FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   450   451   452   453   454   455   456   457   458   459   460   461   462   463   464  
465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   480   481   482   483   484   485   486   487   488   489   >>   >|  
ads risen in the shape of marbles, and their cheeks are similarly cut up deformed. The lobes of their ears are likewise pierced, and the holes made surprisingly large, for the insertion of pieces of and ivory into them, which is a prevailing fashion with all ranks. The church service was read this morning agreeably to their general custom. The natives, of whose society they were never able to rid themselves, seemed to attach great awe and reverence to their form of worship, for they had made them understand what if they were going about, which induced them to pay a high degree of silent attention to the ceremony, and set at rest for the time, that peculiar continuous laugh by which they are distinguished from their neighbours. In the afternoon, or as the natives express it, when the sun had lost its strength, they departed from the town of Bidjie, accompanied by its good natured, happy governor, and in a very few minutes afterwards reached the banks of a rivulet called Yow. Butterflies were here more numerous than could be imagined, millions of them fluttered around them, and literally hid from their sight every thing but their own variegated and beautiful wings. Here on the banks of the Yow they took a last farewell of the affectionate old chief, who implored the "Great God," to bless them, and as the canoes in which they had embarked moved from the spot, a loud long laugh, with clapping of hands from the lower classes, evinced the satisfaction they felt at having seen the white men, and their hearty wishes for their welfare. The Yow is an extremely narrow rivulet, not more than a few feet in breadth, and flows in a serpentine direction through a flat country, covered with rushes, and tall, rank grass. Crocodiles are said to resort here in great numbers, indeed the low bark or growl of these rapacious animals was heard distinctly, and in some instances quite close to them; after they had been pushed along against the stream by poles for five or six miles, between four and five o'clock in the afternoon they landed at a narrow creek, which ran a little way into a thick and gloomy forest. They had not proceeded more than two hundred yards on the pathway, when they were met by a messenger from Jenna, who informed them that the owners of all the horses in the town, had ridden out to welcome their chief, and escort him to his residence, so that they should be obliged to walk the remainder of the way. A few minutes, h
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   450   451   452   453   454   455   456   457   458   459   460   461   462   463   464  
465   466   467   468   469   470   471   472   473   474   475   476   477   478   479   480   481   482   483   484   485   486   487   488   489   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
natives
 

afternoon

 
narrow
 

minutes

 

rivulet

 

serpentine

 

rushes

 
Crocodiles
 
resort
 
country

covered
 

direction

 

extremely

 

clapping

 

classes

 

evinced

 

canoes

 

embarked

 
satisfaction
 

welfare


numbers
 

breadth

 

wishes

 
hearty
 
instances
 

pathway

 

messenger

 

owners

 

informed

 
hundred

forest

 

gloomy

 

proceeded

 

horses

 

ridden

 

obliged

 
remainder
 

residence

 

escort

 

distinctly


animals

 

rapacious

 
pushed
 
landed
 

stream

 
millions
 

society

 

morning

 

agreeably

 

general