4 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CEXTEAL AFEICA 



From that moment we no longer led an ordinary 

 life on an ordinary boat, for on the Sultan bedsteads 

 were the only furniture provided, and we sat on our 

 own chairs, and ate our own food cooked by our own 

 boys, of whom we had engaged three during our 

 few hours' wait at Forcados. Before leaving the 

 Dakar we laid in a stock of steamer foods, and 

 amono'st them a hug-e salt ham, for thouo-h we knew 

 we didn't like it, it was the last time for many 

 months that we should be able to get such civilised 

 fare. That and cookino- butter swizzled into tem- 

 porary firmness were our two greatest luxuries, and 

 they were certainly an invaluable preparation for what 

 was to come : when even a dish of onions was a 

 welcome dinner, thouoh hitherto I had hated them. 



My Hausa grammar was thrown aside at once, for 

 as the Sultan throbbed its way onward one sight 

 followed another in quick succession, and all was 

 new to me. We passed by thickW populated banks, 

 where at frequent intervals rectangular huts with 

 palm-leaf roofs are clustered together in small spaces 

 cleared from the great forest. In the forefront are 

 little meetino'-rooms that consist of a low roof with 

 no walls, and each village has its ju-ju house that 

 contains some object of worship — a carved fetish or 

 a piece of cloth. Some of these are built right out 

 on to the river for the fishermen. The people seem 

 as much at home on water as on land. Indeed 

 they do not get much opportunity of walking, for 

 the jungle is so dense that a narrow track to a 

 neighbouring village is all they can attempt to clear. 

 They manage their canoes with marvellous dexterity, 

 and it is picturesque to see them in their primitive 



