74 
A COLONY IN THE MAKING 
CH. VII 
cake. The greatest drawback, however, to the race in 
this capacity is this, that practically without exception 
no Somali can spoor or understands the elements of 
hunting. 
In the Highlands those Somalis who are temporarily 
taking a rest from their life’s work live in a large 
village on the outskirts of Nairobi, while in the town 
itself they have their own club, wherein they are 
waited on by natives of base degree. Many of those 
who are rather pleased to observe the contempt with 
which the Somalis look down on all the natives of the 
country would be less pleased if they realised that they 
also class the European on a hardly higher plane and 
certainly as immeasurably inferior to themselves. If 
the confidence of a specimen of this class be obtained, 
as it may be, he will converse freely and most 
courteously on the subject. He is ready to admit that 
owing to a certain monkey-like cunning the European 
nations are richer, and in a sense more powerful than 
the leading African races. Intrinsically, however, 
Europeans are neither so brave, so enduring, nor so 
clever as either Abyssinians or his own people ; indeed 
that after a while the two latter may find it worth their 
while to combine and expel the European from the 
whole of Africa, if indeed it may not prove desirable to 
go further than that. 
It may be submitted that, with all his good qualities 
and personal attractions, the Protectorate would be the 
better for the total extinction of this in many respects 
charming race. 
