curriculum such modem sciences as chemistry and
optics, and I was for some time completely at a loss
how to explain the secrets of the photographic art—
especially as I was not quite clear on the subject
myself.
Fortunately I happened to have in my pocket a
small lens. By means of this I was able to show
them how the rays of light falling upon the glass
could be brought to a focus so as to throw a miniature
picture of the object towards which it was
turned upon a piece of white paper, held at a little
distance behind it. I then pointed out that their
hands and faces, if exposed for long to the sun,
became tanned, and explained that in the same way
the light thrown by the lens in the front portion of
the camera upon the paper in the hinder part of the
box would tan the surface of the film so as to form
a small picture of the object towards which the
camera was presented.
I gave Aissa this lucid and highly scientific explanation
in French. He translated it into Arabic
for the benefit of the woman who spoke that language
the most fluently, and she, in her turn,
translated the rigmarole into Tamahak for the
benefit of her sisters in ignorance. These, curious
to relate, were entirely satisfied with the explanation.
Having appeased their curiosity upon this point,
I told Aissa to arrange the three women in a compact
group in the sun under the wall of the outer
enclosure.
Having got them in their places, I endeavoured
to induce them to ‘think of ’im,’ and assume a
proper photographic attitude and expression.
It was hopeless. My explanation seemed to have
removed their fear of the camera, but now that they
felt the actual ordeal was at hand, a fit of nervous
restlessness, coupled with an intense desire to laugh,
seemed to seize possession of them, which made it
almost impossible for me to get them to keep still for
a single moment. They behaved, in fact, exactly
like the * three little girls from school ’ in ‘ The
Mikado.’ Never had a photographer more refractory
subjects to deal with.
I got them into a good position, and was just
about to make the exposure, when one of them suddenly
hid her face with her shawl and burst into an
uncontrollable spasm of giggling, in which of course
the others immediately joined.
As soon as this attack had passed off, and I had
reduced the group again to stillness, the woman on
the right, feeling that her shawl was tickling her
ear, put up her hand, thereby completely hiding
her face, in order to arrange it more comfortably.
I put her straight, got her still, and was focussing
her again in the view-finder, when a movement
caught my eye on the other side of the group and
drew my attention to the fact that the girl on the
left had turned her face completely away, and was
playfully arranging the third girl’s shawl so as to
entirely conceal her face. My discovery of this
trick set the whole three into a fresh fit of giggling,
from which it took them two or three minutes to
recover.