African Buffalo Shooting. 173 



in either the complexions or features of the residents. 

 The young girls were decidedly well made and comely, 

 and not remarkable for virtue. They had a curious 

 custom. When moving about amongst their own 

 people their bosoms were covered by the dress they 

 wore, something like the " loonghie " of the Burmese, 

 but when calling upon a European, directly they were 

 inside the compound and the gate closed, they would 

 turn down the upper portion of their dress, fasten it 

 round the waist, and leave the full bust exposed ; and 

 most of them were remarkably well made and deve- 

 loped. How unlike is this to their sisters further 

 south, who tie strings round the chest to break the 

 cords of the breasts to cause them to fall, drooping 

 breasts, even in an unmarried girl, being de rigueur, 

 the prevailing fashion. These three-parts Arab girls 

 of Lakoja, glory in busts which in form rival those 

 of the finest Greek statuary. 



In Lakoja there were two famous hunters. One 

 was getting old and had lost the enthusiasm of his 

 youth, but the other, a fine tall man, more like a 

 " Beloochie " than an African (he was in fact three - 

 parts Arab), had been taken to England by Dr. Barth, 

 the great traveller, and there educated, so he under- 

 stood English perfectly. He was a crack shot, and a 

 most courageous man. I fear some two or three 

 years after I left he revolted against the Niger 

 Company, and was the cause I have heard of the 

 deaths of two British officers in their employ ; but 

 when I was on the Niger no man could have been 

 more friendly than he to us. I may be mistaken 

 when I say I think it was he who revolted, as very 

 many Mussulmans bear the same name ; but if he did, 



