MOMBASA. 75 



he laid hands on a fugitive, the latter collapsed ; 

 whereupon the policeman dropped him and took 

 after another. The joke of it was that the one 

 so abandoned did not try again to make off, but 

 stayed as though he had been tagged at some 

 game. Finally the whole lot, still vociferating, 

 moved off down the white road. 



For over an hour we hung from our window sill, 

 thoroughly interested and amused by the varied 

 life that deployed before our eyes. The morning 

 seemed deliciously cool after the hot night, al- 

 though the thermometer stood high. The sky was 

 very blue, with big piled white clouds down near 

 the horizon. Dazzling sun shone on the white 

 road, the white buildings visible up and down the 

 street, the white walls enclosing their gardens, and 

 the greenery and colours of the trees within them. 

 For from what we could see from our window we 

 immediately voted tropical vegetation quite up 

 to advertisement: whole trees of gaudy red or 

 yellow or bright orange blossoms, flowering vines, 

 flowering shrubs, peered over the walls or through 

 the fences; and behind them rose great mangoes or 

 the slenderer shafts of bananas and cocoanut palms. 



Up and down wandered groups of various sorts 

 of natives. A month later we would have been 

 able to identify their different tribes and to know 



