408 AFRICA SPEAKS 



river. The native market was crowded with humans 

 and swarming with flies. Dirty Negroes, men and 

 women, squatted around little heaps of millet, dried 

 fish, peanuts, and other native viands, wliile miscel- 

 laneous bottles holding mysterious mixtures were 

 displayed for sale. The hut-wives were wending 

 their way among these stall-keepers, arguing and 

 making as much fuss over a penny's worth of dried 

 shark as a civilized woman would do over her Christ- 

 mas turkey. 



There were three general stores, and to these I 

 went searching for suppHes. Everything is trans- 

 ported into this place by camelback or in ox wagons, 

 so I discovered that prices were slightly higher than 

 at home; flour being twenty cents a pound and sugar 

 forty cents for the same amount. I found one ten- 

 gaflon drum of gasoHne, which, after considerable bar- 

 gaining, I was able to buy for the reasonable sum of 

 twenty-two doUars! The Governor supplemented this 

 with a loan of thirty gaUons from the government store, 

 which I was to retiu-n by camelback from Maidugari. 



At two o'clock on the next afternoon, the trucks 

 were placed aboard a ferry which His Excellency had 

 kindly provided, and when we had bidden liim and his 

 staff good-by, the motor boat pulled us toward the 

 western bank. On the way across, the Frenchman who 

 was guiding the boat pointed to the sky, and, speaking 

 rapidly in his native tongue, dehvered an oration con- 

 taining many "toot sweets." He Avas right — we 

 would have to hurry, for black clouds and flashes of 

 lightning threatened us from three directions. We 

 decided to drive all night in order to cross the danger- 

 ous ground between us and Maidugari. 



