INTO BUZIE COUNTRY 167

into your calculations its possibilities become prac-
tically limitless." We had the creeps that night;
there were no doors and anyone could slip into the
house under the mosquito-screens. I very nearly took
the automatic out of the money-box to load it; only
self-consciousness prevented me.

I had expected the atmosphere in the morning to
clear. This was the day of rest which the carriers had
looked forward to, but they showed no sign of enjoy-
ing it. They lingered in the rest-house, avoided the
town. Mark said it was a bad place where they fought
with poison and not swords, and I remembered un-
easily how simple it would be for the devil to poison
the carriers' food and teach the sceptical whites a
lesson. Thunder kept wandering along the hills; two
carriers complained of their heads and one of his
belly, and I sent off a messenger to the Lutheran
mission at Zorzor warning them of our coming next
day, although I had meant to stay another day at
Zigita. All the morning the building of the fence
round the new hut went on, a line of women carrying
pails of water up and down the hill from the river to
loosen the soil. The noise was like that of a distant
football match; every now and then there were
screams of delight as if a try had been scored. Once
the headman arrived on the verandah and asked for
some oil, and if I had not stopped him, Laminah
would have given him the greater part of our supply.

Again a warning was brought to the compound that
the devil was leaving his hut. After the drums had
sounded, no one was to go outside. The fat baleful
man appeared with a lot of trash to sell, and I, not
knowing then who he was, chaffed him at the gate-