224 AFRICA SPEAKS 



The N jemps were not yet accustomed to the white 

 man or his ways, and still being raw savages, were 

 most childlike. Whenever I worked about my dark- 

 room tent I would be surrounded by them, for they 

 seemed much interested in watching me mix the photo- 

 graphic solutions. My boy recounted some tall 

 stories about what the magic mixtures would do; one 

 being that I could take their spirit from their body 

 and transfer it to a piece of paper. They were quite 

 awed by this, but not a bit frightened. The people 

 of some tribes would be panic-stricken at such possi- 

 bihties, but these primitive follt seem to have no fear. 

 When I would hold a developed 8 x 10 negative so they 

 could look through it, their first reaction was to stand 

 perfectly still, struck by the wonder of the white man's 

 sorcery. Then they would start to laugh and shout, 

 the particular interest in the negative being that their 

 features had turned hght. The bwana was a great 

 witch doctor, for he had turned them into white people I 



My most uncomfortable task was the nightly han- 

 dling and developing of films in the dark-room tent. 

 On account of the intense heat at this camp, I could 

 only remain inside long enough to complete one opera- 

 tion and then had to rush out for air. Stripped to 

 the waist and armed with a big Turkish towel to keep 

 the perspiration from falling on the films, I would 

 reenter, but after a short period in the stifling interior, 

 during which I would hastily load a magazine or film 

 holder, it would be necessary to burst out for £inother 

 breath in time to avoid sufi'ocation. This is but one 

 of the tribulations of a photographer in the tropics. 



At this camp a most heroic encounter between man 

 and beast came to my knowledge. One afternoon a 



