The African sketch-book . halk their necks inpatterns, so that a little way off they appear to bedressed in lace. They part their hair down the middle,and ridge it over frizzettes of cloth to make it appearabundant, and form it into fantastic shapes. They placelittle rosettes of artificial hair above their ears, and inserta hair-pin of ebony or ivory delicately carved, and usefor perfume the scrapings of a fragrant bark. Roundtheir necks are strings of variously coloured beads, whiletheir legs are clothed in enormous rings manufactured bythemselves from staircase rods, and of such a weight tha
The African sketch-book . halk their necks inpatterns, so that a little way off they appear to bedressed in lace. They part their hair down the middle,and ridge it over frizzettes of cloth to make it appearabundant, and form it into fantastic shapes. They placelittle rosettes of artificial hair above their ears, and inserta hair-pin of ebony or ivory delicately carved, and usefor perfume the scrapings of a fragrant bark. Roundtheir necks are strings of variously coloured beads, whiletheir legs are clothed in enormous rings manufactured bythemselves from staircase rods, and of such a weight thatsome of the women can scarcely walk, and if they fall intothe water (as sometimes happens) these victims of fashionsink to rise no more. Book I] THE FOREST 25 The native gentleman is not less dandified ; he maybe seen lying for hours with his head in his wifes lap,being coiffe by her experienced hands; he ties a stringround his upper arm to make it full and round ; hedelights to put on much cloth, and to hear it trailing. behind him as he walks along the street with a mixtureof the lounge and swagger not unfamiliar to Londoneyes ; above all, he rejoices in an old umbrella stick,which gives forth a jingling sound sweet to his ears, asthe tinkling of spurs to 6 gents who never ride. My host kindly invited me to remain altogether athis factory, but wishing to live as much as possibleamong the natives I determined to rent a house andmake it my head-quarters as long as I remained in theGaboon. A tenement was shown me, situated by the 26 THE FOREST [Book I river-side, and built on wooden piles, a consideration ofsome importance where the soil exhales disease. It con-sisted of three rooms, throughout which a sofa, a chest ofdrawers, and four chairs were tastefully distributed. Inthe smallest room I found the proprietor suffering fromfever and surrounded by his wives. After a little con-versation I broached the subject of my visit, for whichhe seemed to be prepared. Having expatiated
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