CAIRO TO KISUMU the case at Mombasa. I am told this is so in every settlement on this part of the continent. The Hindus have made their way along all the travelled routes, until their little stores may be found in every large African village. They have trading stations upon Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika. They are very enterprising, and as they live upon almost nothing they can undersell the whites. They sell cotton of bright colours and of the most gorgeous patterns, wire for jewellery, and all sorts of knickknacks that the African wants. They deal also in European goods, and one can buy of them almost any¬ thing from a needle to a sewing machine. Here at Nairobi there is an Indian bazaar covering nine acres which is quite as interesting as any similar institution in Tunis, Cairo, Bombay, or Calcutta. The stores are all open at the front, and the men squat in them with their gay goods piled about them. These Hindus dress in a quaint cos¬ tume not unlike that of the English clergyman who wears a long black coat buttoned up to the throat. The only difference is that the Hindu’s trousers may be of brightcoloured calico, cut very tight, and his head may be cov¬ ered with a flat skullcap of velvet embroidered in gold.

Moreover, his feet are usually bare.

But Nairobi is a British city, notwithstanding its African and Asiatic inhabitants; the English form the ruling class. They are divided into castes, almost as much as are the East Indians. At the head are the government officials, the swells of the town. They dress well and spend a great deal of time out of office hours playing tennis and golf, which have already been introduced into this part of the black continent. They also ride about on horseback and in carriages, and manage to make a good show upon very 256