a a Requisite for Membership—Blindly Firing a Submerged Rifle. collector of arns, is re. A naturalist and note, T lexander rded as_an authority upon a portion of Africa—the eastern Kongo—that 1s rarely traversed by white men. His knowledge of the strange customs of savage natives and of various forms of animal and insect life was gained In a recent expeditiot when, with his wife and a_few native porters. he entered Belgian Kongo from Brit ish East Africa and, on foet. by steamer and by train, traveled its breadth to the Atlantic Ocean. During part of his journey Mr. rmes followed in the footsteps of, Livingstone and Stanley, made 7 years earlier. At the beginning present article he has reached and is preparing to climh the voleanic mountains of Mikeno and Karisimbi f " the .\l‘E;\Si)PII( BARNS. ROM my guide 1 now began to hear tales of the gorillas the ngege, as the natives call them hereabouts. f'rom his description and judging by the fact that he was able to differentiate n what he called the impundu (the chimpanzi) and the ngege (the gorilla), it was evident I was within measurable distance of seeing and perhaps shooting a specimen of this animal—the Iargest specles of man ape that walks the earth today. What with rain and cold, bad and grumbling porters, lack of food and suitable guides, 1 had hegun to won- der if the climbing of these volcanoes was worth the candle, but the news concerning the gofillas and the ar rival of a quantity of food every one in a good humor. things took a turn for the better, and 1 de- cided to start for the higher regions The “saddle” that connects the two colcanoes of Mikeno and Karisimbi approximates an elevation of 10,500 feet, and, as water is obtainable some small hogs that exist there, I decided to veach this and make it my camping place for the further exploration of this part of the range. As the “safari” mounted to this ridze evidences of elephant and buf- falo hecame more frequent. and the bamboo and other tropcal foliage more dense, However, on approach inz the top, the hardy traveler will reach u definitely marked zone hevond which the bamboo apparently will not grow and he will be delighted to find himeelf amid open forest scenery that an only be described as elysian. This unique forest, which is little more than two miles square, is com posed almost entirely of old and knot- ted hagenia trees (resembling the European sumach). on the gnarled stems and branches of which are to he seen massive pads of dark green moss. Hagenia trees growing else- where never attain a thickness of trunk much greater than two feet, but here their growth for some un BY hetw putting | in | thicket the weirdest “devil's that can he Imagined; it start- ed with an indrawn whine, which auic increased in volume until it { broke out into a hoarse grunt, accom ! panied by a heavy, resonant clopp— | elopp—-clopp. 1 had heard of both the gorilla and | orang-utan heating their chests to | trighten away an intruder, but when | 1 tirst listened to this exiraordinary “clopping” noise, 1 ly realized that it was being made hy the great ape beating his chest. lowever, on thinking the matter over afterward, it was evident that it was produced in this way. Judging pposite | tattoo it advisable to allay any su continued presence so close fo him. we reathlessly waited a time, in the hope that he would move out of the position in which he had entrenched himself. would not do, however, but continued at intervals to gibber and beat his chest. accontpanying thig by stamping and shaking the bamboos Hearing these angry danger signals and the heavy thud of its stamping. one instinctively realized that one was confronted with a large and formi dable animal. not a mere monkey, and my mind flashed back to the thick and tough trees that I had seen away back. broken and bent to pieces like matchwood, and how it would be with my arm or neck if the gorilla got either in ita grip. However, “Faint heart ne'er won fair lady” or anything else, so after giving my friend Tarzan a quarter of an hour te come out. what time we had been loudly sworn at by the enemy. I decided to accept the chal- lenge. and carry the war into the enemy's stronghold by going in after him. Therefore, followed by my guide, who was armed with a spear, 1 crossed the glade and, going down on all fours, crawled into the hamboo thicket with rifle in hand. But it was no go this time. for, on mv advancing a few vards, he heard me and shaking us both up with an other of his uneanny roars, crashed away into the forest. Having followed | the spoor for a short distance, it bhe | came apparent by breaking branches and other noises that there were | quite a number of gorillas close at | hand. so 1 decided to abandon a | trontal attack in favor of a flanking movement to the right. Accompanied