A Liberian Journey

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Sat Oct 2^nd! In the morning my foot was quite sore so I decided that it was wisdom to stay in camp and not wade thru swamps all day. Hal however went out with Mr. Taylor and Yausen. Before they left one of Lt. Whedah’s solider boys came in and a private immediately collared Mr. Taylors gun boy and ordered him to get rice and palm wine for the him. Mr. T ‘lowed he was his hunter but the private said he was his boy and turned his back on us. And that rather peeved Mr. Taylor who asked him if he didn’t know that by law the soldiers when passing between barracks (Tappi and Wei – 4 hrs ½) where they were supplied were forbidden to get (take) food from the natives and that Palm wine was forbidden. The private was quite insoldent and palave’d greatly and wouldn’t listen to the corporal. I got my camera to take a picture of him for identification but he beat it out of range. And as they have no identification tags there is no other way. However they went off without their chop and I was dashed some more rice and eggs. Hal and Mr. Taylor went hunting. And so I was left to sit in camp with no diary – no cards – no book – nothing to do. First I cleaned and resalted the monkey. Then I cleaned and oiled my gun. And then I sat and talked with Momo about Vai people. However he was a bit reticent so that my quest thirst for knowledge was not very well satisfied. In the afternoon I again oiled the stock of my gun which is new and in consequence quite dry. Hal returned after a fruitless search for elephants and we continued our comparative inactivity together. He had tough luck, too – for after the report that the elephants had crossed the road they had hunted north instead of south knowing that when elephants crossed they travelled without stopping. And as luck would have it only half had crossed the other half crossing in the morning. In the evening I got out my ukulele and serenaded Hal and our dusky friends who were again in a ring around us squatting by in rows. And in the band of light coming out thru the door of a hut a girl was pounding rice in a big mortar – mostly shadow with a bright margin. While in the hut we could see bare arms and legs heavily ringed with aluminum and brass anklets.

            There is a very nice family next door. When they come in Pa plays with the baby and older and younger likewise. One little 3 yr old was parading around with a wooden doll like on her back as at Gbenetah while another girl – about 8 always totes around a monkey. Then But the candle burned out and we went to bed to talk some more. 

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