IX 
HINTS FOR A WOMAN IN B. E. AFRICA 87 
A large double Terra! hat or Pith Helmet—the 
latter can be got better and cheaper at Port 
Said than in London. 
Two or three evening dresses of crepe de chine, 
satin, or velvet. 
One or two smart hats. It will be quite safe to 
wear these after 4 o’clock, when the sun will 
have lost its chief power. 
Having arrived up country, about the first operation 
will be to collect one’s staff of servants. When once 
one becomes accustomed to the sight of black faces, 
native servants will be found very fairly good. They 
are quite intelligent and soon assimilate any knowledge 
that one is in a position to impart. Unfortunately, as 
they learn the virtues of English domestics, they 
attain the drawbacks of the same with equal celerity. 
They have been known to sample the whiskey or to 
retire beneath the floor of the house with a full jam 
pot, there to lie perdu until it is empty ; and a course 
of training will enable them to vie with any parlour¬ 
maid in crockery smashing. Of servants, naturally the 
cook is most important; good food is at least as much 
appreciated and even more necessary here than in 
more civilised parts. Of cooks there are three 
varieties : the Indian or Goanese, the Swahili, and the 
native, whose merits come in the same order. A 
Goanese cook can be quite good, often with a light 
hand for soufidees and pastry. His tendency in the 
kitchen is very often also towards cleanliness. A 
further tendency, not so desirable, is towards drink. 
Experience has caused me to regard this delinquency 
in a somewhat broad-minded—or shall I say resigned ? 
—spirit. As long as a cook does his work, keeps 
