This projection ultimately dehumanizes the continent and the population together. Conrad also protests against this dehumanization through the description of the rowers, with “their bodies dripping with sweat; they had faces like masks...", but then goes on to dehumanize them through the description of the population as a group of blacks and cannibals. The observation of the chain gang provides an example of this dehumanization; Africans no longer have personalities and as they pass by they seem almost inhuman. An extended metaphor is used to elicit an inhuman image of the workers: "They walked upright and slow, balancing small baskets of earth on their heads... I could see every rib, the joints of their limbs like knots in a rope, each had an iron collar…” Marlow's parody of the fireman is a continuation of the dehumanization of Africans. After observing the dancing Africans, Conrad focuses on a particular individual and through his description manages to dehumanize “the savage who is the fireman”. Derogatory language is used to displace this fireman and make him become a parody within himself. "He was there under me and, my word, looking at him was as edifying as seeing a dog in a travesty of trousers and a feather hat" ., walking on its hind legs