by my plucky Mhutu | spearman, this we accordingly did | and creeping over the mossy ground | we presently found ourselves on the | edge of a steep glade. On reaching | this spot T cautlously peeped through | the bamboos. and. as luck would have it. at that moment cra-ck went a rotten stick heneath my foot: there was a roar, followed by a general com motion in front of me, and again 1 wasg discovered. oxox NOW threw caution to the winds This the gorilla | jictons in the animal's mind of our | considerable | | | “CLINGING FOR DEAR LIFE TO THE ROOTS ABOUT ME AS THE HUGE CREATURE: STRAINED TO PULL ME UNDER." ered mountains at a high elevation, and seldom déscending below an alti- tude- of 7,000 feet, these animals carry a thick and long coat of hair. with the exception of the chest. which Ix bare gray skin. In color the hair on the arms and shoulders is black, the lower part of the hack of the old males hav ing across it a broad band of gray the lower parts of the hody as well as the head becoming grayish-hrown when fully adult With a weight pounds, the measurements specimen were as follows Standing height (crown foot). 3% inches: span of arms inches; cheat, 61 inches: forearm, 161 length of foot, 12 inches length | hand. 10 inches. 1 have given the animal's “standing | helght.” but as a maiter of fact, con. {trary to the popular theory, a gorilla | seldom walks erect. unless when using |its hands to support itself by branches |overhead “or when alarmed or at | tacked. Shortly afterward we set forth fo the shores of Lake Edward, and it was here [ had a never-to-he-forgotten | experience. For, going one day to a nook on the shore where I was in the habit of studying wifd life, I was ae tonished to find a solitary old [hlxflfl]n taking a bath.in the shallows in front of my favorite seat, where he |iay at full length in the water quite 1nh]|\‘iuu:~ 10 my near presence. 450 my approximating of of a0 to wole buit | | swerved, it did not alter the Infuriated animal's intention of getting it charge home ‘Thinking my | jumped aside for dear life and es |eaped by a hair's breadth the up ward thrust of the'massive head with its wicked horns. The charge of the | heavy beast earried it some distance bevond me, but. bringing itself up | with a jolt, it was soon nosing around with every intention of delivering a second assault. By this time, however, 1 loaded. and. placing another its shoulder, T was devoutly to see the heast lumher away show ing every «ign this time of being vitally hit When 1 had collected myeelf sufficientiy to follow him up, I found the old chap at his last gasp and finished him off with little difm enity. On’ examination he proved o very old, of massive proportiona, with hprne worn away almost to the core and blind in the right eve. To the Iatter fact [ consider I owe my life for it was its right horn that missed Lme: The heast was rolling In fat, ‘wd this came fn useful for the number was up, 1 had re. bullet in thankful | making of soap, onr of which had run out supply e he | [located in a trackless part of the forest | between the Lindl and Aruwimi Rivers, and being taken by surprise in the early morning, 10 of them were | captured, some were shot, and a few | escaped. | Those that taken prigoners were tried on the spot. and incriminat Ing evidence being found against them, they were immediately hanged. Among the belongings of these horri hle people were found the instrument of their sect, in several pairs of the steel leopard.claw knives for attach- ing to their hands when on murder bent. Some of theae gruesome knives congisted of four sharpened steel claws for tearing the body, whilst others were straight, three-pronged knives for stabbing their vietim to death Portions “of their ceremonial cos- tume which they wear when on their | diaholical work were aigo discovered. | This consists of hrown bark cloth | | stained to the sembiance of a leopard «kin which ix worn round the loins and | over the head in the form of a cowl | and pierced with two holes to see were | tatl being fixed to It behind | Other things included hottle-shaped | sticks, with the thick end roughly | fashioned into the shape of & leopard’s | pad, with which (o give the finishing | touch to their ghoulish deeds, i | he has to kill or |enter on | above the Mambela cicatrizations. | death. Even If the expedition had not quite the desired result, some interesting facts came 1o light about the Human Leopards. For instance, It was found out that the novitiate of an Anioto consisted in his having to iive in the forest alone for eight weeks on food nd for himself as hest he can, but firstly, hefore he can this stage of the initlation, it hak to he known that he has killed a man of his own tribe Having accomplished feats, he i& tattooed on these the two chest