BRITISH EAST AFRICA 205 



Indians, Somalis, natives who have had the 

 edges of their savagery blunted ever so Httle, 

 and the coloured riff-raff of the East Coast. It 

 is a town that exudes ghee and the odours of 

 Asia, and with its bazaars and bungalows, and 

 helmets and puttees, it has more of the appear- 

 ance of India than Africa. Nairobi has a subtle 

 fascination of its own, as, indeed, has the whole 

 of British East Africa. 



There are few countries on the face of the 

 globe that captivate so readily as the East 

 African Protectorate. And the fascination does 

 not wear off. Absence can make the heart grow 

 fonder in the case of places as well as of people. 

 The longer you stay away from East Africa the 

 stronger becomes the power of the spell. It is 

 a lovely as well as a very remarkable country. 

 The English aristocrat and the Kikuyu " shenzi " 

 (savage) rub shoulders in this wonderful land 

 where everything is vast and large and free. 

 You may observe a man, bronzed and bearded, 

 with hair falling over his shoulders, bare-kneed 

 and bare-chested, horny-handed and dirty. If 

 you saw such a person in your garden in England 

 you would immediately set the bulldog on him. 

 But on inquiry you may ascertain that this 

 individual whom you see labouring on the great 

 escarpments or the rolling plains is Lord So- 

 and-So. Blanket-clad and clay-smeared, with 

 spear in hand, there stands beside him Yanga 

 Yanga, a Wakamba savage. It is a country 

 of more than ordinary attractions that makes 

 this possible. And you may leave East Africa 

 and seek your gilded joys in the bustle of the 

 world's highways, but East Africa will call 

 you back. The latest aesthetic dancers of St. 

 Petersburg may please you, but there will come 



