206 
EAST AFRICA AND ITS BIG GAME. 
loss of human dignity as is contingent on amateur 
imitations of the grace of reptiles. Our particular 
debasement was further enhanced by the sight of 
numerous natives eager to catch a first glimpse of 
the “ white man; ” for, with the exception of Martin, 
no European had ever visited their demesne. I 
was surprised at the cleanliness and neatness of the 
sliambas, which were uniformly confined by trim 
fences composed of squill-like shrubs growing some 
five feet high, and enclosing the usual banana plan¬ 
tations and plots of ground growing yams, sweet 
potatoes, mahincle, hunde (beans), and a vegetable 
resembling spinach. 
After wending our way for about an hour over many 
slopes, here cultivated and there charmingly wooded, 
we arrived near Sina’s abode and halted for the whole 
caravan to close up. The spot we had selected was 
carpeted with real turf and distinguished by a mag¬ 
nificent tree, something like a banyan, with many of 
its branches growing straight down into the ground 
and there taking root. This was, or ought to have 
been if it were not, the trysting-place for all councils 
of war. 
Sina was evidently becoming impatient about the 
delay, as he sent down to ask why we did not “come 
on ; ” but, of course, we had to await the caravan before 
we could enter his stronghold with all due pomp and 
firing of salutes. When the caravan joined us we 
continued our advance, and soon reached an elevated 
plateau, just outside Sina’s own abode, where that 
