AFRICAN DRUMS.

New York:: Farrar & Rinehart, , (1930). Hardcover -. Very good in brown cloth with dark brown lettering (some wear to the edges of the boards and the corners, but overall a clean and tight copy), no dust jacket. . Early printing. Fred Puleston ran away from home at 17 and went to Africa as an agent for Hattan & Cookson he stayed there off and on for 14 years: 1882 to 1896. This book - which describes those experiences - includes some surprising statements - For example "All white men (except missionaries) of his acquaintance in the Congo had black 'harems'."[one to three native girls - he approved the custom.] Cannibalism was common among the blacks; three of Agent Puleston's friends were eaten. Twice he met Explorer Stanley, "discoverer" of Livingstone. Other chapters deal with witch doctors, and in one he contrasts slavery in Africa as practiced by Africans versus that of white men, whom he accuses of turning two islands into "hell holes." Puleston is also known as one who exposed Alfred Aloysius ("Trader") Horn. Indignation at the gross ignorance of Congo Africa which he detected in the "Horn-books" caused Dr. Puleston (then a prosperous Miami, Florida physician) to exclaim to friends, "I can't believe this man was ever in the Congo!" Illustrated with fantastic art deco paintings and drawings by Andre Durenceau (as one commentator noted "his illustrations tended towards the provocative, and even at times the erotic and grotesque.") including a color frontispiece and endpapers, 5 black and white glossy full page plates and several small drawings at the tail of some of the chapters. 318 pp.