310 IN AFRICA 



dren, and the tiny baby. All fear had vanished, 

 and they seemed certain that no harm was likely to 

 come to them. 



The man was a good-looking, strongly built na- 

 tive with fine honest eyes. The women were comely 

 and the children positively handsome. I have never 

 seen such a healthy, fine-eyed, well-built assortment 

 of childhood, ranging all the way from three 

 months up to eight or nine years of age. He was 

 the president of the Anti-Race Suicide Club. We 

 gave them all presents beads to the children and 

 brass wire to the women. We also made up a little 

 fund of rupees for the baby, although money 

 seemed to mean nothing to any of them. They had 

 never seen white men before and probably knew 

 nothing of metal money. Beads and brass wire were 

 the only currency they knew. We tried to photo- 

 graph them, but the shades in the forest were deep 

 and the light too was bad for successful pictures. 



Little by little we got their story. 



There was warfare between the forest people and 

 the savage Kara Mojas to the north. Neither side 

 could ever tell when a band of the foe would swoop 

 down upon them, killing the men, stealing the sheep 

 and seizing the women. Only a few months before 

 one of the Kara Mojas had come in and stolen some 

 sheep and in return our Wanderobo friend had 

 sallied forth, killed the Kara Moja, and captured 

 his wife. It was the latter who was now the mother 

 of the little baby, and she seemed quite reconciled to 

 the change. 



