2l8 
EAST AFRICA AND ITS BIG GAME. 
hours, we had placed a bee-line of something less than 
six miles between us and the encampment we had last 
left. 
During this wearisome journey we overtook numerous 
ladies on their way to market; and though too wearied 
to feel critical about any particular style of dress, the 
absence of anything which represented even the 
simplest form of covering enabled me to record the 
fact that many of the younger Iviboso ladies had most 
attractive figures. Later on we passed the market, their 
destination, a rookery consisting of some five hundred 
ladies bent on eager commerce, and yet capable of 
an almost complete silence during the time occupied 
by our passage—a remarkable instance of feminine 
self-control, deserving a record of infinitely greater 
significance than mine, and an example that might 
well be followed by many of the fair sex nearer home. 
I noticed that the natives, who guided us, whistled 
on approaching any woman, as a signal for them to get 
out of sight, if possible ; on hearing the whistle, if 
there were a gap in the hedge alongside the path, the 
dusky damsels would dart through it and remain in 
ambush until we had passed. 
About half-way we met an unexpected chief, one of 
Sina’s natural sons, who is a sort of sub-governor of 
this part of his father’s dominions, and was very con¬ 
spicuous in his bright red robe. At first he wanted 
us to stop the night there, so that he might kill a 
goat and make brothers with us, as he said he would 
be afraid of us until he knew us better. We escaped 
