THE WOMEN'S DANCES. 



55 



the real message is privily whispered into the chieftain's 

 ear, — I replied through Said that I could not be bound 

 by their rules, but was ready to pay for their infraction. 

 During the debate upon this fascinating proposal for 

 breaking the law, Yusuf, one of the most turbulent 

 of the Baloch, drew his sword upon an old woman 

 because she refused to give up a basket of grain. She 

 rushed, with the face of a black Medusa, into the 

 assembly, and provoked not very peaceable remarks 

 concerning the peaceful nature of our intentions. When 

 the excitement was allayed, the principal P'hazi began to 

 ask what had brought the white man into their country, 

 and in a breath to predict the loss of their gains and 

 commerce, their land and liberty. "I am old," patheti- 

 cally quoth the P'hazi, " and my beard is grey, yet I 

 have never beheld such a calamity as this ! " " These 

 men," replied Said, " neither buy nor sell ; they do not 

 inquire into price, nor do they covet profit. More- 

 over," he pursued, " what have ye to lose ? The 

 Arabs take your best, the Wasawahili your second best, 

 and your trifling tribute is reduced to a yoke of 

 bullocks, a few clothes, or half a dozen hoes." An 

 extravagant present— -at that time ignorance of the 

 country compelled me to intrust such matters to the 

 honesty of Said bin Salim — opened the headmen's 

 hearts : they privily termed me Murungwana Sana, a 

 real free- man, the African equivalent for the English 

 " gentleman," and they detached Kizaya to accompany 

 me as far as the western half of the Kingani Valley. 

 At 4 p. M. a loud drumming collected the women, 

 who began to perform a dance of ceremony with 

 peculiar vigour. A line of small, plump, chestnut- 

 coloured beings, with wild beady eyes, and a thatch of 

 clay-plastered hair, dressed in their loin-cloths, with a 



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