AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



solemnly around watching. It may have been a 

 religious ceremony, for all I know; but the affair 

 looked to be about two parts business to sixty of 

 idle and cheerful curiosity. We stopped and talked 

 to them a little, chaffed the pretty girls — they were 

 really pretty — and marched on. 



About noon our elegant guide stopped, struck an 

 attitude, and pointed with his silver-headed rattan 

 cane. 



"This," said he, "is where we must camp." 



We marched through a little village. A family 

 party sat beneath the veranda of a fine building; 

 a very old wrinkled couple; two stalwart beautiful 

 youths; a young mother suckling her baby; two 

 young girls; and eight or ten miscellaneous and 

 naked youngsters. As the rest of the village ap- 

 peared to be empty, I imagined this to be the 

 caretaker's family, and the youngsters to belong to 

 others. We stopped and spoke, were answered 

 cheerfully, suggested that we might like to buy 

 chickens, and offered a price. Instantly with 

 a whoop of joy the lot of them were afoot. The fowl 

 waited for no further intimations of troublous times, 

 but fled squawking. They had been there before. 

 So had our hosts; for inside a minute they had 

 returned, each with a chicken — and a broad grin. 



After due payment we proceeded on a few hundred 



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