274 EXISTING SETTLERS 



far afield — certainly they never establish themselves 

 among the native villages as do the Mohammedans 

 or so-called " Banyans." It is an interesting sight 

 (to all but immigration restriction agents) to witness 

 the arrival of a steamer in an East African port 

 coming from Bombay. Her fore-deck resembles 

 a fair, spread all over as it is with the bedding, 

 personal property, and other effects of the British 

 Indians, who, in flowing white robes and glittering 

 skull-caps and waistcoats, gaze anxiously at this 

 land of Africa where all hope to amass a moderate 

 competence at least. They are accompanied in 

 many cases by their wives, meek, brown-skinned, 

 not uncomely women, with long, jet-black, sleek 

 hair, and many bracelets, anklets, ear and nose 

 rings of silver and gold, some even enriched with 

 precious stones of no mean value. Then the 

 feminine clothing is another perfect joy to one, 

 especially at the moment of disembarkation, when 

 each displays her very best and most fascinating 

 costume. The colours are amazingly vivid, but, for 

 all that, they seem to blend harmoniously into 

 artistic wholes, in every way proper and suitable 

 to the clear, polished reddish-brown of their skins. 

 The only other occasion on which one is permitted 

 to feast one's eyes on the brilliant conflagrations of 

 colour which their clothing presents is on that of 

 the procession of the Mohammedans at Ramadan, 

 when, with flags flying and to the music of their 

 drums, the true believers march through the streets 

 singing shrill, unmusical passages from the Koran. 

 In addition to the type of Banyan mentioned, 

 another neighbouring tribe of Asiatics from the 



