FROM FORT LAMY TO THE TOGBAU HILLS 165 



time stood out in welcome contrast with their bare boughs 

 almost white against the dark green. On the right bank, 

 about eighteen miles of! towards the east, is a chain of 

 thirteen cone-shaped hills, which our eyes met with gladness 

 after gazing for so many days over endless, low woodland 

 stretches. 



Our camp was as usual on a sand-bank, and as soon as 

 everything was in order, we went off to take a look at the 

 native town which lay half a mile behind us. It is a 

 large town composed of three Sara settlements with a 

 sprinkling of Fulani among them. The small hamlets are 

 scattered about in the corn and each is surrounded with zana 

 matting and a thorn fence through which a narrow entrance 

 leads into a small open space where two circular granaries 

 made of grass with conical caps on the tops stand on little 

 platforms of poles. From here a narrow passage between 

 zana matting brings one into another enclosure where there 

 are two or more huts which form the living quarters of the 

 family ; each is entered by a very small doorway, not more 

 than 2 ft. square. 



Many of the Sara men are tall and magnificently built. 

 They have receding foreheads, long-pointed noses and beady 

 eyes which give them a ferret-like look. Their hair is thick 

 and woolly, and they are hairy of body. They wear a 

 small pointed piece of cloth in front and sometimes a brass 

 bracelet, or bits of string round the arm and neck. Through- 

 out this tribe there is an extraordinary similarity of features, 

 due no doubt to much intermarriage, which is generally to be 

 found obtaining with a persecuted race. 



The women are quite naked except for a bit of string 



