Their quick eyes noted the quaint iguana, like giant lizards, sunning
themselves on the branches of the trees over the stream and then
dropping like stones into the stream as the steamer passed.
_The Slave Girl's Brother_
Then, suddenly, as they came round a bend in the river, all was
changed. There ahead Grenfell saw a river town. The canoes were being
manned rapidly by warriors. The bank bristled with spears in the hands
of ferocious savages, whose faces were made horrible by gashes and
loathsome tattooing. In each canoe men stood with bows in their hands
and arrows drawn to the head. The throb of the engines ceased. The
ship slowed up. But the canoes came on.
The men of this Congo town only knew one thing. Enemies had, only a
few weeks earlier, come from down-river, had raided their town,
burned their huts, killed many of their braves, and carried away their
children. Here were men who had also come from down the river. They
must, therefore, be enemies.
Their chief shouted an order. In an instant a score of spears hurtled
at the ship and rattled on the steel screens around the deck. The yell
of the battle-cry of the tribe echoed and re-echoed down the river.
Grenfell was standing by the little girls. Suddenly one of them with
dancing eyes shouted and waved her arms.
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