244 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



humble office, though we used our fingers for the 

 purpose. They were just like kittens, and loved play- 

 ing ball with any round fruit, or doing tight - rope 

 walking on the narrow edge of some wall. Sometimes 

 they would climb a tree and get above our reach on 

 a perfectly straight stem, and they would stalk each 

 other or anything else with wonderful finesse. 



A horse's tail they used to find an alluring toy, 

 and strangely enough their familiarities were never 

 resented. They were a nuisance on two points : they 

 would kill fowls and pigeons, and often added insult 

 to injury by bringing them under our beds to de- 

 vour ; and they gently munched pieces out of our 

 clothing whenever we were not looking. Once Lamy 

 occupied me in front and Kusseri jumped on my 

 back from the rear, and before I could shout the 

 magic word of " Kai," which always had the efiect 

 of quelling them, he had bitten a great piece out 

 from an unpatchable place. That dress had to be 

 discarded, and only those who have been reduced to 

 four well-worn washing dresses, with weeks and months 

 of wear before them, can realise the anxiety of it. 



Our entry into Maifoni was a very quiet one : no 

 crowned head to greet us, as at Tchekna, with his guard 

 of horsemen, and no white man either — a sharp con- 

 trast to our welcome in the Kamerun and throughout 

 the Chad district. The natives seemed uncivil : neither 

 they nor the soldiers on guard accorded us a salute, 

 as is the almost invariable custom in other parts. 



Mastaba was greatly disturbed, and begged us to 

 assert our dignity by riding in the centre of the 

 road. It was a nuisance, but we did as he wished 

 right through the big model town of Maiduguri, a 



