2o8 



UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



huge load can be raised to the head without requiring any great 

 muscular exertion of the arms. The load is first of all propped 

 against the nearest tree, but with the narrow end resting on the 

 ground. By bending the head, covered with a protective grass- 

 pad, towards the load, but nearer its top-heavy end, only a slight 

 efit'ort is necessary to balance the whole mass on the head. 

 With a little pi actice the women know exactly where the wood 



should be bal- 

 - anced, so as not 



to require the 

 support of a 

 hand to keep it 

 on the head, 

 as she walks 

 home with it. 

 The woman car- 

 ries a staff in 

 her hand, and 

 leans against it 

 when she stops 

 to have a chat ; 

 she does not 

 trouble to un- 

 burden herself 

 of her load. 

 Most of the 

 women carried a knife without a protective sheath ; it is passed 

 through the waist-belt, and usually v;orn on the right thigh. 

 It is curved and fairly sharp, but is not meant for offence or 

 defence. It is probably next to the cooking-pot the most 

 necessary household article. With it the woman harvests the 

 ears of matama-corn, peels sweet-potatoes or green bananas for 

 dinner, slices the grass-fibres for plaiting the fashionable tail, 

 and uses it surgically to extract thorns and splinters of wood. 



The Lur at Alahaji are a quiet, industrious, and well-to-do 

 community. Their fields and banana-groves, their fowls, goats, 

 and sheep, provide them with every necessary and luxury they 

 can think of ; and hence they pass a happy and peaceful 

 existence, protected by the Soudanese garrison from being 

 molested by hostile or envious neighbours. 



Whilst I was at Mahaii, another severe thunder-storm occurred. 



LUR WOMAN CARRYING A LOAD OF WOOD. 



