THE STORY OF AN OUTING 



man, who has purchased a large estate not far from 

 Nairobi. 



Wattle is a tree that grows to merchantable size in 

 three years, and the bark of which is vastly superior to 

 oak or hemlock for tanning purposes. Wattle farms are 

 common. There are many coffee estates, but sisal farms 

 seem to be the more popular and the more numerous. 

 Heniquen, or sisal, is the plant which has added so 

 greatly to the wealth of Yucatan, and produces the 

 fiber from which most of our cordage is made. The 

 same volcanic soil and surface exist here as obtain around 

 Merida in Yucatan. All these industries depend upon 

 negro labor and compete strongly with recruiting safa- 

 ris for sportsmen. Until recently both sexes lived in 

 proximate nudity. Now a blanket thrown over the 

 right shoulder and hanging against the left hip, leaving 

 the left shoulder and right hip bare, is a common dress 

 for men. A similar robe of skin is the common dress for 

 women. In towns meretricious robes or gowns of calico 

 are worn by women, and the men are taking to trunks 

 breeches coming half-way from hip to knee. One of our 

 porters had somehow become possessed of the remnants 

 of a heavy overcoat, and he wore it every day, notwith- 

 standing the intense heat and his heavy load. They 

 evidently like clothes. 



The vanity of the human race is not a product of 

 civilization it is congenital. Dame Fashion is quite 

 as imperious and her devotees quite as subservient 

 in darkest Africa as where the Aryan race holds 

 sway. 



Clothing in tropical Africa^w-ould seem to he an ^jVer- 

 thought, coming into moderate use in recent times; 



