DUR GHELLA AND ITS INHABITANTS 179 



guardians and the object of our boiling anger. At first they 

 were shy and retiring, but little by little they took courage and 

 advanced. They advanced relentlessly in cautious stages 

 towards the tent in the mangroves, shifting their holes a yard 

 at a time as an army would dig trenches and advance without 

 exposing itself to the enemy. At the end of four or five days 

 our tent appeared to be surrounded by a Lilliputian but 

 impressive camp of redskins. The foot-high sand cones 

 seemed to be small tents, and, with a little imagination, those 

 red periscope eyes became painted feathers. We called it the 

 siege of the Sioux. 



After completing the encircling movement, the Sioux crabs 

 began the assault. Not all together, however, and not with 

 war-whoops. They remained in respectful fear of us and we 

 only had to move our feet to see them dive head-first into 

 their dens. They used to attack singly and methodically, 

 taking advantage of our absence, of the darkness or of our 

 forgetfulness. They crawled along guardedly and suspiciously 

 and stiffened up at the slightest creak. They halted at every 

 two feet, then, reassured, they darted off again at high speed 

 and overcame another stretch of territory. It was a fascinating, 

 closely calculated attack. 



We, the besieged, were delighted. There was no cleaning 

 up to do. The site was a model of field hygiene. There 

 was no rubbish, no bits of meat, fish or spaghetti to be seen. 

 But the Sioux gathered strength and the left-overs from our 

 not over-big meals were not sufficient. They became more 

 audacious and some of them pitched their tents at not more 

 than a yard from ours. Then they began lifting stuff. They 

 began with the metal caps of the mineral water bottles, 

 nothing serious, but then they passed on to teaspoons, 

 matches, to Priscilla's paint tubes and brushes and to entire 

 ship's-biscuits carried away from under our noses. Matters 



