82 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



Beside them are all sorts and conditions. Your 

 true savage pleased his own fancy as to dress and 

 personal adornment. The bushmen generally 

 shaved the edges of their wool to leave a nice 

 close-fitting natural skull cap, wore a single 

 blanket draped from one shoulder, and carried a 

 war club. The ear lobe seemed always to be 

 stretched ; sometimes sufficiently to have carried 

 a pint bottle. Indeed, white marmalade jars 

 seemed to be very popular wear. One ingenious 

 person had acquired a dozen of the sort of safety 

 pins used to fasten curtains to their rings. These 

 he had snapped into the lobes, six on a side. 



We explored for some time. One of the 

 Swahilis attached himself to us so unobtrusively 

 that before we knew it we had accepted him as 

 guide. In that capacity he realized an ideal, for 

 he never addressed a word to us, nor did he even 

 stay in sight. We wandered along at our 

 sweet will, dawdling as slowly as we pleased. 

 The guide had apparently quite disappeared. 

 Look where we would we could in no manner 

 discover him. At the next corner we would 

 pause, undecided as to what to do ; there, in the 

 middle distance, would stand our friend, smiling. 

 When he was sure we had seen him, and were 

 about to take the turn properly, he would dis- 



