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15 At the Back of the Black Man's Mind By R. E. Dennett
handkerchief, in his other a kind of wooden sceptre surmounted by a figure carved in
ivory.
The space cleared for the dance and meeting was in the form of a square perhaps 200 by
250 yards. In the northeast corner was a mighty Banyan tree with most of its downgrowing
shoots lopped off. A Baobab and Acachew tree at a distance from each other of
some thirty yards occupied the centre. At the south-cast corner an Acachew tree stood
and at the south-west a Baobab.
Each tree was destined to lend its shade to a happy crowd of dancers, or to form a kind
of canopy over NENIMI as he sat on a mat beneath its shade to receive his many guests.
Partitions (of papyrus) forming stalls something like horse-boxes rested against the
outside fence that formed the eastern side of a great enclosure, within which the riches
of the late NEAMLAU were exposed to view. This fence, which also formed the western
boundary of the cleared space, was decorated with flags.
"Hullo! 'Gabba!' what is the matter? Have you only just turned out of bed? What means
this hideous costume?" Gabba, a very old servant of the successive English houses in
Banana, salaamed me. He was dressed in a red skull-cap, a short white surplice, and a
yellow cloth which acted as a kind of skirt. In his ears hung two ugly looking large
crosses formed of blue beads . . . . (He was a curious old stick was Gabba, and deserves
to have his life written by anyone who has the patience to get his story out of him.) On
this occasion I made use of him as a pilot.
Up to the present all those anxious to enter the enclosure to see the late NEAMLAU's
relics had had to pay two bottles of rum entrance fee, but now NENIMI and I were to
open the show to the public. He led me through the maze-like entrance into the square
beyond. The fence was made of strips of bamboo neatly tied together and supported by
sticks firmly planted in the ground. There were two shimbecs or huts in this enclosure,
the smaller one containing the relics of NEAMLAU, the greater one his bed and
hammock. The roof of each shimbec was covered with white cloth, while a gay coloured
(red, white, and yellow striped) cloth covered the ridge pole, and planks of the NVUKU
tree kept this cloth in its place. The roofs in the distance had the appearance of the
white-washed roofs of the white man's houses in Banana. The open front of the smaller
shimbec was curtained off by a red and white blanket. This NENIMI now threw over the
roof, and displayed to our view its interior. The walls of the interior were draped with
cloth and white blankets. At the back under an umbrella sat an effigy of the late
NEAMLAU. He wore the uniform coat of a British naval officer, over which round about
his shoulders hung a native cape made of cotton, called NSENDA. 9 Tell beads and
crucifixes, charms, amulets, and fetishes hung from his neck. He wore a blue cloth and
boots. To his right on a wall hung a small oleograph, on his left a large oil painting of a
9 Or XISEMBA. See object in Exeter Museum or illustration in Seven Years among the Fjort, See also Laws of the
Bavili
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