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Chapter Fourteen. The Rescued Slaves |
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phallic symbols in the camp at Chingmei |
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The Chingmei people had built us a large camp on the flat top of a hill not far from their village. Several spacious, strawcovered huts served as welcome shelters for the sepoys, and though we pitched our own tents, we were pleased to eat our meals within four walls once more. The posts of our "dining room" were decorated with the most surprising wood carvings. Naturalistic symbols of masculine power were probably the greatest form of compliment, and meant to show that the Chingmei men took us for "he-men," to whose houses the same carvings should be accorded as to their own morung. |
