HOW WE CURED THE CHIEF 



from the ground and were capped by a very tall bell- 

 shaped roof of grass. Like most of the people that I 

 have met west of the Nile, the men are past masters in 

 idling, and unless away hunting game, fishing, or raiding, 

 they spend the day in loafing round the huts, smoking, 

 chewing sugar-cane, and sleeping under the shade of 

 the palms. The natives of Central Africa are exceed- 

 ingly fond of talking and arguing ; they all talk at once 

 loudly and with much gesticulation ; now and again the 

 babel of voices stops as one fellow emphasizes his speech 

 with a more extraordinary method of head shaking than 

 the rest, together with a waving of his arms. The lucky 

 one who thus manages to obtain a hearing will now and 

 again be interrupted by a chorus of " Ayeh, ayeh, ow ow, 

 oye oye." He surprises his hearers with something 

 unusual about himself or his friends, and their astonish- 

 ment may be signified in many ways, the chief of which 

 is to place the palm of the right hand over the open 

 mouth. 



It has been said of the Mangbettu that they never 

 for an instant sit on the ground. Certain it is that the 

 people who visited our camp were almost invariably 

 followed by their slaves or servants bearing fancy carved 

 stools on which the master would seat himself with an 

 air of importance, and for hours on end would discuss 

 the colour of my hair and its length, also my clothes and 

 boots. These latter they never could understand, and 

 arguments as to whether I ever took them off lasted for 

 a great length of time. The idea of a one-legged stool 

 seemed ridiculous to me, but to judge by the pre- 

 dominance of this class of seat their owners evidently 

 considered it to be quite the thing. 



One afternoon I went into my hut leaving my chair 

 standing outside, and on emerging again I beheld one 

 fellow, whose skin was saturated and glistening with 

 palm oil, comfortably ensconced in it and haranguing a 



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