"CIVILISED MAN" 227

masked devils. They must have stood more than
eighteen feet high. They wore tall witches' hats
rimmed with little shells; their faces were black, the
masks looked as if they had been made out of old
cotton stockings, they wore striped pyjama jackets,
with the sleeves sewn up to hide the hands, and
pyjama shorts, while the stilts were wound with a
thinner striped material. Their performance was
humorous and sophisticated. They sat down on the
roof-tops and idly fanned themselves with their legs
crossed, then stretched a leg right across the thatch
and pretended to fall asleep. They had a sense of
climax which would have earned the applause of the
most sophisticated music-hall audience as they leaned
back their whole stiff inarticulated length at an
angle of about twenty degrees and just recovered as
they began to fall. They had the usual interpreter
with them. He lay on the ground while they hopped
on one stilt towards him, so that it seemed almost
inevitable that the wooden hoof would be planted on
his face; but always at the last moment they cleared
him. When the entertainment was over, they left the
compound by the wall; the gateway was too low for
them. They sat on the ten-foot wall and lifted over
each stiff leg in turn like old men crossing a stile, and
for a long while after their witch hats were visible
bobbing away above the huts towards their own
compound.

It was dusk when they had gone, and I began to be
impatient for the carriers' chop. It was nearly forty-
eight hours since they had eaten a really good meal.
I sent a messenger for the chief, who said that the
chop was at that moment being cooked. I made the