GLIMPSES OF EAST AFRICA AND ZANZIBAR 



discussion would ensue, finally ending by my boy 

 dropping some of the seed ; and both parties were 

 happy, as the boy felt he had done the woman out 

 of a few grains, and she had stopped him taking 

 too much to please her. Once I entered into the 

 bargaining, and laughingly told the woman she 

 was very dear (mtama had gone up), so she 

 took up a big handful and added it to my lot, 

 then looked up, nodding and grinning, which 

 nods and grins I returned, and we were great 

 friends. 



The women seem to do most of the hard work ; 

 they work in their shambas with the men, and carry 

 such heavy loads of sweet potatoes and grain to 

 market. They seem now to get on fairly well with 

 their white neighbours, although it was only nine 

 or ten years ago the King's African Rifles had to 

 go with the collector, the late Mr, Hall, to punish 

 them for giving trouble. He took 400 cattle and 

 10,000 goats from them as a lesson. 



All the same, while I was in Nairobi people were 

 saying that there would be a Kikuyu rising before 

 very long, and since we left they seem to be giving 

 rather more trouble : but I should have thought 

 they were too weak and indolent for anything 

 serious. But it is in their great number that their 

 strength lies, and one wonders, now that they are 

 allowed to increase so much and are guarded from 



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