A notable Anioto ishumu, or ‘“high priest,” who was captured and hanged. had three such cicatrizations on sach side of the chest as a mark of his order, and as the identity of these Anioto is unknown save by these cleatrices, every one is on the laok out for them when passing natives in the forest. Three men have heen hanged for being in possession of the Anioto knives It was in Kongoland that I later had my most harrowing experience when 1 was literally in the Jaws of This occurred when my friend | Lewis and I, while hunting elephants, hand followed o herd angwa River to land that deen In water. We came up to the herd standing huddied together. ‘The biggest, carry ing & magnificent pair of tusks, being broadside on to us, at once received across the Lu was ankle | several bullets in the shoulder from both Lewis and myself, and then plac ing several other shots into the fast- retreating animals we tore after them through the water, the state of our waterlogged boots, however, xoon bringing us to a standstill, Taking & rest to talk over the situa- tion, we decided that Lewls should re. |turn to the village, bring our camp. gear across the river, and that he <hould pltch the tents at the spot where we sat. I was to follow up the | big bull, which, judging by its spoor, | had now left its companions and, evi | dently badly wounded, had gone off on its own. * o 0 we parted, Lewis to recross the | Luangwa River, I, with a rifle as | big tusker and see what had hecome | of him. | The succession of miniature water | Alled pits that marked my quarry progress across the veldt were easy enough to follow and presently led mie to a dark and muddy backwater, over hung with folfage, which, being not miore than 15 yvards wide, the big bull had taken In his stride, so to speak To mere man, however, this deep waterway was an obstacle not easily negotlated, so, venturing down the bank with my cocked and londed riffe resting on my shoulder. I drove and. with my left into the water, lowered myself down gradualiy to test the depth of the river—with a view knowing if I could wade across or if 1 should have to swim it. Not finding bottom. 1 was ahout to raise myself again, when suddeniy, withont xo much a< a swirl of the oily water's edge, stratched out my only companion, to gpoor up the | my right leg deep into the mud on the | to | water, T felt my leg in an awful grip | from below, accompanied by a terrifi | wrench that all but turned me over | head-first into the river. I just man aged to save myself, however, owing | to my right leg being firmly held, up |to the knea, in the alluvial mud left | Py the subsiding water. Realizing on the instant that I was | in the grip of a large crocodile, that | terror of African waters, from whose |Jaws few men have ever escaped, I | nerved mymelf for a supreme effor by clinging for dear life 1o the roots 8bout me as the huge creature strained to pull me under Fortunately for me. to hold onto mx rifle whan having a fall had bacome a second nature; I therefore still had this in mv grip, and It lay, as far as | can remember. half (the barrel) ir water and half in mud, g0 without aiming [ simply pressed the trigger | In the back of my mind I was not | sure whether the rifle was “at safet: | or not, so it can be imagined witt | what thrilling fov the muffled repor | came 10 me from below water and | | realized (hat my foe had, at last, le &0 his hold | 1 now stumbled back onto the mud | nd, lifting wy rifle, Jawmmed cartridg. after cartridge into the breach, letting irip into the water about me An where cverywhere <o long as Iward ed off & second attack from the loatl some reptile After this | scrambled on all fours up the bank and, 1 » examined my wou consst | ed. apart from minor of | deep holes in my leg. the edges of two of them being badly torn. | lay there for some littie time my painful which had completely me from walking. and wondering my friend Lewis conld have heard the #hote and =0 come to Tn make sure. 1 picked and fired a second volley Lewls, as he afterward heard hoth fusillades think himself. “Ry Jove, Rarns has gt the hig bull’™" hurried along the « and presently found me hors de cc bat as I have described Fearing blood poisoning after suel dangerous hite, and our other med cines having heen left in the we hit upen the experient of rubbir salt into the woun This proved i« he nearly the nitrate o silver pencil used arrival in Fort renched in a s rolling one s, which hrasions, de of member e wor ineapacitated up ctance " s painful as the ducte chilla ar veek Navy Medical Officer Gathers Material | For Smithsonian in Dutch East Indies | BY EMMET DOUGHERTY. N tha top of Mount Kaba, an active valeano on th I<innd of Sumatra, a band of native Malays were going through | religious ceremonies. A sac rifica was offered up in the shape o | white pigeon, with pink eves for which the Malay chieftain pald ten dollars American gold. The pigeon cas turned loose over the crater of | the voleano. If Ke negotiated the | flight to safety over the seething mass | of redhot lava. which such hirde | | rarely do, great ill would hefail the natives. 