126 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



the whole village from following me. They had evidently 

 heard of the white man's gun, but never seen one before. 

 As a great favour three men were allowed to come with me 

 to point out where the best game was to be found. There 

 was a tremendous commotion when two guinea-fowl fell to 

 a shot. Indeed, one of the men capered about to such an 

 extent in his excitement, that I was really afraid he was 

 going to have an attack of hysterics. This, to them a 

 wonderful feat, coupled with the reputation as a Juju man, 

 which had preceded me from Gulani, probably induced the 

 chief of this town to give me two of my greatest treasures, 

 one a small iron tube with a focussing arrangement at the 

 end, which they used Hke a telescope for watching the paths 

 or distant points from which they feared the approach of 

 enemies. Although without a lens, it certainly is useful 

 for this purpose in the blinding glare of the tropics, and I 

 am assured that this is the only case known of a primitive 

 tribe possessing such an instrument. My other treasure 

 which it was very good of the chief to give me, as I could 

 see it almost broke his heart to part with it, was a twisted 

 iron snake, about 15 in. long, which he said was hundreds 

 of years old and this has since been corroborated by authori- 

 ties at home. He also said that it was a " great magic " and 

 had the power of keeping its possessor perpetually young. 



Leaving this place we went on to Kwaia, which is not far 

 from Mount Zogabi. Kwaia is quite a big place and its 

 women are unusually pretty, but whenever I wanted to take 

 a photograph the men hurried the pretty ones off, and only 

 left very plain specimens for the camera. Some of the 

 women were elaborately tattoed, or rather incised. The 



