f the party, a
reputation which pleased his childish nature, and which he added to by
teaching the monkey all kind of tricks, and never moving about without
it. He was in consequence regarded with some awe, and the baboon,
supposed also to possess the secret of "charms," was always respected.

The place itself was curious enough. Three conical hills rose in the
plain, the top of one of them being as it were shaved off, most probably
by the action of time. This flat and rather inaccessible ground was the
residence of the chief, and here too was the usual stockade, where the
councils of the tribe were held. At the foot of this hill lay the huts
of the kraal, one of which, detached from the rest, was given to the
white men. In form it resembled exactly the dome-shaped tent of a
subaltern in India, a pole also running up the centre, the whole being
made of wood, covered with bark, and having, instead of a door, a small
opening constructed like a narrow passage. Skins served as a bed, and
the furniture consisted of a large earthen vase made to contain the
maize or manioc flour; the cowrie baskets and knapsacks having also been
deposited inside. A large tree overshadowed the bark hut, and under it
the greater part of the day was spent, and all cooking was carried on,
the natives themselves evidently living almost wholly in the open air,
and only retiring to their huts during bad weather. The women of this
tribe were fully as repulsive as the men, and they too wore the curious
buttons, sometimes of brass, sometimes of copper, but always in rows as
high as the cheek bone, and occasionally one or two in the chin, the
buttons being let into the flesh when young, and thus grown in. One
strange peculiarity which struck the Europeans forcibly was that among
the women, a slit was made in the skin on each side the hip. The
youngest child is carried on the parent's back, and this slit serves it
as a stirrup, so that with one arm round the mother's neck, the child is
carried easily and safely, the mother having the free use of her hands.
This is the more necessary, as much of the labour is done by the women,
the maize or manioc being all ground up by them, the instruments used
and the mode of using them being exactly that shown forth in the old
Egyptian symbolical sculpture. Among the males the Jewish custom of
circumcision prevailed, and these were two points which struck Wyzinski
particularly. The tribe was not indigenous,