266 Naturalist at Large 



the durian and pick it apart, as one does preparatory to 

 eating it. I then put this in a covered dish and set it in the 

 middle of the table. In due season the family arrived and 

 seated themselves prepared to complain about the victuals. 

 We had soup, fish, and an excellent curry which, of course, 

 some of my family don't like. However, long before the 

 curry stage had been reached there were angry sniffings 

 and remarks such as, "My, there's obviously a clogged 

 drain in this hotel," or "I think it is a dead horse in the next 

 yard which should have been buried days ago." This con- 

 tinued until time for the dessert, when I lifted the lid and 

 instantly the table was vacated. One brave member of my 

 party tasted a sample and disappeared at once so that I 

 could continue to clean up the remains of the durian at 

 leisure, for I am just perverted enough to like this curious 

 mixture of peach, garHc, and almonds. 



I still wear the pongee-silk suits which I had made to 

 order in Zanzibar at one South African pound each. I 

 never pass the case in the Peabody Museum in Salem where 

 the old uniforms are exhibited without marvehng that one 

 could wear such clothing in the tropics and survive. Imag- 

 ine being consul in Zanzibar in thick broadcloth covered 

 with gold lace. However, thin clothes for summer are 

 recent. Our grandfathers wore broadcloth all the year 

 round, and less than a hundred years ago British troops 

 were shipped to India with the same uniforms they wore 

 in England. 



At Tanga we motored up to the Botanical Garden at 

 Amani in the Usambara Mountains where we had friends 

 on the staff of the institution. We stopped along the way 

 to watch a column of army ants as they crossed the road 



