222 JOURNEY WITHOUT MAPS

side our hut until the full heat of the afternoon dis-
persed them, watching everything we did, and a girl
had her hair deloused by an old woman with sores
over her hands.

Eighteen of the carriers approached the hut; I no
longer feared a strike or desertion: they were too far
away from their own homes for that. And they had
developed a kind of pride in the journey. It was a
rare adventure in a country where carriers were
usually employed from village to village by the day.
I heard them sometimes on the march answering
proudly "Bolahun" to questioners. It didn't matter
that these strangers had no idea where Bolahun lay,
They knew what miles of forest and river they had
come, how they had even passed through France,
and presently were going to reach the sea.

Now they wanted to borrow threepence each out of
their wages. At Ganta they had borrowed two
shillings from the cook to buy a goat with, and he
demanded sixpence interest, a rate of about fifty per
cent a week. The rest of the money they were going
to spend on palm wine and extra soup (the name they
had for the horrible anonymous wedges of meat or
fish with which they cooked their rice). The chief
took their money, but he gave them nothing in
return, and in this poor village he could find them
only one pail of rice for ;their chop.

But, curiously enough, this didn't matter. They
bore no malice. It was the night of full moon. They
had very little to eat, they had nothing to drink, the
moon and its deep green light made them happy.
They even shared their small meal with the chief
apd until very late the village was full of song and