CHAPTER XXII 



October 9. — Packed up and sat down to wait for the 

 dhow. She arrived about eight, and proved to be 

 laden deep with peanuts and miscellaneous natives, all 

 of which had to be unloaded before we could get aboard. 

 She was the typical thing, high aft and low forward, 

 so that she looked constantly on the point of making a 

 dive; with one mast amidships and one huge sail on a 

 yard. This was manipulated and swung about by the 

 most fearful and complicated system of native-made 

 ropes and wooden blocks. The crew consisted of four 

 ordinary natives, and a more intelligent black citizen, 

 who held the tiller. Fortunately the dhow is not a 

 skittish creature and does not require quick handling. 

 The crew put in its time sleeping or playing with a tin- 

 ful of beads. When the skipper gave an order the 

 proper man to execute it had to be searched for and 

 waked up. Then the order was discussed in all its bear- 

 ings. Luckily a dhow cannot be upset nor wrecked 

 unless it hits a rock, and then it has to be a very big 

 rock and the dhow going fast. 



We got our loads aboard, and embarked the men one 

 by one. The skipper had a sort of plimsoU mark of his 

 own on which to keep his eye. We piled men on top 



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