THE LAST LAP 265

a new village built of square low huts; all the others
were off after the elephant, so I was a little afraid of
what my carriers might do in a town deserted of its
menfolk.

But I couldn't be bothered As soon as I'd eaten
some lunch I went to bed and sweated again between
the blankets, for the fever had returned. The huts
were too low for me to stand upright, and instead of
rats there were huge spiders everywhere. I had just
enough energy to note depressingly in my diary:
'TLast tin of biscuits, last tin of butter, last piece of
bread/' It was astonishing k°w important these
luxuries had become; there were ten biscuits each, we
separated them in the tin and rationed them each in
our own way, but the butter proved to be rancid and
had to be used for cooking.

I noted, too, a sign that we were meeting the edge
of civilisation pushing up from the Coast* A young
girl hung around all day posturing with her thighs
and hips, suggestively, like a tart. Naked to the waist,
she was conscious of her nakedness; she knew that
breasts had a significance to the white man they
didn't have .to the native. There couldn't be any
doubt that she had known whites before. There
were other signs too: the scarcity of food and the high
price of rice. It would be higter still* Ae sub-Com-
missioner said, when we got nearer to Grand Bassa.
He wanted me to buy a couple of hampers in Bassa
Town and so save perhaps sixpence on each hamper.
, There are limitations to native mathematics, and
Laminah could never understand why I refused, why
it would cost more to save a shilling on rice and
employ two extra men to carry it*