‘A TRAMP WITH REDSKINS.” 245 
wants. This at once gives a splendid opportunity for 
conversation, which now takes the form of an antiphonic 
enumeration by the one of my various properties, such as 
beads, white beads, red beads, blue beads, not good- 
coloured blue beads, powder, shot, caps, knives and so 
on; by the other of a ticking of each of these items 
by one, two, or three ughs, according as the item is 
appreciated or not. 
Meantime the other men and boys of the new-comers 
have stood behind their leader, in unbroken silence, 
occasionally stealing a furtive glance at the other redfolk 
belonging to the settlement (who, by the way do not 
seem to reciprocate even this amount of interest with the 
new-comers) but never by any chance forgetting to 
overlook me. 
Just as one is beginning to wonder when all this will 
come to an end, the master of the house stands up for a 
minute, and says a word to his wife, who immediately 
produces a pepper-pot, and cake of cassava bread on a fan, 
which she puts down on the ground near the newly 
arrived menfolk. These latter, as though by rigid 
etiquette, overlook the proffered hospitality for a minute 
or two. Then, but as though it were rather a bore to 
them to eat, they gather round the food—break off 
pieces of bread, dip these into the pepper-pot, and 
convey the morsels to their mouths, all the time carefully 
keeping as watchful an eye as possible on the menfolk of 
the settlement, as though expe¢ting an attack from them. 
Now at least the etiquette of redskin politeness seems 
to have been fulfilled. The new-comers—the men I 
still mean—begin to converse freely with the menfolk 
of the settlement. And it is at this point that the leader 
Il 
