CHAPTER XIX.

A few moments elapsed, and then five fresh slaves made their appearance, three of whom carried an immense jar filled with milk, and the other two iron bowls containing a paste made of sorghum and eleusine flour, called by the Arabs _téléboun_, and _tocusso_ by the Abyssinians.

"We are expected to eat, after all," exclaimed Miss Poles. "You see I was quite right."

"My dear Miss Poles," remarked Delange, "nobody wants to force you to eat, although, by the way, there is nothing at all repulsive about this food."

"Perhaps not, but I will never sit down at the same table with these creatures!"

"Did I understand you to say table? May I ask where you see one?"

"I was speaking metaphorically, M. Delange," replied Miss Poles, rather sarcastically, "a mode of conversation which, I regret to see, your education does not permit of your understanding."

This passage of arms over, we saw that the fears of our fair companion were groundless, and that the repast was really intended for the Bongo ladies, and, in addition, as a kind of illustrated lecture for our benefit.

The chief took a small calabash, filled it with paste, and then carried it to the lips of one of his wives. I say lips from the force of habit, and the generally received impression that the lips themselves open to receive food and drink. But in these regions that notion is altogether wrong, because, seeing that the mouth assumes, by the process already mentioned, the shape of a long beak, the Bougos are obliged to make use of their fingers to lift the upper lip, and let their nourishment slip down the throat. When, after being thus opened, the mouth, which sticks out like a fortification armed with plates of ivory and copper, is allowed to shut, it does so with a sharp, metallic, and very extraordinary click.

After having made the three monstrosities swallow at least a pound of paste each, the chief dipped his calabash in the jar and gorged them with milk, they all this time looking exactly like huge babies being fed with the bottle, or a trio of overgrown geese attached, as is the case in some countries, to a plank to be fattened.

They did not seem to object in the least to the treatment, and it would not have mattered much if they had, for their husband never left off until the whole of the paste and milk had disappeared. Then, turning towards us, and pointing to his treasures, he addressed us, through the medium of Nassar, of course, in the following terms—

"This is the way I feed them; this is how they attain to that perfection of form which renders them the handsomest women in the country, and makes them worthy of belonging to a man of my rank."

"At what age do they begin their excellent _regimé_?" asked Delange.

"From their earliest infancy," replied the chief. "It is to the interest of all fathers in this country to feed their daughters thus, because the fatter they are the higher is the price paid for them. It is our business afterwards to keep them in condition, and improve them if possible. The daughters of every man of any consequence are compelled, every morning, to imbibe a jar of milk under their father's eye. If they hesitate or refuse, he beats them until they make up their minds lo conform to this usage."

"And have all the men of your tribe," asked the Doctor, "wives as fat as yours, and do they all feed them as highly?"

"Oh, dear no!" replied the chief, drawing himself up. "We are agricultural people and have but little cattle, so that it is only men in my position who can afford cows. My neighbours use beer instead of milk, but they never arrive at such results as mine."

"Does he, I wonder," asked de Morin, "look upon us as judges of the show, and expect a medal?"

"I dare say he does," said Delange, "and as a still higher compliment to him I am going to ask permission to take a few measurements."

Much to the indignation of Miss Poles, Delange, in the interests of science, as he said, proceeded to carry out his intention, and, when he had finished, he stepped back with the exclamation—

"Superb!"

This was duly turned into Bongo idiom by Nassar, on which the chief, whose gratification was both evident and complete, replied—

"Are they not? You have never seen anything like them, have you?"

"Never!" said Delange, as if he were lost in admiration. "And what, may I ask, is the age of this charming woman?" pointing to the fattest of the three.

"Seventeen."

"And a very promising girl she is."

In the meantime the women had been scanning Miss Poles very narrowly, and that lady's attention being attracted to the notice which was being taken of her, she asked Nassar to find out what their ideas were.

"They are very much exercised by your style of dress," replied the guide, "and they want to know why you wear it."

"Why I dress in this style? Because it is customary amongst civilized people. Do they expect English ladies to imitate them, I should like to know?"

"These ladies," continued Nassar, "know quite well that white people are in the habit of covering their bodies with superfluous and useless clothing, but they are astonished that you do not wear a costume like your friends."

The bare idea of being mistaken for one of the other sex was too much for Miss Poles, who grew almost livid with rage, and, turning on her heel, exclaimed, indignantly—

"Not content with being mis-shapen, they are idiots to boot."

Her anger seemed to amuse the Bongo ladies immensely, but I am bound to say that their hilarity did not improve their personal appearance. Their three beaks moving convulsively, their under lips clicking against the upper ones, and the noise caused thereby, produced a most grotesque effect, and when we saw and heard them laughing, we fairly roared.

Miss Poles, however, did nothing of the sort, for the more we laughed the more angry she grew, and she would have ended by giving dire offence to both the chief and his wives, if Delange had not stepped in to the rescue by sending Nassar into the outer room for the presents which we had brought with us.

We lost no time in unfolding our Parisian treasures, consisting of cheap photographs, marionettes, dolls and their houses, and toy farm-yards. These playthings, which were just the very things to take the fancy of any African negress, gave immense pleasure to the women whose rising anger we wished to allay. They forgot Miss Poles and her indignation at once, and having, after desperate efforts, succeeded in standing up, they waddled towards the toys with childish glee, holding out their hands for the presents like overgrown babies.

Miss Poles, who had been meditating some terrible revenge, now produced a pocket looking-glass and held it suddenly before one of the women, fancying, undoubtedly, that the wretched creature, brought face to face with her deformity, would recoil with horror. Nothing of the kind. The woman's eyes danced with delight, her lips burlesqued a smile, and, to crown all, the huge mass of flesh began to wriggle about, for all the world like a penguin in a fit.

"Do you mean to say that she thinks herself pretty?" exclaimed Miss Poles.

"Certainly," said Delange. "And I am quite willing to confess that I think she is so in her way, just as you, Miss Poles, are in yours."

Miss Beatrice shrugged her shoulders and was about to put her glass in her pocket again, when the Bongo woman seized hold of it with both hands, and declined to give it up.

"I will not give it to you," cried Miss Poles. "You have done quite enough in the way of insult by mistaking me for a man, without stealing my looking-glass. Give it up directly, I say. Do you think that I would inflict on a glass, accustomed to my features, the torture of reflecting yours?"

But the woman, who, naturally, did not understand a single syllable of this address, continued to pull her hardest, and things were once more beginning to look serious, when Delange again came to the rescue.

"You cannot think of making use of anything that has been touched by that odious creature," said he to Miss Poles.

"That is true," was the disgusted reply. "She has profaned it, and I give it up."

And, so saying, she marched out of the place, with her chin in the air, and without deigning to say good-by to the chief or his wives. Our curiosity, too, was more than satisfied, and consequently we lost no time in rejoining our huffy companion.