HUNTING AND VISITING II5 



But Tesfankièl had a good idea. *Mr Gianni,' he growled 

 into my ear, 'give little girl beads.' The idea seemed excellent 

 so I pulled a string of green beads from my pocket. Khadigiah 

 looked wonderingly at them, and through her tears I thought 

 I saw that unmistakable flash in the eye which is the first 

 sign of feminine covetousness. She looked at the necklace, 

 swallowed and wiped her eyes. Finally she put out her 

 hand . . . She was soon on my knee, completely happy, and 

 covered with beads, ear-rings and pins of different kinds. I 

 had become her best friend, her 'fiance' as she bluntly said. 

 Then she disappeared to break the news to all the children 

 in the village. They would come too because white men did 

 not cut children's ears off at all. When we left, the governor's 

 littie daughter wanted to embrace me passionately and she 

 cried desperately. But once again, her father managed (only 

 just) to calm her. 



On the following day. Sheik Serag Mohammed Kamil 

 sent a servant along to Nasi's house with a sucking goat and 

 two other gifts; for Gigi a sef-i, a bread mat woven from 

 fibre with brightly coloured designs, and for me a magnificent 

 breakfast mat, an inebli-kursi, also made of coloured fibres. 

 Tesfankièl attended to the goat because both Gigi and I 

 refused to slaughter it. We invited two of the negroes from 

 the quarry to come and eat with us and because they were 

 Mohammedans and could not eat meat slaughtered by the 

 heathen, Tesfankièl gave them the gully-knife to carry out 

 the slaughter. They stretched the goat outside with its muzzle 

 towards Mecca, according to the ritual, and after various 

 invocations to almighty Allah slit its throat in good faith 

 and holy tranquillity. 



That night, Tesfankièl raked out a handful of berbere, the 

 African red pepper, beside which paprika is like semolina 

 for sufferers from gastric ulcer, and prepared one of his 



