Confronted with such mummy food, I thought with longing of the good, fresh meal which I had left behind me at the headman's house.

He may have guessed my thoughts, for he observed: 'I never touch their food.

It is insanitary'-- which I knew to be exactly what they said of his.
The man who waited on us seemed to move in fear, and was addressed by his employer very curtly.
After the supper there was tea, which, I confess, was welcome, and then the missionary put me through a kind of catechism.

Finding out who I was, and that we had some friends in common, he frowned deeply.
He had heard of my existence in the land, it seemed.
'What are you doing here at all ?' he asked severely.

'At your age you should be at college or in training for some useful work.' 'I'm learning things,' I told him rather feebly.
His point of view, the point of view of all my countrymen, imposed itself on me as I sat there before him, deeply conscious of my youth and inexperience.
'What things ?' he asked.