82 
RHINO AND GIRAFFES [ch. iv 
denly begin to chant, or merely to keep repeating in 
unison some one word or one phrase which, when we 
asked to have it translated, might or might not prove 
to be entirely meaningless. The headmen carried no 
burdens, and the tent-boys hardly anything, while the 
saises walked with the spare horses. In addition to the 
canonical and required costume of blouse or jersey and 
drawers, each porter wore a blanket, and usually some¬ 
thing else to which his soul inclined. It might be an 
exceedingly shabby coat; it might be, of all things in 
the world, an umbrella, an article for which they had a 
special attachment. Often I would see a porter, who 
thought nothing whatever of walking for hours at mid¬ 
day under the equatorial sun with his head bare, 
trudging along with solemn pride either under an open 
umbrella, or carrying the umbrella (tied much like 
Mrs. Gamp’s) in one hand, as a wand of dignity. Then 
their head-gear varied according to the fancy of the in¬ 
dividual. Normally it was a red fez, a kind of cap only 
used in hot climates, and exquisitely designed to be use¬ 
less therein because it gives absolutely no protection 
from the sun. But one would wear a skin cap ; another 
would suddenly put one or more long feathers in his 
fez; and another, discarding the fez, would revert to 
some purely savage head-dress which he would wear 
with equal gravity whether it were, in our eyes, really 
decorative or merely comic. One such head-dress, for 
instance, consisted of the skin of the top of a zebra’s 
head, with the two ears. Another was made of the 
skins of squirrels, with the tails both sticking up and 
hanging down. Another consisted of a bunch of 
feathers woven into the hair, which itself was pulled out 
into strings that were stiffened with clay. Another was 
really too intricate for description, because it included 
