"That is just how you would like to see me, is it not?" she says occasionally, and with asperity, to Doctor Delange, whose admiration for the Bayaderes and dancing girls of the Soudan she has never forgiven.
"By no means. Miss Poles," Delange replies, with his habitual coolness. "I should be very sorry to see you like these women, but you must admit that at all events there is some connection between a perfectly developed woman and monsters such as these."
"I see no connection at all," exclaimed Miss Poles. "All your perfectly-developed women, as you call them, become masses of obesity sooner or later, and, if I were a man, I should not admire them one bit."
Without attaching as much importance to the embonpoint of the Bongo women, we could not help being somewhat curious to know whether it arose from natural causes or whether it was a matter of caprice. Nassar, who lived for a long time amongst them with Schweinfurth, declares that his master could never gain any information on the subject, but he says that if we really wish it, he will do his best to obtain for us an opportunity of settling the question. Delange and de Morin jumped at the offer, and we have commissioned Nassar to escort us to a species of harem, the proprietor of which, a Bongo chief, has expressed his willingness to receive us. Miss Poles wants to come also, and we do not see our way to saying no, especially as her presence in a harem is much more according to the proprieties than ours. We only exact from her a solemn promise that she will put a curb on her indignation as soon as she finds herself face to face with the phenomena we are about to see.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The extensive Bongo village, in which we were halting and where
Nassar proposed to us a closer study of the manners and customs of
the female inhabitants of the country, is situated close to
Daggondoûd, an important seriba.
On our way we asked our guide about the individual to whose dwelling we were going. According to Nassar, he was formerly a powerful chief, but his village had been burnt, and his fields devastated by the Dinkas and Nubians. Three-fourths of his subjects had fled, and he was now living a quiet, retired life, so as not to attract the attention of his neighbours, and, to a certain extent, his masters, in the seriba. Nassar had informed him of our desire to see something of the interior economy of his household, and he had acquiesced in the hope of getting some presents from us.
These, and other details concerning the Bongo tribe generally, occupied our attention until we arrived at the habitation of the chief, who received us in the outer room of the house, a sort of unfurnished vestibule or antechamber, the walls of which were completely covered with trophies and warlike weapons. Here were hung lance-heads of exquisite native workmanship, and there was seen the dangabor, a series of accumulated rings, most artistically made, and forming an armlet as flexible as can well be conceived. In another place arrows were interspersed amongst elephants' tusks, on which varied designs were traced, for the Bongo, besides being skilled in the manipulation of iron, shows also a great aptitude for sculpture. The ceiling was ornamented with bows, the skins of beasts, and drums hollowed out of the trunks of the tamarind tree.
Our host compelled us to admire everything; he did not omit a single detail, but unfolded all his treasures with an air of complacency, as much as to say—"There! you have never seen anything like that, either amongst my neighbours, or in your own country." In his eyes we were evidently merely a set of savages, and he looked upon himself as the sole representative, in his country, of art and industry.
At length he pulled aside the skins which served as curtains, and introduced us to his drawing-room, carpeted with reed-grass. All around this apartment were symmetrically arranged small wooden stools, each made out of a single block of wood, called hegbas. Although the room was empty of occupants, it evidently belonged to the ladies of the establishment, for the males of the Bongo tribe despise seats, and only allow them to be made use of by women and children. Above these stools, and hanging from the walls by carved pegs of wood, were round boxes containing flour, calabashes filled with beer made from sorghum, and called leghuy, and large bamboo baskets full of grain.