378 AFRICA SPEAKS 



One of my objects in coming this way was to film, 

 if possible, these grotesque beak-faced women, so I 

 went to the Commandant to gain his permission and 

 assistance. He told me what he knew about them and 

 estimated the village of Kiya Be to lie about sixty- 

 five miles beyond the river. He cautioned me that 

 it was desert country, that no wheeled vehicle had 

 ever made the journey there, for the sand was deep 

 and water scarce; but when I told him I was very 

 eager to visit the place, he called a messenger and sent 

 orders to a near-by chief, commanding that canoes be 

 lashed together into a raft, so that our trucks could be 

 transported across the Chari. 



I left the Commandant's office to find Ah talking in 

 Arabic to a tall man of the desert, who used his hands 

 in an expressive way to emphasize his words. As Ali 

 and I walked toward our bungalow, he confided to me 

 that, according to the Arab, the country was very 

 bad, the people were bad, the food was bad, the 

 water was bad, everything was bad! I rephed that 

 I didn't expect the food to improve as long as he did 

 the cooking and was wilHng to take a chance on 

 everything else. 



In spite of Ah Ramazan's deficiencies as a cook, he 

 was my most valuable black man, always willing to 

 undertake any task assigned to him. As his name 

 indicates, he was a follower of the Prophet of Islam, 

 but none of us considered Ah a true believer, for, 

 although he would never eat the flesh of any animal, 

 unless he himself had cut its throat, wliile saying the 

 prescribed words, still not one of us had ever found 

 him praying, either with his face toward Mecca, or 

 any other direction. 



