28 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



If they hesitate to approach me, I throw them some 

 small coins, some shells, or glass trinkets. They are 

 sure then to go and tell their mothers what they have 

 seen, and then the women come up, not as a rule the 

 young ones. They surround me and ask me why I 

 have made presents to the children, and I reply that 

 I am a man of ease travelling for my pleasure, and 

 for the good of the country in which I am sojourning. 

 Then they all ask me at once if there is anything that 

 you want. I tell them that, on the contrary, if they 

 require provisions I have plenty at my encampment, 

 which is an hour's march, and to which I invite them 

 to come. It is when one has the appearance of requir- 

 ing nothing that everybody is ready to furnish you 

 with what you really do want. As soon as the old 

 women had gone to fetch me the provisions, the young 

 women and girls arrived, full of curiosity, very pretty 

 some of them with their complexions like Florentine 

 bronze, and they were soon followed by the young 

 men. In short, a whole crowd of them came to our 

 tents with sheep, goats, dates, and milk, and all that 

 we could require. Curiously enough, they would 

 never take any money, and yet these very same 

 people would perhaps have killed me if I had come 

 to them armed.' 



" Another day the Viceroy said to me : ' You are 

 very lucky, it seems. I had a fine service of china, 

 but it is broken to bits.' I told him that if his china 

 had been entrusted to men who were better looked 