1f the bird fell into the crater, which ix generally its fate. all the wishes of the natives wonld come true rice and fruit would he abundant, the women would hear many xons, and the price of rubher hought by Amerl. can users would continue high. With A EEZRL and wriggled recklessly through the | Mg remaining bamboo stems in the wake | .- ; et hly of the vetreating quarey. This brought |3 UCH ‘ai “opporfunity comes onl once in a lifetime and 1 took fuil explained reason has become abnor. S, W mal, many of their;red arched and buttressed trunks assuming giant TER. moving the increased wealth from the crops and rubber, the tribesmen could huy more American $5. $10 and $20 gold e 4" passed through the regions of | savage African tribes, éspecially the | proportions three times this measure- ment When 1 left my damp and cold camp the following morning for a still wetter and colder forest, 1 had little hope of bagging a gorilla, one of the rarest and most animals that may fall to the hunte vifle, the mere name of which had often thrilled my younger days and around which there still hangs some thing primeval. Such luck seemed too zood to come true. Tt is perhaps not generally known that gorillas are fond of bending over | long bamboos to make a kind of low | platform upen which to sun them- selves and from which to pluck and chew the tender leaves. Thus en gaged was the first gorilla 1 encoun- terad. MY Mhutu guide and myself had been going carefully along through the dew-drenched forest, when we were attracted by what sounded like a cough and a breaking branch a considerable distance in ad- vance of our position. This the na- tive assured me came from the animals we sought. but quite how he could distinguish’ the sounds from those made by a buffalo I am at a loss to understand. However, he was right. for after ginzerly picking our way ahead for a Short distance, we disturbed one of these. hairy giants taking an early morning sun bath on his platform. He was, however, too quick for us. for either sensing danger or having seen us. he made one great leap off his perch, accompanied by a scream- “I JUMPED TO ESCAPE THE UP-- WARD THRUST OF THE MASSIVE HEAD WITH ITS WICKED HORNS.” ing roar, and was immediately lost to view behind the thick screen of bam- boos. The set of the wind being in our | favor, we stood stock still where we were, it_being evident that the big ape could not have smelt us and, therefore. had simply leaped to the ground, and was in all likelihood stand- ing and listening for intruders just where he landed after his jump. | was then standing, as'l guessed, with- ing 20 paces of my quarry—there be- ing only & tiny glade separating me from the bank of bamboo into which he had disappeared. . These surmises proved correct, for guddenly there broke forth from the! interesting | squatting in some thick brushwood and apparently undismayed by the danger signals of his companions, sat or rather half-stood, with bhoth hie massive hands resting on the ground before him, a huge “old man™ gorilla | regarding me with his malign and wrinkled countenance. At this moment I whipped up my riffie and fired point blank at the great bare chest: the little .303 buile was well placed and its effect im mediate, for he stumbled away but a few yards, and my second bullet finished his career. He then lay quite still outstretched on his stomach with his head buried between the two great hairy arms. Now pandemonium was let loose. Other members of the troop, which consisted, as far as I could judge, of two large and quite black females with several voung ones of varying ages, stood around uttering their angry barking roars, and 1 beheld black and evil visages regarding me | from under bamboo archways and over leafy thickets. Then from out the forest right, ambled another monster and crossing right in front of me was soon logt to view in the woods beyond but it gave me a good “full view' of another of these giants. This was a second male, and his black form made a splendid picturé against the lighter foliage as he stopped to gaze curifously at me with his old and fur. rowed face. However, as I had shot the one, ] let him pass on to rejoin the rest of the troop, which had now climbed to my | down, and .were moving off into the ‘ undergrowth—going forward myself to examine my prize, which lay face down in the gra | herculean proportiol His immense arms and hands were | espectally striking and of such enor. | mous strength that the could doubt lless tear even a Hackenschmidt or a Sandow limb from limb in a few min- {utes. These abnormally lons arms | give this splendid ape a misshapen ap. | pearance wnen walking (or ambling is |a better description), the legs being ery short in_comparison. Living as they do in the mist-cov- me out into the open glade and there i {advantage of it. On making the dis- |covery. 