Page:A pilgrimage to my motherland.djvu/87

78 occasionally met, all looking as if discovered in the perpetration of some guilty action, because, forsooth, they were compelled to perform some office regarded, according to their customs, as proper only for women. All the gates of the compounds were carefully closed and watched. I sought and procured admission to two or three of them, and found the women engaged as usual in their varied occupations, except of course, in those which the circumstance compelled men to perform. I continued my perambulations without meeting any thing remarkable until about ten o'clock A. M ., when a large number of persons gathered on the open ground in front of the king's palace, singing very prettily and keeping time by striking together two small pieces of very hard wood, which each carried. In a few minutes the king's messenger or lieutenant, with his suite, came out, representing the king. He thanked the company for their praises to the king which formed the burthen of their songs, and having for a few minutes joined with them in a dance, he presented them some cowries and retired. Later in the day I repaired to another part of the city, where I learned several of the elders and chiefs were to meet. Much of the ground was already occupied by young men and boys in active competition for the applause of the crowd which was always liberally accorded to