MOMBASA 



would pause, undecided as to what to do; there in 

 the middle distance would stand our friend, smiling. 

 When he was sure we had seen him and were about 

 to take the turn properly, he would disappear again. 

 Convoyed in this pleasant fashion we wound and 

 twisted up and down and round and about through 

 the most appalling maze. We saw the native mar- 

 kets with their vociferating sellers seated cross-legged 

 on tables behind piles of fruit or vegetables, while 

 an equally vociferating crowd surged up and dow.n 

 the aisles. Gray parrots and little monkeys perched 

 everywhere about. Billy gave one of the monkeys 

 a banana. He peeled it exactly as a man would 

 have'done, smelled of it critically, and threw it back 

 at her in the most insulting fashion. We saw also 

 the rows of Hindu shops open to the street with their 

 gaudily dressed children of blackened eyelids, their 

 stolid dirty proprietors, and their women marvellous 

 in bright silks and massive bangles. In the thatched 

 native quarter were more of the fine Swahili women 

 sitting cross-legged on the earth under low verandas, 

 engaged in different handicrafts; and chickens; and 

 many amusing naked children. We made friends 

 with many of them, communicating by laughter and 

 by signs, while our guide stood unobtrusively in the 

 middle distance waiting for us to come on. 



Just at sunset he led us out to a great open space, 



73 



