414 



THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT 



CHAP. IX 



head to foot with red clay and grease ; in this they 

 are imitated by the women and girls. The men wear 

 a waist-cloth, and the women clothe themselves from 

 waist to knee with skins, to which a liberal coating of 

 clay and grease is applied. All the girls wear their 

 hair dressed into curious little balls, about the size of 

 an ordinary marble. This effect is produced by gath- 

 ering their wool into separate tufts, and then plaster- 

 ing each knob with clay and grease. Some of the 

 women had veils made of iron chain covering the face 

 from the roots of the hair to just above the eyes. 

 The effect produced was pleasing. In all, there were 

 about 250 men and women engaged in the dance. 

 The air was filled with sound, dust, and the odour of 

 the many perspiring bodies ; but one's senses become 

 blunted after a stay in Africa, and the unpleasantness 

 passes unnoticed, if there is the least evidence of hap- 

 piness or pleasure on the faces of the simple savages. 



Dancing is a serious business among the Daitcho : 

 I rarely saw a man even smile ; a woman, never. All 

 round the dancers were gathered groups of old men 

 and women, perhaps parents of the participants in 

 the dance. Some small children were holding a little 

 impromptu ball of their own near at hand. Occasion- 

 ally the old women, whose recollections of past joys 

 in the dance kept them young, would give vent to 

 their pleasant feelings and thoughts by a shrill trill. 

 On the whole, the affair was pleasant to view, and 

 one could not but feel cheered at the sight of so 

 many harmless beings thus enjoying themselves. 



The day following the dance rumours reached me 

 that a party of Rendile were present among the Embe, 



