But there were several negro statues, wood-carvings from West Africa, strange and disturbing, the carved negroes looked almost like the foetus of a human being.

One was a woman sitting naked in a strange posture, and looking tortured, her abdomen stuck out.

The young Russian explained that she was sitting in child-birth, clutching the ends of the band that hung from her neck, one in each hand, so that she could bear down, and help labour.

The strange, transfixed, rudimentary face of the woman again reminded Gerald of a foetus, it was also rather wonderful, conveying the suggestion of the extreme of physical sensation, beyond the limits of mental consciousness.
'Aren't they rather obscene ?' he asked, disapproving.
'I don't know,' murmured the other rapidly.

'I have never defined the obscene.