SOCIAL AMENITIES 257 vainer than women ! Invariably the glass would at first be held close to the face, and on the reflection of an eye or nose being eventually discovered (which appeared as difficult as the focussing of a star through a telescope to the tyro), a loud shout of " Wah I" was sent up in surprise, sometimes fright.

Reassured and instructed by (companions, one would hold it at arm's length, and discover the whole of his remarkable features, and with a loud shout of " Gwah !" ("nice," "beautiful," "magnificent," was apparently the translation) he would dissolve into smiles of delight and self-admiration, having to be almost forcibly separated from his unlovely reflection, and returning time after time with repeated requests for further indulgence.

The "finder" of the camera, too, was an inexhaustible cause of amusement to men and maidens alike. The confidence shown by the latter in the bona-fides of the visitors was pleasing, and only the old crones would put in an instruction or caution, remembering days when fine words and good manners ended by their numbers being surrounded, and murder or slavery in exile resulting. One day a middle-aged man approached me with a maid of barbarian beauty, and with solemnity made it apparent that he offered her me as a helpmate in life. Permitting him to continue his proposition, he explained, the shy beauty being quite acquiescent, that the consideration for his kindness would be thirty oxen (trade value in dhurra perhaps £15) ; the closed fists were thrust forward three 17