pected these defences and adopted the idea. The worst of it is
that they are generally so covered, by the bush, that they are not
seen by our troops till they arrive in front of them."

Chapter 14: Forest Fighting.

Early the next morning the transport with the Nigerian troops
anchored off the town. The work of disembarkation began at once.
Five of the newly-arrived officers were appointed to the
commissariat transport service. The three others--of whom Lisle, to
his great satisfaction, was one--were appointed to the command of
companies in the Nigerian force. This distinction, the commissioner
frankly informed him, was due to his being the possessor of the
V.C.

Having nothing to do that day, Lisle strolled about the town. There
were a few European houses, the property of the natives who formed
the elite of the place; men for the most part possessing white
blood in their veins, being the descendants of British merchants
who, knowing that white women could not live in the place, had taken
Negro wives. These men were distinguished by their hair, rather than
by their more European features. Their colour was as dark as that of
other natives. Lisle learned that such light-coloured children as
were born of these mixed marriages uniformly died, but that the dark
offspring generally lived.

All the small shops in the town were kept by this class. With the
exception of the buildings belonging to them, the houses of the
town were merely mud erections, with a door and a window or two.
The roofs were flat, and composed of bamboos and other branches;
overlaid by a thick mud which, Lisle learned, not unfrequently
collapsed in the rainy season. Nothing could be done at that time
to repair them, and their inhabitants took refuge in the houses of
their friends, until the dry season permitted them to renew their
own roofs.

The women were of very superior physique to the men. The latter
considered that their only duty was to stroll about with a gun or a
spear; and the whole work of cultivating the ground, and of
carrying burdens, fell to the lot of the women. Many of these had
splendid figures, which might have been the envy of an English
belle. Their great defect is that their heels, instead of going
straight to the leg, project an inch or more behind it. From their
custom of always carrying their burdens on their heads, their
carriage is as upright as a dart. Whether the load was a heavy
barrel, or two or three bananas,