DANCING — FLATTERY. 
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smaller than those that I have eaten in Tunis. 
Many aquatic birds were flying or floating about 
the lake. 
The dancing in the evening was after this 
fashion. Two men beat drums, standing on one 
side of a circle marked. The dancers advanced 
towards them with shy and coyish gesture, and then 
swung round and round to the opposite side of the 
circle, in a sort of time kept by the beating of the 
drum. They threw up their legs, but not in an in- 
decent manner. It was a kind of simple waltzing. 
The men were not more violent in action than the 
women. Each sex danced separately, the women 
beginning first and then retiring. During the per- 
formance a song was kept up, a continually re- 
curring rhyme. When it became dark the male 
and female slaves made love, and coquetted together. 
We, too, had our music ; a strolling minstrel came 
to our tent by appointment to play on his guitar. 
He sang all our praises in very nice Haussa words, 
and indulged in the most extraordinary flattery I 
ever heard. I was Sultan, and had the riches of 
the world at my command. Over was the great 
doctor, and what he could not cure, God himself 
could not cure. Bar was the wise man, knowing 
all languages and all things. We tried not to be 
pleased, but in vain. Flattery is sweet, especially 
when enveloped in song. 
The weather was hot to-day, and sultry. I 
made many little presents, some to a fighi of 
