12 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTEAL AFRICA 



higher prolits by direct dealing with the Niger Co. 

 They show a certain inconsistency, however, in that 

 they go to white doctors for treatment for their 

 eyes. They suffer a great deal from diseases of the 

 eye, and it is said that the inhabitants of whole 

 villages are blind. 



The Benue was very broad, over a mile, and in some 

 places as much as two, and its water was clearer than 

 that of the muddy Niger. The vegetation was not so 

 dense, nor were its banks so thickly populated. That 

 was a loss for us, for the people were getting to adorn 

 themselves more and more extravagantly, and it was 

 amusing to see them. They no longer confined them- 

 selves to patterns tattooed into their skins, but would 

 colour their cheeks with yellow and blue paint, and the 

 women wore a white bead in one nostril. They put 

 henna on their nails, and during the process their 

 arms were bound in long wooden tubes up to the elbow. 

 Mr Talbot got a photograph of one, but I was too slow 

 and the victim fled. Most people were afraid of our 

 kodaks, and the only plan was to focus something 

 in the opposite direction and then flash round and 

 take the object unaware ; but it made success rather 

 unlikely. 



We reached Yola on the tenth day, though the usual 

 reckoning is from 12 to 14 days for a steamboat and 

 35 to 42 for a canoe. The Resident very kindly offered 

 to turn out of his house for our accommodation, but we 

 would not hear of it, and took up our quarters at the 

 rest-house. It consists of a circular space enclosed by 

 a mud wall, above which is an interval of about a foot 

 for air, and then a conical thatched roof, which stretches 

 far enough over to make a shelter for the boxes outside 

 — a style of rest-house architecture with which we 



