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National Geographic : 1960 Feb
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elephant ticks. An all-girl safari from Leo poldville gave me air mattresses, lamps, and canned food. A party of Danes left a fine sleeping bag. Soon it seemed as if I had never been away.* Garden Sprouts a Forbidden Crop But when I found time to go exploring, I noticed many changes. Civilization had come to the Ituri Forest. Now there were six trade stores and a bakery opposite the entrance to Camp Putnam. Near by stood a new motel complete with gasoline pump. The natives had formed the habit of going to this new trading center to drink beer. Even worse, many of them had taken to smoking marijuana, an old Congo custom that has been outlawed by the Belgians. I immediately banned the drug from my property and for bade anyone who used it to come on the place. Then, to my embarrassment and the natives' vast amusement, I found a healthy crop of the marijuana weed springing up in my own new garden. After a few weeks I decided it was time for me to go into the forest camps and paint scenes of Pygmy life. Mbaka, a Pygmy of about 18, volunteered to guide me and to carry my sleeping bag, in which I wrapped toilet articles and paints. It felt good to get into the forest with its strange blue-green atmosphere, highlighted with yellow here and there when the sun splashed through onto the high mongongo leaves. (The Pygmies use these broad leaves as thatch.) Birds chattered noisily overhead, but I rarely glimpsed one. Monkeys played their endless game of tag in the treetops; we heard many, but saw only two. Mbaka walked so fast it was hard for me to keep up with him, in spite of my consider * Among earlier visitors to Camp Putnam were Tay and Lowell Thomas, Jr., who told of their experiences in "Flight to Adventure," NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, July, 1957, pages 59-64 and 73. Stealthy Hunter, Screened by Grass, Takes Aim at a Tiny Duiker Every male Pygmy becomes an expert hunter because his skill determines his menu. He moves through the forest so silently that some of the Bantu believe he can make himself invisible. Before firing an arrow, the hunter creeps close enough to leap easily upon his quarry, strangle it, or cut its throat. In fact, he often does. HELENEFISCHER 287
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