152 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



goods and safari stores we could then ship out to 

 them by train. 



Accordingly we rode on bicycles out to the 

 Swahili village. 



This is, as I have said, composed of large " bee- 

 hive " houses thatched conically with straw. 

 The roofs extend to form verandas beneath which 

 sit indolent damsels, their hair divided in in- 

 numerable tiny parts running fore and aft like 

 the stripes on a water melon ; their figured 

 'Mericani garments draped gracefully. As be- 

 fitted the women of plutocrats, they wore 

 much jewellery, some of it set in their noses. 

 Most of them did all of nothing, but some sat 

 half buried in narrow strips of bright-coloured 

 tissue paper. These they were pasting together 

 like rolls of tape, the coloured edges of the paper 

 forming concentric patterns on the resultant 

 discs an infinite labour. The discs, when com- 

 pleted, were for insertion in the lobes of the 

 ears. 



When we arrived the irregular " streets " of 

 the village were nearly empty, save for a few 

 elegant youths, in long kanzuas, or robes of cin- 

 namon colour and spotless white, on their heads 

 fezzes or turbans, in their hands slender rattan 

 canes. They were very busy talking to each 



