These
lamps were set down in the huts that proved to be very clean and
comfortable places, furnished after a fashion with wooden stools and a
kind of low table of which the legs were carved to the shape of
antelope's feet. Also there was a wooden platform at the end of the
hut whereon lay beds covered with mats and stuffed with some soft
fibre.
"Here you may rest safe," he said, "for, white lords, are you not the
honoured guests of the Pongo people? Presently food" (I shuddered at
the word) "will be brought to you, and after you have eaten well, if
it is your pleasure, the Kalubi and his councillors will receive you
in yonder feast-house and you can talk with them before you sleep. If
you need aught, strike upon that jar with a stick," and he pointed to
what looked like a copper cauldron that stood in the garden of the hut
near the place where the women were already lighting a fire, "and some
will wait on you. Look, here are your goods; none are missing, and
here comes water in which you may wash. Now I must go to make report
to the Kalubi," and with a courteous bow he departed.
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