138 



THE DANCE. 



Tou look so demure, ma'am, so quiet, so calm, 

 Ever chanting a hymn, ever singing a psalm ; 

 Yet your thoughts are on heaven and virtue no more 

 Than the Man's in the Moon '— 



And as the dance waxed warm certain move- 

 ments of the loins appeared, as might be expected. 

 A crowd of half-breeds and sooty sons of Africa 

 stood around to enjoy the 'pi-pi' of the flutes, 

 the ' bom-bom ' of the huge drums, the mjimbo 

 (singing) of the men, and the yijelejeh (lullaloo- 

 ing) of the women. After half-an-hour's endur- 

 ance of this purgatory we were led to our sleep- 

 ing place, the upper rooms, or rather room, of 

 the Wall or Governor's house — its owner was 

 one Meriko, a burly black freedman of the late 

 Sayyid Said — and there the evening was spent 

 by us over considerations of ways and means. 



