SCENE AT THE VILLAGE. 339 and narrow nips. They were from five feet eight inches to six feet in height. The rai's informed me that the Shillooks frequently sell their women and children, and that a boy or girl can be bought for about twenty measures of dourra.

After undergoing their inspection half an hour, I began to get tired of sitting in state, and had my pipe brought from the boat. I saw by an occasional sidelong glance that the shekh watched me, but I smoked carelessly until the tobacco was finished. Some of the men were already regaling themselves with that which I had given them. They had pipes with immense globular bowls of clay, short, thick stems of reed, and mouth-pieces made of a variety of wild gourd, with a long, pointed neck. A handful of tobacco was placed in the bowl and two or three coals laid upon it, after which the orifice was closed with clay. The vizier, Adjeb-Seedoo, who had something of the Yankee in his angular features and the shrewd wrinkles about the corners of the eyes, chewed the tobacco and squirted out the saliva between his teeth in the true Down-East style. I bargained for his pipe at two piastres, and one of the ivory arm-rings at five, but as I had no small silver money (the only coin current among them), did not succeed in getting the former article. I obtained, however, two of the arm-rings of hippopotamus hide. While these things were going on, the shekh who had been observing me closely, saw the chain of my watch, which he seized. I took out the watch and held it to his ear. He started back in surprise, and told the men what he had heard, imitating its sound in a most amusing manner. They all crowded around to listen, and from their looks and signs seemed to think the case contained some bird or insect. I therefore opened it, and showed them