AN UNCOMFORTABLE NIGHT. 219 
darkness. But gradually, as my eyes got accustomed to 
the gloom, I made out a long chamber, on either side of 
which were rows of stalls. The stalls on one side con- 
tained a pony, goats, sheep, and chickens, while on the 
other side were the private apartments of the household. 
There were many little pickaninnies playing about a low 
fire that burned at the farther end of the room, with their 
mammas, — wives of the chief, — all of whom seemed very 
curious to investigate the stranger. I was given an ox- 
skin to sleep on, and a cloak of native manufacture, while 
the chief's saddle afforded me a hard pillow." 
The room smelt abominably, and the vermin were appall- 
ing. But these little inconveniences are common in Africa, 
and I knew what I was to expect when I ventured to live 
as anative. I kept outside as long as I could, talking to 
the several hundred natives that were grouped about the 
courtyard; but it soon began to rain heavily, and I was 
forced to go back into the house and endure everything. 
A goat was killed at our feet, and a great mess it was cut- 
ting him up and cooking him. Honey, ground meal, and 
the ordinary wine made from durrha were brought me; 
but, had I not had an enormous appetite, I could not have 
touched any of these things, they were so mixed with dirt. 
Later on my boys managed to fall asleep, except the two 
sentries that I kept on guard, but it was impossible for 
me to get an instant’s rest. The pony was continually 
kicking up a row, probably on account of nibbling rats; 
and then some pickaninny would begin to bawl, whereupon 
there would be a chorus of female voices in manly tones, 
and after a good sound whacking with a goat’s-leg bone, 
the infant would be restored to a state of rest. To cap all, 
1 The pillows made by the Amara are the same as are used by most other 
tribes I met with, and consist of little pieces of wood, shaped like a maltese 
cross, the head resting on the cross-piece in an apparently most uncomfortable 
position. 
