rtunately, for I saw that Smellie's
wounds were momentarily giving him increased uneasiness and pain. A
walk of about a quarter of an hour took us to a sequestered and most
delightful spot, where we were not only perfectly concealed from chance
wanderers, but where we also found a small rocky basin full of
deliciously cool and pure water, which flowed into it from a tiny stream
meandering down the steep hill-side. In this basin we laved our hurts
until they were thoroughly cleansed from the dry hard coagulated blood,
and then we set about the task of bandaging them up. Daphne, who, by
the way, seemed to have little or no idea of surgery, made herself of
great use to us in the bathing process, when once she understood what
was required; but when it came to bandaging she found herself unable to
help us further, and sorrowfully confessed herself beaten. We were
compelled to convert our shirts, the only linen in our possession, into
bandages; and poor Daphne, to her evident extreme sorrow, had no linen
to sacrifice to our necessities, or indeed any clothing at all to speak
of. The costume of a Congoese belle, according to her rendering of it,
was a petticoat of parti-coloured bead fringe about twelve inches deep,
depending loosely from the hips; the rest of her clothing consisting
entirely--as Mike Flanaghan would have said--of jewellery, of which she
wore a considerable quantity. I may as well here enumerate her
ornaments, for the information and benefit of those who have never
enjoyed the acquaintance of an African beauty. In the first place she
wore a circular band of metal, about two inches wide, round her head and
across her forehead. This band, or coronet, had a plain border of about
half an inch wide, and inside this border, for about an inch in width
throughout its length, the metal was cut away in very fine lines,
forming an intricate and really elegant lace-like pattern. Then she
wore also a very large pair of circular ear-rings, similarly ornamented,
these ornaments being so large and heavy that they had actually
stretched the lobes, and so spoiled the shape of what would otherwise
have been a very pretty pair of ears. Upon each of her plump, finely-
shaped arms, between the shoulder and the elbow, she wore four or five
massive armlets of peculiar but by no means unskilled workmanship; and
lastly, round each ankle she wore a single anklet of similar
workmanship. On the previous night, when this rather la