380 AFRICA SPEAKS 



Jones then discovered that the body was wedged 

 tightly by the broken planks, and it took hours to re- 

 move these. When Ali finally emerged from beneath 

 the truck with the chopping task completed, I told the 

 guide to round up our black army. He began shouting 

 at them as if they were miles away instead of right 

 under his nose, for it seems to be the approved thing 

 in this country to shout at the top of your voice when- 

 ever possible. With forty black giants and giantesses 

 lined along the ninety-foot rope, I gave a signal and 

 they a mighty pull, shifting the truck forward about 

 three feet, whereupon Jones took up the slack on the 

 c£d)le. By this slow method we managed to get the 

 rear wheels on solid earth once again. 



So ended the episode of the sunken ferry, excepting 

 that a gasoHne feed pipe was torn away, which kept 

 us in this inferno of heat for another hour or so. When 

 we did get under way again, it surely was a relief to 

 feel the cool breeze in our faces as we drove along. 

 Speed soon became impossible, however, for we now 

 entered the desert, and as the sand became deeper we 

 shifted down a gear at a time until there was none 

 lower, then pulled along for hours at a snail's pace, with 

 hardly enough power to spare to chmb a molehill. 



We were constantly stopping to put in gasoKne and 

 water. With that fiery orb hanging over our heads, 

 and the heat from the sand coming up to meet us, it 

 seemed at times as though the melting point had been 

 reached, both for the motor and for ourselves. We 

 passed near many villages surrounded by walls of 

 grass matting. Inside the inclosures were cone-shaped 

 huts and small grain-storage huts, all arranged facing 

 toward the center. Special stockades of strong wood- 



