282 IN AFRICA 



After the sultan came and seated himself with 

 his retinue of spearmen (dressed in the altogether 

 save for the futile cloth around their shoulders) 

 grouped around him we took our seats and began 

 a shauri. 



Shauri (rhyming with Bow'ry) is a native word 

 meaning a powwow or a parley and is a word that 

 works overtime. Everything that you do in Africa 

 has to be preceded by a shauri. You have a shauri 

 if you ask a native which road to take. Other na- 

 tives hurry up, and then you stand around and talk 

 about it for an hour or so. 



If you want to buy a chicken or a cluster of eggs 

 there must first be a prolonged shauri with much 

 interchange of views and conversation and aerated 

 persiflage. The native loves his shauri., and if he 

 asks you a certain price for a chicken and you give 

 the price without haggling he is greatly disap- 

 pointed. In fact I have often seen them offer an 

 article for a certain price and then refuse to accept 

 the money if it is at once tendered. Later the native 

 will accept much less if the shauri goes with it. 



Well, we had shauris to burn for a couple of 

 days. As soon as the first sultan had departed with 

 presents and words of good cheer there was a flock 

 of other sultans that hurried in to receive presents 

 and to assist in shauris. They came from far and 

 near, and they all carried chairs, thus proving that 

 they were not impostors; and the worst of it was 

 that we couldn't find out exactly which was the real, 

 most exalted sultan of the bunch. Hence we had to 



