PORTERS' TOILETS 49 



You see gentlemen, who have been content with 

 the scantiest rag about the loins in the morning, 

 come out in the afternoon clothed in white samite — 

 a sort of low-necked night-shirt affair — and go off 

 to flirt with the ladies in the village. Their ablu- 

 tions are not a very serious business, except as 

 regards their feet, which they wash with extreme 

 care, as who would not that walked barefoot in a 

 country where 'jiggers' abound? It is not an 

 uncommon thing, and always a pleasing sight 

 because they are quiet when they are doing it, to 

 see one half of the caravan extracting jiggers from 

 the feet of the other half. Then there are the sick 

 to be attended to. A black man is always sick if 

 he thinks there is a chance of getting medicine. 

 It is astonishing how they like even the nastiest 

 medicine, and what prodigious doses they will 

 consume. Every white man, be he lawyer or 

 parson or soldier, is to them a doctor, and I 

 doubt if he does much more harm in his practice 

 than members of the most learned profession them- 

 selves. 



In the midst of these occupations one probably 

 receives a visit from the chief of the neighbouring 

 village. If he is a person of no great consideration, 

 he receives payment for the ' present ' of food that 

 he has brought with him and takes his departure. 

 But it is more likely that he is an important person, 

 or considers himself so — and few of them are 

 lacking in self-importance — in which case he comes 



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