AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



indolent damsels, their hair divided in innumerable 

 tiny parts running fore and aft like the stripes on a 

 watermelon; their figured 'Mericani garments draped 

 gracefully. As befitted the women of plutocrats, 

 they wore much jewellery, some of it set in their 

 noses. Most of them did all of nothing, but some 

 sat half buried in narrow strips of bright-coloured 

 tissue paper. These they were pasting together like 

 rolls of tape, the coloured edges of the paper forming 

 concentric patterns on the resultant disks an 

 infinite labour. The disks, when completed, were 

 for insertion in the lobes of the ears. 



When we arrived the irregular "streets" of the 

 village were nearly empty, save for a few elegant 

 youths, in long kanzuas, or robes of cinnamon colour 

 and spotless white, on their heads fezzes or turbans, 

 in their hands slender rattan canes. They were 

 very busy talking to each other, and of course did not 

 notice the idle beauties beneath the verandas. 



Hardly had we appeared, however, when mysteri- 

 ously came forth the headman a bearded, 

 solemn, Arablike person with a phenomenally ugly 

 face but a most pleasing smile. We told him we 

 wanted porters. He clapped his hands. To the four 

 young men who answered this summons he gave 

 a command. From sleepy indolence they sprang 

 into life. To the four cardinal points of the compass 



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