384 AFRICA SPEAKS 



In both turrets were loopholes that looked like eyes, 

 while the top of each was covered with a plaited grass 

 roof that resembled nothing so much as a Chinese hat. 

 Within the walls were also many small food-storage 

 huts and a well of clear water. 



Never before had any of us found such a queer 

 place, with such a strange medley of people. There 

 walked a tall man of over seven feet, naked except for 

 a string of leopard claws about his neck. There stood 

 medium-sized men wearing loin cloths and armed with 

 long spears, while others wore the long flowing robes 

 of the Arab. Naked women and children strolled 

 about, or carried bundles or jars on their heads, while 

 sheep, goats, dogs, and a few beautiful horses mixed 

 with the scene. Men and women sat or stood beneath 

 the scattered trees, or walked slowly from one shady 

 spot to another through the white heat. 



An oppressive silence hung over this village, where 

 things seemed to move like shapes in a dream. The 

 whole setting gave me a creepy feeling, wliile the 

 burning, blistering heat made it easy to imagine that 

 this was the region of the damned, especially when a ' 

 line of old women — dried up and bent — slowly 

 passed in parade before us. They were the disk women, 

 strange creatures that looked like nothing belonging on 

 this earth. 



It is hard to describe these women except to say 

 that they are repulsive and yet command your sym- 

 pathy. Both the upper and the lower hp are distended 

 to a seemingly impossible size. The lower is usually the 

 larger, some of them being a good eight inches across 

 the wooden plate around which the flesh of the lip is 

 stretched, so that from the side they look like a broad- 



