through the fences; and behind them rose great mangoes or the slenderer
shafts of bananas and cocoanut palms.

Up and down wandered groups of various sorts of natives. A month later
we would have been able to identify their different tribes and to know
more about them; but now we wondered at them, as strange and
picturesque peoples. They impressed us in general as being a fine lot of
men, for they were of good physique, carried themselves well, and looked
about them with a certain dignity and independence, a fine free pride of
carriage and of step. This fact alone differentiated them from our own
negroes; but, further, their features were in general much finer, and
their skins of a clear mahogany beautiful in its satiny texture.
Most--and these were the blackest--wore long white robes and fine
openwork skull caps. They were the local race, the Swahili, had we but
known it; the original "Zanzibari" who furnished Livingstone, Stanley,
Speke, and the other early explorers with their men. Others, however,
were much less "civilized." We saw one "Cook's tour from the jungle"
consisting of six savages, their hair twisted into innumerable points,
their ear lobes stretched to hang fairly to their shoulders, wearing
only a rather neglectful blanket, adorned with polished wire, carrying
war clubs and bright spears. They followed, with eyes and mouths open, a
very sophisticated-looking city cousin in the usual white garments,
swinging a jaunty, light bamboo cane. The cane seems to be a
distinguishing mark of the leisured class. It not only means that you
are not working, but also that you have no earthly desire to work.

About this time one of the hotel boys brought the inevitable
chota-hazri--the tea and biscuits of early morning. For this once it was
very welcome.