GLIMPSES OF EAST AFRICA AND ZANZIBAR 



who came across the wounded man hastily injected 

 a dose of strychnine. 



One day I made my boys build a fence of plaited 

 branches to keep my chickens from the garden ; 

 Googly did his part much better than Ali, and I 

 told Ali so, he replied that Googly had to help 

 make his hut in Kikuyu. So I asked, " How about 

 the Masai ? " as Ali was born a Masai ; he promptly 

 answered, '' Oh, the women do that, the men only 

 fight ". I am afraid he scored over me that time. 

 What he said was true nevertheless. 



Talking of things various reminds me of quite 

 an exciting adventure we had just before Christmas 

 of that year. I wanted to see a friend about some 

 theatricals we were getting up, but on arriving at her 

 mother's house, for some time no notice was taken 

 of my " Hodi " (a Swahili word always used in East 

 Africa to ask admission into a house, as bells are 

 very scarce and the boys usually live at the back). 

 Presently the girl came herself, and told me in 

 tones of excitement that there was a leopard 

 under the bed of a little room leading from the 

 drawing-room. I could scarcely believe it till they 

 showed me his footprints on the window-sill of the 

 drawing-room by which he had evidently entered. 

 They had discreetly shut the beast up in the room. 

 The house stands in a road of houses surrounded by 

 gardens, with another at the back of it, and half a 



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