1 siipped back to my camera “hoy" and adjusting my 7-inch lens for close work, I lifted camera and tripod on te my shoulder, ane returring, | managed to “plant” my camera in the ! very nick of time, just as the buff: |came through the reeds and stood drip- | ping with mud and water and licking i€ chops not 20 paces from me. | The wind being in my direction, this | fine old animal took a prolonged stare at me, and mistaking what he saw for wome harmless brother mammal, walk- ed leisurely across my front, picking, as he went, at bits of herbage in his ‘path, animals finer creations than the com mon ruck of humanity, nobler in many ways, cleaner, more graceful, and more pleasing to the eve, it ix with some. thing akin fo pity that 1 have to record the fact that when thix fine old buffalo passed into the reeds and so out of the view of my clicking kine- {camera. it was not for the last time, and that we were to meet again close 1o this haunt of his. under less peace- | ful circumstances, when man, backed by his_devilish inventions. was to come off victor in the encounter. It happened in this way: The por- ters were wanting food and need must have it, 20 I took my rifle and, strolling out in my usual direction again encountered my whilom friend of the previous day, shot at and wounded him, but not so badly that he was unable to escape the subse quent chase. Coming back empty handed therefore, T decided to try my [ luck follow on in ing day this occasion 1 | the crash of breaking branches | short distance hehind me. On turn. {ing around I was faced again bv m | redoubtable opponent, who had ap- surently been lying up with his wound ! now charging madly towards me. Fortunately, T still had a solitary [ bullet in my rifle, and I lost no time in placing it into the on.coming foe. The immediate effect of this was not, however, apparent, for, althowish he As 1 consider these splendid African | the same direction on the had stalked a . | small herd of waterbuck and, having On turning him | fred several rounds at the leader of over | was truly astonished at his|the troop. I was suddenly startled by [in a thicket close at hand and was Babali. with whose strange, sometimes revoiting, customs 1 came familiar. The sinister streak of extravagant superatition I their natures has heen appealed to in some way by the ean nibal sect known through \West Africd as the Society of Human Leopards hut known among the Baball as the Anioto- which claims many devotees among them. As far ae 1 am last few years, this sect inhuman practices of Africa - Lagos. the Gold Coast, berin. The sect war hunted down and stamped out in the British some years ago, but would seem to hé npant in the negro state of Liberia Tt is curfous to note how the eradi cition of this Leopard sect in one part of Africa has led to its re.establish ment elsewhere, and how the cult has taken hold of the native mind. Judg |ing by the comparatively recent forma [ tion of such a society in Congoland, one is led to belleve thers may even have been some kind of propaganda at work. The tale of the Anioto Leopards of the Aruwimi is enough to make the blood run cold and keep the imagina- tive awake at nights, hut fortunately the prey of this sect aré blacks—prin- cipally voung and defenseleas women and children—not whites. When we arrived in the part of the forest—be | tween Batama and Bomili—which they | frequented, their campaign of revolt. | ing murders had reached its height. | | when no less than 128 victims had | been killed and eaten by them. thus | terrorizing_the neighborhood. Eventually things eame to such a pass that the authorities at Stanley- | ville decided to tnke uction and send a punitive expedition to try and: round up this nest of murderers, under the guldance of certain natives who knew their Iafr, and_with M. A. Laurent, the resolute administrateur of Stan- leyville as intelligence officer. The expedition was quite successful as far a8 it went, but it falled to stamp out | this pest—ovér 40 murders having since oceurred. ® ok K T expedition consisied of M. W Lauvent. Lieut. Patfoort., Judge | 75 be. the its aware. until confined Roman Catholic priest and The Anioto were | uters, native soldiers. Bad News for Gunmen. A N\ Army pistol brought before the court recently in a criminal trial had _ite -identification number badly mutilated—the guilty one nad thought | to escape by marring the pistol &o that no number