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54
Women who came along the trail sang at the top of their lungs. This was not through exuberance or high spirits or love of music. The boys' bush is now in season, and during its three years the boys are not allowed to see a woman. Any woman going from town to town is obliged to make her presence known, so that a boy who might be working near the road it properly warned and may hide before she comes in sight. I tried singing Heigh-Ho (to Bobo's great amusement) but got out of breath after a few minutes. 
The day's catch consisted of two snakes and a crocodile. Whenever any body, even a small boy with a grasshopper, brings us a specimen, the whole village gathers round to see what he will get for it. One time this afternoon I counted seventeen people in our one-room house, all watching the transfer of a very small snake to our possession. 
The baby crows are a delight to care for, as they eat anything at all with gratitude. Today they have had several rare tropical fish (which we caught this morning and which would be marvels in an aquarium at home), hard-boiled eggs, bananas, live frogs, palm beetle larvae, and rice. When we first got them they were unrecognizable, small, with blue pin feathers, and enormous beaks. Now they are quite definitely turning black, and showing a wide white band around the neck. 
We received the promised letter from Col. Davis, in which he called our attention to "the impropriety of our behavior" and requested us either to send him our credentials or to report to his office in person. Letter filed unanswered. 
I have been trying to learn a few words of the native language, but the mixture of Vai, Mende and Gola is too confusing. I think these words are Mende - anyway Fermetah understands some of them when I try them on her:
Yakonai - good morning
Mbwao - I must go
Bakahui - Good-by
Goa mui panda - God be with you
Mbuai - Good night
The Chief and the Mullah are evidently strict Moslems. From my chair I can watch them, five times a day, performing their ablutions before they go to pray; they sit on a small stool outside their hut and from a tea-kettle pour water over their hands and feet, wash their arm pits, head, nose and mouth. 
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When we ask them what/the prospects of our making a good collection here, they piously respond that that is "God palaver," - the native way of saying "If God wills". 
May 22 - 
We have been keeping our animals in the house next door, but quarters there were crowded, and last night Bobo moved them to a larger house. It was certainly lucky that he did, for army ants got in during the night, and would have ruined our small collection. In the morning we saw the column, only a few yards from our house, and Bill tried the effect of Flit on them, having been told that it was not effective. It did, however, completely disrupt the column, and left many drivers dying in clusters.