GLIMPSES OF EAST AFRICA AND ZANZIBAR 



Their food is chiefly the grain they grow, maize, 

 millet, dhurra, beans and bananas. They are rather 

 good at metal working, and collect the iron ore from 

 beds of streams ; brass wire, however, they buy, 

 which they make into ornaments, some of which 

 are quite pretty. They also ornament stools with 

 it ; these stools are cut out of one block of wood, a 

 round on the top of three curved legs. Most of the 

 Wakamba boys who came to our house for work 

 spoke or understood Swahili, at any rate enough 

 for me to give orders. My Masai boy Ali could 

 speak Masai, Kikuyu and Kikamba, so I made him 

 translate when I wanted to hold a conversation, 

 though he never cared much to do it, and always 

 slipped away to his housework as soon as he could- 

 Ali could not speak English, so when I was in difiB- 

 culties with the Swahili, Baruku came to my rescue. 

 I always liked to find out as much as I could about 

 the tribe of any boy I had, but owing to a native's 

 dislike to giving a direct answer, and the several 

 languages into which what answer I did get had to 

 be translated, it took some time to get one small 

 detail. 



In giving orders or rebuking boys I would tell 

 Baruku what to say to the others, but he would 

 say, '' I don't know their language, Bibi," and they 

 did not understand his Swahili — he mumbled and 

 talked too quickly for them, so I would impatiently 



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