would b laft by which he | could be traced. But some éxperts on metallurgical researchat the Bureau of Standards got busy and developed a new method whereby inscriptions on steel that are apparently obliterated can be detected. and the pistol was turned into a valuable plece of evi- | dence. Details of the process will not be re- vealed, for reasons of public safety, hut it is explained that it resta upon the fact that metals, generally re- garded as dead and inert, are actually alive in the sense that they retain in their {internal structure evidence of their past history. £ Ly 25 Saving Ships by Ice. HIS ice man's latest job is plugging up holés in sunken ships so they can be raised from the ocean bottom, according to 'reports from Berlin which tell of an ingenious plan just invented by an expert in salvaging. A refrigerating plant is lowered by | means of steel cables and allowed to rest near the hole in the ship's side that must bhe repaired. From the | plant extend flexible pipes, which are placed over the aperture to be closed. | The metal side of the ship and the water surrounding it are both cooled {at the same time, the result being a | thick sheet of ice adhering firmly to and | to the west coast | LI | colonies | | weird pléces for necklaces and hreastping, | the chlats of the Malay villages |and | would have more to w | on their coats | After a three.day climb through the jungles to the summit of Mount Kaba this was the unusual | hefore Lieut. Henry . Kellers, a | naval medieal officer, who accompa nied the Naval Observatory’s recent expedition to Sumatra to witness the | solar eclipse. Kellers spent 10 weeks in the Dutch East India ar logical material for the Smithsonian | Inatitution, bringing back 9000 speci- mens of reptiles, birds, insects, crus | tacenns, molmsks and mammals, liv- | ing and dead. | A 16foot python was included among the live specimens brought hame. Dr. Kellers caught the reptile |in A tree while it was in a dormant condition after feeding. He aleo | canght another python, measuring & | feet, hut thia monster escaped from {tx | pen one night and caused considerahie damage among the local poultry yards | before disappearing into the jungle. [ Among the 18 living hirde brought back to the National Zoological Park here, which is under Smithsonian ad. | miniatration, are a pair of black- | ereatad hornbills. trapped by Dr. Kel |lers on the banks of the Musi River near Kepahlang. Aside from thelr shriek, these birds are tinguished by the habit which male has of building a mud wall to seal the female up in her nest during the nesting period. He lenves only a small hole through which to pass food to the moth At night the female sticks her heak through the aperture, effectively plugging it. The h ver fs (o protect the eggs or voung from snikes, wandering rats or mon- keys. Accompanied by a picked crew of 7 natives, Dr. Kellers estublished his fleld headquarters at the base of Mount Kaba, near a village. und enguged in an exploration of the jungle wilds. It was here he came across the two | p¥thons captured, and he also added | the hull plates. The water can then be pumped out of the ship =o that it can be raised to the swilmess i as buttons | scene nunfolded | e | purpose of this extraordinary maneu- | \ipelago. gathering bio- | to hix_collection birds, including the pair of biack-crested hornbills, These | hirds frequent the banks of the Musi River during the early morning hours and then fly off Mto the jungle dur- ing the heat of the day, returning at night to rest in the tree tops on the jungle’s edge. Two hundred birds were trapped by Lieut. Kellers. but only a small number survived the month’s cruise on board ship back to the United States. Marine collactions were gathersd by Dr. Kellers in the Indian Ocean and the Musi River. an outrigger canoe heing used in deep-sen fishing and seining. Water reptfles, sea serpents, water snakes six and seven feet long were collected on the reef off Posloet- icus. The draco. a flying lizard. color ed as beautifully as a butterfly, was one of Dr. Kellers' catches. He cap- tured also a coral fish. which is very rare species. Most of these ma- rine specimens were helpless on land. A flat tafl distinguishes them. All| are poisonous and live on fish. They were not pugnacious, the native fish- ermen (hrowing them back into the | sen when caught In thelr seines, A ninefoot cobra, the most vicious ke that frequents the fxlands of | umatra and Java, was shot by Dr. Kellers and his n and the <kin of the reptile has been preserved for the Smithsonfan collection. The snake has fangs (hreceights of an ineh long, not unlike teeth, and when | the mouth is closed they set in sock ets in the jaw. Lieut. Kellers cap tured a cub bear in the jungle and ! turned it over to the zoo at