No idle occupation can be more fascinating than to wander about the
mazes of this ancient town. The variety of race and occupation is
something astounding. Probably the one human note that, everywhere
persisting, draws the whole together is furnished by the water-carriers.
Mombasa has no water system whatever. The entire supply is drawn from
numberless picturesque wells scattered everywhere in the crowded centre,
and distributed mainly in Standard Oil cans suspended at either end of a
short pole. By dint of constant daily exercise, hauling water up from a
depth and carrying it various distances, these men have developed the
most beautifully powerful figures. They proceed at a half trot, the
slender poles, with forty pounds at either end, seeming fairly to cut
into their naked shoulders, muttering a word of warning to the loiterers
at every other breath--semeelay! semeelay! No matter in what part of
Mombasa you may happen to be, or at what hour of the day or night, you
will meet these industrious little men trotting along under their
burdens.

Everywhere also are the women, carrying themselves proudly erect, with a
free swing of the hips. They wear invariably a single sheet of cotton
cloth printed in blue or black with the most astonishing borders and
spotty designs. This is drawn tight just above the breasts, leaving the
shoulders and arms bare. Their hair is divided into perhaps a dozen
parts running lengthwise of the head from the forehead to the nape of
the neck, after the manner of the stripes on a watermelon. Each part
then ends in a tiny twisted pigtail not over an inch long. The lobes of
their ears have been stretched until they hold thick round disks about
three inches in diameter, ornamented by concentric circles of different
colours, with a red bull's eye for a centre. The outer edges of the ears
are then further decorated with gold clasps set closely together. Many
bracelets, necklaces, and armlets complete the get-up. They are big