ix HINTS FOR A WOMAN IN B. E. AFRICA 87 



A large double Terrai hat or Pith Helmet — the 



latter can be got better and cheaper at Port 



Said than in London. 

 Two or three evening dresses of crepe de chine, 



satin, or velvet. 

 One or two smart hats. It will be quite safe to 



wear these after 4 o'clock, when the sun will 



have lost its chief power. 



Having arrived up country, about the first operation 

 will be to collect one's staff of servants. When once 

 one becomes accustomed to the sight of black faces, 

 native servants will be found very fairly good. They 

 are quite intelligent and soon assimilate any knowledge 

 that one is in a position to impart. Unfortunately, as 

 they learn the virtues of English domestics, they 

 attain the drawbacks of the same with equal celerity. 

 They have been known to sample the whiskey or to 

 retire beneath the floor of the house with a full jam 

 pot, there to lie perdu until it is empty ; and a course 

 of training will enable them to vie with any parlour- 

 maid in crockery smashing. Of servants, naturally the 

 cook is most important ; good food is at least as much 

 appreciated and even more necessary here than in 

 more civilised parts. Of cooks there are three 

 varieties : the Indian or Goanese, the Swahili, and the 

 native, whose merits come in the same order. A 

 Goanese cook can be quite good, often with a light 

 hand for soufflees and pastry. His tendency in the 

 kitchen is very often also towards cleanliness. A 

 further tendency, not so desirable, is towards drink. 

 Experience has caused me to regard this delinquency 

 in a somewhat broad-minded — or shall I say resigned ? 

 — spirit. As long as a cook does his work, keeps 



