INTO BUZEE COUNTRY 159

lieutenant waited to greet us; he led us to his hut,
and his brother brought a present of a large cockerel
and a dozen eggs. The fourth lieutenant brought out
his weapons, a long spear with a leather grip softened
by fur and with a leather sheath, and a sword with
goatskin at the hilt. He showed me his warrant as
a fourth lieutenant dated 1918, and a letter from
his commander recommending him for personal
bravery and stating that, though he was completely
illiterate and unable to learn the new drills, he was
a good officer in peace and war. He said he had
fought the Grebos and the Krus, and there was a
young naive brutality in his manner of touching his
sword, a pride in killing and death.

Nicoboozu was a clean little town, the huts wide
apart, and the chief was old, hospitable and incurious.
He dashed us a chicken and a hamper of rice, saw
that the hut we were to sleep in was swept, and then
retired to his hammock and shade from the mid-
day sun while we had a bath in a tin basin and the
jiggers were cut out of our toes.

Nicoboozu was as favourable an example as we
could find of a village touched by the Buzie culture*
Here the women wore little silver arrows in their hair
and twisted silver bracelets, beaten by the black-
smith out of old Napoleon coins brought from
French Guinea, and heavy silver anklets; the men
wore rings, primitive signet rings with a flattened
side, and decorative beaded rings and rings twisted
to match the bracelets. The weavers were busy, and
every piece of craftsmanship we saw was light and
unself-conscious. There was an air of happiness about
the place which next day we did not find in Zigita**