254 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



come down until the wind dies, so their fate is most 

 uncertain. 



The "town'' proved not uninteresting. The women 

 of the government askaris parade up and down, Nandi 

 mostly. They as a class are the only women in Africa 

 who do not work, and they value themselves accord- 

 ingly. Their hair is done elaborately, their ornaments 

 are many, their patterned garment clean and new; but 

 especially are they interesting for their airs of feminine 

 coquetry. A very great — and very ridiculous — sultan 

 was in making purchases. In his native wilds he was 

 probably a fine-looking man. Now he wore a peaked 

 helmet much too big for him, a light gray army over- 

 coat that was the last word in misfits, puttees awkwardly 

 wound, and huge brogans. An actor on the comic 

 stage would be considered rather to have overdone it 

 if he had looked so. This potentate was accompanied 

 by his two favourite wives — in native undress — the 

 bearer of the royal camp-chair, and a few miscel- 

 laneous shenzis. He was a canny old soul and did not 

 intend being done, for he went carefully into every 

 Indian dukka before making his first purchase. 



A tremendous rain again in the evening, after the 

 cessation of which we heard the sultan and suite re- 

 turning home — ^very drunk. They howled and screamed 

 and chattered at the top of their lungs; and nobody 

 paid the slightest attention to what anybody else said. 



Morning, 65; noon^ S^) night, 78. 



