may be
unfriendly is to send out for the chief, or sultan, as he is known in
Africa. There is always a sultan to preside over the destinies of his
tribe and to take any money that happens along. So we sent for the
sultan, who was off in a neighboring village, so they said. After a long
wait, during which we pitched our camp and offered a golden reward for
eggs and chickens, a sultan drifted in.

[Drawing: _Slowly Being Cremated_]

We knew he was sultan because he carried a chair--an unfailing sign of
rank among a nation of expert sitters. He also wore an old woolen
dressing gown that had worked its way from civilization many years
before. It was built for arctic regions, but the sultan of all the
Ketoshians wore it right straight through the ardent hours when the sun
kisses one with the fiery passion of a mustard plaster. He was slowly
being cremated and it was fascinating to watch him sizzle.

After the sultan came and seated himself with his retinue of spearmen
(dressed in the altogether save for the futile cloth around their
shoulders) grouped around him we took our seats and began a _shauri_.

_Shauri_ (rhyming with Bow'ry) is a native word meaning a powwow or a
parley and is a word that works overtime. Everything that you do in
Africa has to be preceded by a _shauri_. You have a _shauri_ if you ask
a native which road to take. Other natives hurry up, and then you stand
around and talk about it for an hour or so.

If you want to buy a chicken or a cluster of eggs there must first be a
prolonged _shauri_ with much interchange of views and conversation and
aerated persiflage. The native loves his _shauri_, and if he asks you a
certain price for a chicken and you give the price without haggling he
is greatly disappointed. In fact I have often seen them offer an article
for a certain price and then refuse to accept the money if it is at once
tendered. Later the native will accept much less if the _shauri_ goes
with it.

Well, we had _shauris_ to burn for a couple of days. As soon as the
first sultan had departed with presents and words of good cheer there
was a flock of other sultans that hurried in to receive presents and to
assist in _shauris_. They came from far and near, and they all carried
chairs, thus proving that they were not impostors; and the worst of it
was that we couldn't find out exactly which was the real, most exalted
sultan of the bunch. Hence we had to give presents to many who perhaps
were on