[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

SAN TO I 4 5

and towards morning it grew very cold. When I
came out of the hut, the morning sun was just getting
the better of the mist, and spreading a cheery light
over the square, which had looked dismal enough
under a grey, rainy sky. I made all the women
gather on the outskirts of the square to be measured
and photographed. They were very bashful, and I
almost pitied them, for the whole male population
sat around making cruel remarks about them ; indeed,
if it had not been for the chief’s explicit orders, they
would all have run away. They were not a very
pleasant spectacle, on the Whole. I was struck by
the tired, suffering expression of even the young
girls, a hopeless and uninterested look, in contradic-
tion with their lively behaviour when unobserved.
For they are natural and happy only when among
themselves, and in the presence of the men they feel
that they are under the eye of their master, often a
brutal master, whose property they are. Probably
they are hardly conscious of this, and take their
position and destiny as a matter of course; but they
are constrained in the presence of their owners,
knowing that at any moment they may be displeased
or angry, for any reason or for none, and may ill-
treat or even kill them. Aside from these considera-
tions their frightened awkwardness was extremely
funny, especially when posing before the camera.
Some could not stand straight, others twisted their
arms and legs into impossible positions. The idea
of a profile view seemed particularly strange to them,

and they always presented either their back or their
IO