THE HOME FROM HOME 65

It was not civilisation as we think of it, a civilisation
of Suffolk churches and Cotswold manors, of Crome
and Vaughan. The District Commissioner's work
was to a great extent the protection of the native
from the civilisation he represented. The 'noble
savage' no longer exists; perhaps he never existed,
though in the very young (among the few who are
not disfigured by navel hernia) you seem to see
behind the present to something lovely, happy and
unenslaved, something like the girl who came up the
hill that morning, a piece of bright cloth twisted
above her hips, the sunlight falling between the
palms on her dark hanging breasts, her great
silver anklets, the yellow pot she carried on her
head.

Freedom to Travel

Kailahun is on the border of French Guinea; that
presumably is why the District Commissioner's office
was transferred there from Pendembu at the rail-
head. At Kailahun there is no railway and no tele-
graph: to communicate with Freetown the Com-
missioner must send a messenger the eighteen miles
to Pendembu. It is difficult to understand what
control he has over the border; natives pass freely to
and fro; indeed with a little care it would be possible
to travel all down West Africa without showing
papers from the moment of landing. There is some-
thing very attractive in this great patch of 'freedom
to travel'; absconding financiers might do worse than
take to the African bush. They could be buried there
for a lifetime, and they could carry all the money