In great perplexity I pondered upon the problem as I paced up and down before my house. At length I received a suggestion from an unexpected quarter. In a moment of idleness I had taken the skull of the antelope from the river, where the fish had picked it clean, and fixed it as an ornament above my door; and happening now to glance at it in passing, and again being struck by its resemblance to the image by the pool, I suddenly conceived the idea of sheltering myself behind the superstitions of these forest natives. I remembered the effect the encounter with that hideous effigy had had upon Alhassan--Mahommedan as he was; doubtless upon an actual worshipper of the river god the effect would have been even greater. Then why should I not turn river god myself? No place of residence could be more appropriate to such a deity than the island on which I lived. I sniggered a good deal at the notion, which nevertheless commended itself to my judgment; and as the light was waning, I hastily collected the materials for manufacturing a suitable “make up,” and took them into the house. They consisted of a length of curved timber, left over from the canoe frame, a quantity of odds and ends of fibre that had been cut off in sewing the bark together, and one or two furry skins of animals that I had eaten; and with these I spent a busy evening by the firelight preparing for my apotheosis on the morrow. But when the morrow came, and I looked at the absurd productions of my labour--which appeared for all the world like the properties from some amateur pantomime--I was inclined to pitch them into the river, so preposterous did the whole thing seem. The “make up” included a cap or wig of mixed fur and rubbed fibre, very flowing and dishevelled, to which was attached a pair of curved horns of hard wood and a beard that concealed the fastenings. I had also made a kilt of the same materials, as I should have to discard my clothes--which, indeed, would be little loss, for they were by this time a mere archipelago of holes. Presently I summoned up courage to try the ridiculous things on, and when I had tied the wig securely in its place and exchanged my rags for the kilt, I went round to the little bay, and stooping over the bank, examined my reflection in the still water. The hideousness of my appearance quite startled me, and I realised for the first time how haggard and emaciated I had become with all this hard work, anxiety, and low diet; and as the wig caused me little discomfort and the kilt none at all, I decided to keep them on for the present.