BARI INTERPRETERS. 
[chap. VI. 
166 
inharmonious chaunt, while a long string of young 
girls and small children, their heads and necks rubbed 
with red ochre and grease, and prettily ornamented with 
strings of beads around their loins, kept a very good 
line, beating the time with their feet, and jingling the 
numerous iron rings which adorned their ankles to keep 
time with the drums. One woman attended upon the 
men, running through the crowd with a gourd full of 
wood-ashes, handfuls of which she showered over their 
heads, powdering them like millers; the object of the 
operation I could not understand. The “ premiere 
danseuse” was immensely fat; she had passed the 
bloom of youth, but malgre her unwieldy state, she 
kept up the pace to the last, quite unconscious of her 
general appearance, and absorbed with the excitement 
of the dance. 
These festivities were to be continued in honour of 
the dead; and as many friends had recently been 
killed, music and dancing would be in fashion for some 
weeks. 
There was an excellent interpreter belonging to 
Ibrahim’s party—a Bari lad of about eighteen. This 
boy had been in their service for some years, and had 
learnt Arabic, which he spoke fluently, although with 
a peculiar accent, owing to the extraction of the four 
front teeth of the lower jaw, according to the general 
custom. It was of great importance to obtain the 
confidence of Loggo, as my success depended much 
upon information that I might obtain from the natives; 
therefore, whenever I sent for him to hold any conversa¬ 
tion with the people, I invariably gave him a little 
present at parting. Accordingly he obeyed any 
summons from me with great alacrity, knowing that 
the interview would terminate with a “ backsheesh ” 
(present). In this manner I succeeded in establishing 
confidence, and he would frequently come uncalled to 
my tent and converse upon all manner of subjects. 
The Latooka language is different to the Bari, and a 
second interpreter was necessary ; this was a sharp lad 
