Whatever The Freak Of The
Moment Is, That They Adopt In The Most Thoughtless Manner, Even
Though They May Have Calculated On Advantages Beforehand In The
Opposite Direction.
In fact, no one can rely upon them even for
a moment.
Dog wit, or any silly remarks, will set them giggling.
Any toy will amuse them. Highly conceited of their personal
appearance, they are for ever cutting their hair in different
fashions, to surprise a friend; or if a rag be thrown away, they
will all in turn fight for it to bind on their heads, then on
their loins or spears, peacocking about with it before their
admiring comrades. Even strange feathers or skins are treated by
them in the same way.
Should one happen to have anything specially to communicate to
his master in camp, he will enter giggling, sidle up to the pole
of a hut, commence scratching his back with it, then stretch and
yawn, and gradually, in bursts of loud laughter, slip down to the
ground on his stern, when he drums with his hands on the top of a
box until summoned to know what he has at heart, when he delivers
himself in a peculiar manner, laughs and yawns again, and, saying
it is time to go, walks off in the same way as he came. At other
times when he is called, he will come sucking away at the spout
of a tea-pot, or, scratching his naked arm-pits with a table-
knife, or, perhaps, polishing the plates for dinner with his
dirty loin-cloth.
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