He was an elderly white man who was terribly unwell. He rode pick-a-back on a woolly-headed, black-skinned savage whose lobes had been punctured and stretched till one had torn out, and the other carried a three-inch-diameter circular block of carved wood. The ripped ear had been pierced once more, although this time not with such zeal, as the hole could only hold a little clay pipe. The man-horse was filthy and oily, and he was completely nude except for a filthy loincloth, but the white guy clung to him frantically. His head drooped and rested on the hairy pate at times due to weakness. At other times, he lifted his head and peered, his eyes swimming, at the reeling cocoanut palms.

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