For when you get to be a very
old person you will be able to look back at the day when with
your own eyes you beheld a white woman. See all the strange
things she wears-and HASN'T she a funny face?"
We offered these bung-eyed and totally naked youngsters various
bribes in the way of beads, the tinfoil from chocolate, and even
a small piece of the chocolate itself. Most of them howled and
hid their faces against their mothers. The mothers looked
scandalized, and hypocritically astounded, and mortified.
They made remarks, still in an unknown language, but which much
past experience enabled me to translate very readily:
"I don't know what has got into little Willie," was the drift of
it. "I have never known him to act this way before. Why, only
yesterday I was saying to his father that it really seemed as
though that child NEVER cried-"
It made me feel quite friendly and at home.
Now at last came two marvellous and magnificent personages before
whom the women and children drew back to a respectful distance.
These potentates squatted down and smiled at us engagingly.
Evidently this was a really important couple, so we called up
Simba, who knew the language, and had a talk.
They were old men, straight, and very tall, with the hawk-faced,
high-headed dignity of the true aristocrat. Their robes were
voluminous, of some short-haired skins, beautifully embroidered.
Around their arms were armlets of polished buffalo horn.
