168 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



facing the current with their circuitous openings by which 

 the fish enter. 



Soon after our arrival women came from the village 

 bringing corn, ground-nuts and eggs to sell, and a little later 

 the King, Kajibu, came down riding on a shaggy little pony. 

 He was a stately figure, dressed in a flowing purple robe and 

 behind him followed his retinue of well-developed men and 

 boys, most of them naked, while some wore small aprons of 

 skins in front and behind and all carried spears. The women 

 were quite naked, and their faces were disfigured by a stick a 

 quarter of an inch in length thrust through the right nostril 

 and a similar one was stuck in the lobe of the right ear, 

 the shell of which was studded with a trimming of small 

 beads sewn into the flesh with elephant gut. 



We decided to stay here for the next day in order 

 to explore thoroughly the ins and outs of the hill range 

 which by all appearances offered a good field for zoological 

 collections. 



So when the morning came, having fortified ourselves 

 with a breakfast of porridge, we both set out in different 

 directions. GosHng was bent upon obtaining some of the 

 little rock dassies Hke those which the survey party had dis- 

 covered in the Nigerian hills, but with the hope that they 

 might turn out to be a different species. His Sara guide was 

 a good climber. He was clothed in two scanty leathern 

 aprons before and behind and carried a small knife stuck in 

 a string round the left elbow, a string round the neck hung 

 with teeth and bits of wood as " ju-ju," and two wooden 

 armlets above the right elbow. All this "ju-ju" seemed to 

 have brought luck to GosHng, for he returned to camp at 