Manila. | He saw a specimen of the diminutive | mouse deer, which stands about a | foot high, and sought to buy it from its native owner, but failed hecause ' the Malay feared all his family would | cry if it were soid. One great difficulty in hunting in | Sumatra i the intense heat of the | jungie and the hordes of leeches | Which come out to attack the hunt- ers during the wet season. These insects are about half the size of an ordinary match and manage to get | to one’s skin through the thickest i | protection. The leeches suck the | | blood of the human, the red fluid | Uinflating the insects so they resemble | | small sausages. The natives scrape | them off their legs with hunting | knive ! Beyond the unpleasant knowledge of having them on you, Dr. Kellers | said the leeches *do no harm. There is only one relief from the heat and that is the deliciously cool | water that comes from the bambgo. The bamboo is broken at the joint, and Dr. Kellers and hix native crew quaffed in this novel way. Friday is the chief worship day of the Malay natives of Sumatra and of the Javanese, hoth being Moham- medans. Mount Kaba holds a strik- ing fascination for the Sumatrans, despite the fact that It s & young volcano and very active, and, in Dr. Kellers' opinion, may overflow in time. There are frequent earth tre- mors in Sumatra, and the natives at- tribute all these disturbances to Mount Kaba. While engaged on the reef one day, Dr. Kellers and his na- | tive crew felt a slight earthquake. The day's labors In the waters were fruit’ess, all the fixh having imme- diately departed to other parts of the ocean. The natives as a whole believe in the spirits of life, not only of anje mate, but alsp of inanimate objects, ! This the * "semang; fn the with the known cleatly connected is as and ceremonies “apirit” of the rice crops. The tives consider it essential that “spirit of life” shall not depart from the rice intended for next year's sow- ing. ns otherwise the desd seed wonld fail to produce any crop. He approaches the standing rice at harvest ‘time in an humble manner he addresses the grain in endearing terme: he offers sacrifices: he fears that he may seare away the “hird of life” by weapons or the least sian of vielence, He reaps the seed rice with a knife of peculiar shape wit the hlade hidden hetween the fingers <0 a8 not to alarm the “soul of the rice.” When once the seed rice has been harvested. more expeditious tools are emploved. sinee It is clearly of ix most unnecessary Al larvae t whi n h Malays down of The most pri though, an elm, in on tall tree The the covered with <1 strong are very completely armed that broken off it up from the g thick heavy and 23 tick. sticky this appar el e durian, in the jungle. resend . uit ix round and lar than a_coconut. of a green color and | vt stout spines is diffienlt pund. tough knife to eut is of a satiny white color and gener |ally contains five large seeds wovered 'stucco, to retain the “epirit in the rice that is intended to | several be eaten, Sumatrans, too particular about their food of the lower class Malays eating the | ingects and heetle bugs and dr; hamboo in some bag with however, sare the agon flies on_the substan unusual fare relish, ruly end which & and sharp. It to pick The outer and require open. none some Using the and iCof the islands, ing The inside over which ix the part The flavor the duriar Kellers said, “is indescribable custard highly flavored with almonds gives the Lest nersl idean rmingled with this comes an ode calls to mind onion, garlie mirger cheese 1t prod 21 and the more voi the less veonu feel inclined In fact. to eat durians is worth o voyage the Indies." Lieut. Kellers came a« herds of elephants during from the west coast town koelen and the village of on the east coast. The Sumatran phant is small. but extremely a ve The Standard Ol Co. had a pipe line started to link these two towns and several miles had heen laid before the elephants were attracted it At places along the pipe route big stretches of this ho American metal were nprooted by t elephants, who, Dr. Kellers savs these depredations more in a plavf: than malicious spirit. The elepha are wild, but readily tamed Fireproof Straw House. NEW called with a pulp of nan: eat 1o sty to Duteh Ea ross severa his tri of Ben Palembang ele materiul vecent French in Popuiar It is made of straw light, durable fireproof building solomit is Science Monthly invention, deseribed and is sald to be cheap, which | and soundproof is S0 | if the stalk is one rind into large t wide und The straw s pressed paneis % feet long by 6 fe inches thick, bound together len wise hy wires inches a I'he material has been found exceftent for side walls, ceilings and partitions and makes a fine surface for plaster and THE WATERING CART OF SUMATRA.