XV 

 THE LION DANCE 



WE TOOK our hot baths and sat down to supper 

 most gratefully, for we were tired. The long 

 string of men, bearing each a log of wood, filed in 

 from the darkness to add to our pile of fuel. Saa- 

 sita and Shamba knelt and built the night fire. 

 In a moment the little flame licked up through the 

 carefully arranged structure. We finished the meal, 

 and the boys whisked away the table. 



Then out in the blackness beyond our little globe 

 of light we became aware of a dull confusion, a rust- 

 ling to and fro. Through the shadows the eye could 

 guess at movement. The confusion steadied to a 

 kind of rhythm, and into the circle of the fire came 

 the group of Monumwezis. Again they were gath- 

 ered together in a compact little mass; but now 

 they were bent nearly double, and were stripped to 

 the red blankets about their waists. Before them 

 writhed Sulimani, close to earth, darting irregularly 

 now to right, now to left, wriggling, spreading his 

 arms abroad. He was repeating over and over again 



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