One old lady in the crowd outside, I saw,
had a necklace made of sixteen gorilla canine teeth slung on a pine-
apple fibre string.
Gray Shirt explained to me that this is the
best house in the village, and my host the most renowned elephant
hunter in the district.
We then returned to the canoe, whose occupants had been getting
uneasy about the way affairs were going "on top," on account of the
uproar they heard and the time we had been away. We got into the
canoe and took her round the little promontory at the end of the
island to the other beach, which is the main beach. By arriving at
the beach when we did, we took our Fan friends in the rear, and they
did not see us coming in the gloaming. This was all for the best,
it seems, as they said they should have fired on us before they had
had time to see we were rank outsiders, on the apprehension that we
were coming from one of the Fan towns we had passed, and with whom
they were on bad terms regarding a lady who bolted there from her
lawful lord, taking with her - cautious soul! - a quantity of rubber.
The only white man who had been here before in the memory of man,
was a French officer who paid Kiva six dollars to take him
somewhere, I was told - but I could not find out when, or what
happened to that Frenchman.
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