110 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



in little cocoa-leaf houses on the tops of knolls or 

 beneath mangoes; and would talk with the people. 

 They were very grave and very polite, and seemed 

 to be living out their lives quite correctly ac- 

 cording to their conceptions. Again, it was borne 

 in on me that these people are not stumbling 

 along the course of evolution in our footsteps, but 

 have gone as far in their path as we have in 

 ours ; that they have reached at least as com- 

 plete a correspondence with their environment 

 as we with our own.* 



If F. had not returned by the time I reached 

 camp, I would seat myself in my canvas chair, 

 and thence dispense justice, advice, or medical 

 treatment. If none of these things seemed de- 

 manded, I smoked my pipe. To me one after- 

 noon came a big-framed, old, dignified man, 

 with the heavy beard, the noble features, the 

 high forehead, and the blank statue eyes of the 

 blind Homer. He was led by a very small, very 

 bright-eyed naked boy. At some twenty feet 

 distance he squatted down cross-legged before 

 me. For quite five minutes he sat there silent, 

 while I sat in my camp chair, smoked and 

 waited. At last he spoke in a rolling deep bass 

 voice rich and vibrating a delight to hear. 



* For a fuller discussion, see " The Land of Footprints. " 



