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-46- dinner, and after listening for a few moments to the steady splosh-splosh of ripe mangos falling off a tree beside the house, went to sleep. May 8- We were wakened by the hooting of Dr. Koch's pet chimpanzee, which lives in a tree at the corner of our verandah. Another smaller chimp came calling before we finished breakfast, and ambled gaily about the house, leaving mango seeds here and there on the floor. We spent most of the day admiring the view of the sea, and unpacking and settling down in our spacious quarters. Toward evening we walked down the hill into the village, stopping in at the Dutch store, at West's, and ending up at Mr. Loefler's. We don't know our way up the hill very well yet, and had to be sure to leave at six o'clock, so that we would be home before dark. The climb up to our house is so steep that we are panting and perspiring when we get there. Flomo is studying cooking under our tutelage. Tonight we asked him to boil some sweet potatoes, and heat up a can of chili con carne. He boiled the sweet potatoes all right, but served the chili cold, with lumps of grease and pepper floating in it. May 9- Mr. Loefler invited us on an excursion to Sugari - a village down the coast celebrated for its sacred crocodile - and we started off in a surf boat at eight o'clock. Miss True from the Mission, the two German doctors, Mrs. Bodewes, Mr. Loefler and Mr. fuchs (of West's) came with us, so we made quite a large party for the boat, which already had a head man and six oarsmen. We crossed over to the other side of the bay, then got out and walked about an hour along the beach while the surf boat went across the bar. We saw sea gulls, guinea fowl, ghost crabs, plovers, one goliath heron, and collected a few sea shells and a cluster of barnacles so big that I am taking them home to use for flower vases! The surf boat came in through an inlet, and took us along Sugari creek, which is separated from the sea only by a rather high sandbank. Here we saw a crocodile on the bank. We reached Sugari about eleven o'clock, and ate our lunch in a nice little house belonging to the local Mandingo trader. The sacred crocodile lay just off the beach, with his eyes and noxe out of the water. The surf boat could not come up on the beach, and although I was a little nervous about the proximity of the crocodile, the boat boys who were carrying us paid no attention to him at all, nor he to them. After lunch we were allowed to buy a chicken for two and a half times the market value. The chicken was tied to a string, and one of the villagers walked down to the water's edge and showed it to the croc. He came lurching up on the sand, and followed the unfortunate and squawking chicken right into the village. He is a big boy, about seven feet long, and with a gruesome set of teeth. Bill was busily grinding away with his camera, and when he gave the word [[end page]]
