While the captain went up to Government House, Frank, accompanied by
one of the young officers who had also come ashore, took a stroll
through the town. The first thing that struck him was the extraordinary
number of pigs. These animals pervaded the whole place. They fed in
threes and fours in the middle of the streets. They lay everywhere
in the road, across the doors, and against the walls. They quarreled
energetically inside lanes and courtyards, and when worsted in their
disputes galloped away grunting, careless whom they might upset.
The principal street of Accra was an amusing sight. Some effort had
been made to keep it free of the filth and rubbish which everywhere
else abounded. Both sides were lined by salesmen and women sitting
on little mats upon the low wooden stools used as seats in Africa.
The goods were contained in wooden trays. Here were dozens of women
offering beads for sale of an unlimited variety of form and hue.
They varied from the tiny opaque beads of all colors used by English
children for their dolls, to great cylindrical beads of variegated
hues as long and as thick as the joint of a finger. The love of
the Africans for beads is surprising.
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