However That Is The Path You Have Got To Go By, If You're Not Wise
Enough To Stop At Home; The Little Bay Of Shrub Overgrown Swamp
Fringing The River On One Side And On The Other Running Up To The
Mountain Side.
At last we came to a sandy bank, and on that bank stood Egaja, the
town with an evil name even among the Fan, but where we had got to
stay, fair or foul.
We went into it through its palaver house, and
soon had the usual row.
I had detected signs of trouble among my men during the whole day;
the Ajumba were tired, and dissatisfied with the Fans; the Fans were
in high feather, openly insolent to Ngouta, and anxious for me to
stay in this delightful locality, and go hunting with them and
divers other choice spirits, whom they assured me we could easily
get to join us at Efoua. I kept peace as well as I could,
explaining to the Fans I had not enough money with me now, because I
had not, when starting, expected such magnificent opportunities to
be placed at my disposal; and promising to come back next year - a
promise I hope to keep - and then we would go and have a grand time
of it. This state of a party was a dangerous one in which to enter
a strange Fan town, where our security lay in our being united.
When the first burst of Egaja conversation began to boil down into
something reasonable, I found that a villainous-looking scoundrel,
smeared with soot and draped in a fragment of genuine antique cloth,
was a head chief in mourning. He placed a house at my disposal,
quite a mansion, for it had no less than four apartments. The first
one was almost entirely occupied by a bedstead frame that was being
made up inside on account of the small size of the door.
This had to be removed before we could get in with the baggage at
all. While this removal was being effected with as much damage to
the house and the article as if it were a quarter-day affair in
England, the other chief arrived. He had been sent for, being away
down the river fishing when we arrived. I saw at once he was a very
superior man to any of the chiefs I had yet met with. It was not
his attire, remarkable though that was for the district, for it
consisted of a gentleman's black frock-coat such as is given in the
ivory bundle, a bright blue felt sombrero hat, an ample cloth of
Boma check; but his face and general bearing was distinctive, and
very powerful and intelligent; and I knew that Egaja, for good or
bad, owed its name to this man, and not to the mere sensual, brutal-
looking one. He was exceedingly courteous, ordering his people to
bring me a stool and one for himself, and then a fly-whisk to battle
with the evening cloud of sand-flies.
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