husband by a crowd in Fleet Street, successfully hazarded a coo-ee to let him know in what part of that thoroughfare she was bewildered.
The natives sing continually, but the use of musical instruments seemed unknown amongst them, and I observed that their songs were always in the minor key. Khourabene's songs were of a surprising length, considering that he drew a deep breath at starting, and neither replenished his lungs nor brought his ditty to a conclusion until the original stock of wind was thoroughly exhausted. There was one especial song which he crooned so often that at last I asked him to translate it for me; but the words were not precisely of a sort to meet the approbation of the Society for the Preservation of Aboriginal Races, neither did they tally with the experience of the African traveller who wrote sentimental verses in praise of the kindness of women to the forlorn foreigner. Khourabene's song described the approach of a stranger, and the chorus was an urgent entreaty from the women that the men would lose no time in killing him.
It must not be supposed that the natives are without a belief in personal cleanliness, but their notions on such matters are rather different to white people's opinions on the same subject. We were now and then asked for a piece of soap to wash an old cotton shirt which a native might have received as a present from a colonist; but for the face and hands oil or grease is much preferred as a cleansing medium, and, on all occasions when full dress is indispensable, a native never thinks himself thoroughly comme il faut unless his whole body shines with oil from head to foot. A neighbour of ours told me of two natives
