Village Life in Pongo-land. 161 
death. Amongst the Bedawin it is a sign of 
Shaykh-dom not to retire before dawn, and I have 
often heard the Somal “palavering” after mid¬ 
night. As a rule the barbarian enjoys his night 
chat and smoke round the fire all the more because 
he drinks or dozes through the better part of the 
day. There is a physical reason for the prefer¬ 
ence. The absence of light stimulus, and the 
changes which follow sunset seem to develope in 
him a kind of night-fever as in the nervous tem¬ 
perament of Europe. Hence so many students 
choose the lamp in preference to the sun, and 
children mostly clamour when told at 8 o’clock to 
go to bed. 
Shortly after sunrise the young ones are bathed 
in the verandah. Here also the mistress smooths 
her locks, rumpled by the night, “ tittivates ” her 
macaw-crest with the bodkin, and anoints her hair 
and skin with a tantinel of grease and palm oil. 
Some, but by no means all, proceed for ablution to 
the stream-side, and the girls fetch water in heavy 
earthen jars, containing perhaps two gallons ; they 
are strung, after the Kru fashion, behind the back 
by a band passing across the forehead. When we 
meet them they gently say “Mbolo!” (good morn¬ 
ing), or “ Oresa ” (are you well) ? At this hour, 
however, all are not so civil, the seniors are 
often uncommonly cross and surly, and the mollia 
tempora fandi may not set in till after the first 
I. M 
