THE LAND OF FOOTPRINTS 



sand of warriors for the purpose of a council, or 

 shauri, with the District Commissioner we had just 

 the audience to dehght our barbaric hearts. 



(b) MERU 



The Government post at Meru is situated in a 

 clearing won from the forest on the first gentle slopes 

 of Kenia's ranges. The clearing is a very large one, 

 and on it the grass grows green and short, like a 

 lawn. It resembles, as much as anything else, the 

 rolling, beautiful downs of a first-class country club: 

 and the illusion is enhanced by the Commissioner's 

 house among some trees atop a hill. Well-kept 

 roadways railed with rustic fences lead from the 

 house to the native quarters lying in. the hollow and 

 to the Government offices atop another hill. Then 

 also there are the quarters of the Nubian troops; 

 round low houses with conical grass roofs. 



These, and the presence everywhere of savages, 

 rather take away from the first country-club effect. 

 A corral seemed full of a seething mob of natives; 

 we found later that this was the market, a place of 

 exchange. Groups wandered idly here and there 

 across the greensward; and other groups sat in cir- 

 cles under the shade of trees, each man's spear stuck 

 in the ground behind him. At stated points were 

 the Nubians, fine, tall, black, soldierly men, with 



?34 



