82 RHINO AND GIRAFFES [lh. iv 



denly begin to chant, or merely to keep repeating in 

 unison some one word or one phrase which, when we 

 asked to have it translated, might or might not prove 

 to be entirely meaningless. The headmen carried no 

 burdens, and the tent-boys hardly anything, while the 

 saises walked with the spare horses. In addition to the 

 canonical and required costume of blouse or jersey and 

 drawers, each porter wore a blanket, and usually some- 

 thing else to which his soul inclined. It might be an 

 exceedingly shabby coat ; it might be, of all things in 

 the world, an umbrella, an article for which they had a 

 special attachment. Often I would see a porter, who 

 thought nothing whatever of walking for hours at mid- 

 day under the equatorial sun with his head bare, 

 trudging along with solemn pride either under an open 

 umbrella, or carrying the umbrella (tied much like 

 Mrs. Gamp's) in one hand, as a wand of dignity. Then 

 their head-gear varied according to the fancy of the in- 

 dividual. Normally it was a red fez, a kind of cap only 

 used in hot climates, and exquisitely designed to be use- 

 less therein because it gives absolutely no protection 

 from the sun. But one would wear a skin cap ; another 

 would suddenly put one or more long feathers in his 

 fez ; and another, discarding the fez, would revert to 

 some purely savage head-dress which he would wear 

 with equal gravity whether it were, in our eyes, really 

 decorative or merely comic. One such head-dress, for 

 instance, consisted of the skin of the top of a zebra's 

 head, with the two ears. Another was made of the 

 skins of squirrels, with the tails both sticking up and 

 hanging down. Another consisted of a bunch of 

 feathers woven into the hair, which itself was pulled out 

 into strings that were stiffened with clay. Another was 

 really too intricate for description, because it included 



