1. _Ndangu_, hand-matching game. (Lower Congo _ta mbele_ is slightly different.) The players form two lines (_mabenge_) facing each other. The first player A faces the first of the opposition line B; A throws up both hands and brings them down with a clap (_esaku_), and then darts out one hand. B does the same—claps his answers (_tambola_), and if B’s hand meets A’s hand, A is wounded (_ajwe mpota_), and if A receives three wounds (_mpota iatu_) he dies (_awe_). That is to say that if B is quick enough, or lucky enough, to throw out a hand to meet A’s thrust, then instead of being wounded he wounds A, and three wounds count a death—A goes to the bottom of his own line. If, however, the hands do not meet, then B is wounded and A passes on to the next, and the next, until he wounds all in B’s line or is himself killed; if he is killed, then the next boy to A tries until he is either “killed” or has been down B’s line. Those who are “dead” stand at the bottom of their line. After all the “men” in A’s line have played, B’s line starts, and should he lose any “men” they are redeemed in the following way: A’s line lost, say, five, and B’s line lost, say, four, A counts four of his five as redeemed, and B counts his four as redeemed, thus over the first bout B has lost none, and A has lost one “man.” The game proceeds until all on one side are killed. The sharpest players stand at the top of the line, and are much admired for their prowess. [Illustration: _Photo by_: _Rev. C. J. Dodds_ MODEL OF A STATE STEAMER The lads holding the model made it out of bamboo, papyrus pith, and the potato-like substance of the plantain root. The lads delight to pull these toy steamers through the villages and imitate the white captains, with their make-believe salutes, etc. ] 2. _Ta mbali_, or hockey (Lower Congo _ta mbadi_), is probably a recent introduction by steamer lads from the Lower Congo, as the Monsembe boys had no open spaces for such a game until they played on the cleared opening in front of our station. I found hockey played most vigorously at San Salvador du Congo when I arrived there in the early part of 1882.