HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT 131

arrived; and the presents multiplied rapidly. Later I
learnt from Amedoo that I should dash once only at
the end of my stay.

I was longing for a wash and I hadn't had time to
shave before I left Bolahun, but the hospitable chief
kept me on the run. No sooner had he gone after
presenting the chicken than his son came in to say
that the devil would dance for the visitors: so with
the chief and the headman we sat out in the blazing
sun and waited for the devil to appear. This time it
was a devil belonging to a woman's society, a devil
from Pandemai in Buzie country, who was travelling
to Kolahun to dance before the President.

It came out between the last huts at the end of the
wide little whitewashed town, then swayed and
simpered forward in a country robe, swinging a great
raffia bustle, nodding its black mask. The bustle
swung up and showed huge pantaloons of fibre, like
a caricature of a Victorian dress. One remembered
Miss Tilly Losch in a Cochran revue hesitating before
a pillar-box with just this air of coyness, the sophisti-
cated copy of something young and artless. This
devil seemed to a European to have a mock female,
mock modest manner, which was curiously and
interestingly gross when combined with the long
cruel mask, the slanting eyes, the heavy mouth. It
turned and turned, swinging the bustle above the
pantaloons, and the interpreter ran round and round
carrying a small whip. There was something about it
of the witch of one's childhood; perhaps because it
remained so feminine even while it was unrecog-
nisable as a woman; perhaps because of its curious
headgear; the tall tufted pole taking the place of the*