ever set foot were an everyday occurrence.

Moreover, our personal appearance did not seem to impress them, for
they smiled faintly at Brother John's long beard and at my stubbly hair,
pointing these out to each other with their slender fingers or with the
handles of their big spears. I remarked that they never used the blade
of the spear for this purpose, perhaps because they thought that we
might take this for a hostile or even a warlike demonstration. It is
humiliating to have to add that the only one of our company who seemed
to move them to wonder or interest was Hans. His extremely ugly and
wrinkled countenance, it was clear, did appeal to them to some extent,
perhaps because they had never seen anything in the least like it
before, or perhaps for another reason which the reader may guess in due
course.

At any rate, I heard one of them, pointing to Hans, ask Komba whether
the ape-man was our god or only our captain. The compliment seemed to
please Hans, who hitherto had never been looked on either as a god or
a captain. But the rest of us were not flattered; indeed, Mavovo was
indignant, and told Hans outright that if he heard any more such talk he
would beat him before these people, to show them that he was neither a
captain nor a god.

"Wait till I claim to be either, O butcher of a Zulu, before you
threaten to treat me thus!" ejaculated Hans, indignantly. Then he added,
with his peculiar Hottentot snigger, "Still, it is true that before all
the meat is eaten (i.e. before all is done) you may think me both," a
dark saying which at the time we did not understand.

When we had landed and collected our belongings, Komba told us to follow
him, and led us up a wide street that was very tidily kept and bordered
on either side by the large huts whereof I have spoken. Each of these
huts stood in a fenced garden of its own, a thing I have rarely seen
elsewhere in Africa. The result of this arrangement was that although as
a matter of fact it had but a comparatively small population, the area
covered by Rica was very great. The town, by the way, was not surrounded
with any wall or other fortification, which showed that the inhabitants
feared no attack. The waters of the lake were their defence.

For the rest, the chief characteristic of this place was the silence
that brooded there. Apparently they kept no dogs, for none barked, and
no poultry, for I never heard a cock crow in Pongo-land. Cattle and
native sheep the