274 



THE DANCE. 



one side, and eyes modestly fixed upon the ground, 

 whilst palms were kneaded as if washing 



' — with invisible soap, 

 In imperceptible water.' 



A passing sail drew off all the spectators as 

 though they had been Cornish wreckers in the olden 

 times, who had successfully fastened their lantern 

 to a bullock's horns. The most interesting of the 

 crowd were the sylvan men in skin aprons stain- 

 ed with Mimosa-bark : their widely opened mouths 

 proved that curiosity was reciprocal. Some of 

 the younger girls had the beauty of negrodom, 

 and none appeared to be b^gueules : here the 

 people pass all the time not given to trade in 

 love-making and intrigue. As in the Bombay of 

 1857, damages have been made cheap and feasible 

 for the co-respondent : an affair with a Diwan's 

 wife costs five slaves, with a ' common person ' 

 one slave, with the chattel of another man five to 

 six cloths, and so on. 



The day after our arrival was a forced halt, the 

 copal-diggers had set out in another direction be- 

 fore dawn, and no donkey-saddle was to be found : 

 the next, however, was more propitious. Led 

 by Mdnji, the Akida'ao, Mtu-Mkuba, Mukaddam, 

 or headman of the gang, we walked west over 

 an alluvial plain of blue earth, veiled with white 



