Seven Legs Across the Seas Part 22

"This is Makindu, where nature's zoo starts." "Do you think the game will be close enough to see from the train?" "They're on the veld all the time--see the zebra to the right?" he replied. Turning quickly in that direction, there they were, a solid foreground of striped beasts, not more than half a mile off the railway. The marvelous sight of thousands of zebra within easy view extended to the horizon. "You'll always find zebras huddled closely together," he interestingly went on, "as they have an eternal fear of lions, who are partial to zebra flesh," he explained. "The hardest animal in Africa to tame is the zebra," he continued. "This animal can be ridden, and is sometimes attached to a light vehicle, but it cannot be trusted. The fear of lions has for ages been so firmly bred in the bone of this attractive beast that, no matter how kindly handled, its wildness is always evident.

"Giraffes are generally seen browsing in the brush," kept on my companion. "They're sometimes called camelopards, owing to being spotted like a leopard and having a long neck like a camel. See!" he exclaimed, pointing, "there's five of them and a calf." One could scarcely believe his own eyes. Sure enough, there stood five long-necked, brown and white spotted, stubby-horned, slant-backed giraffes and a calf, standing in brush lower than their bodies, 100 feet from the railway track. As the train was pa.s.sing they turned around and ambled clumsily further into the brush.

"All that game you see to the right are hartebeeste and gazelles," my companion went on. "Keep watching to the left, though, as we may see more giraffes, for that stretch of brush will soon be pa.s.sed, when there'll be no more chance to see that big game. He's a browser, you know, not a grazer. There are two more--a nice pair!" he added. Sure as you're born, there stood two n.o.ble giraffes. Like the group of five with a calf, they turned and hobbled further into the undergrowth.

"We're about out of the brush now, so I don't think we'll see more of them," he said. What I had already seen amply offset the $15 exchange charged me at the Zanzibar bank.

Simba was the name of a station as we entered the game fields; the meaning of the word "simba" is lion in the native tongue. More than a score of persons were killed by the king of beasts at this place, it is said, while building the railroad.

"Those smaller animals you see together yonder are a pack of hyena,"

continued my traveling mate. "There are more zebra to the left. The animals further along are blue wildebeeste (gnu), larger than the South African breed. See the ostrich?" (pointing). There they were, big black and white birds, with wings flopping, running over the plains, not a fence within hundreds of miles--as wild as wild could be.

"We may see a lion before we reach Nairobi; I've seen them on several occasions while traveling over this stretch of country," he added. A lion did not show himself, but, as my companion said, they are frequently seen prowling over the treeless plains from the railroad.

For over a hundred miles the traveler looks out upon great herds of game feeding on both sides of the railway track. Gazelles have become so tame that they sometimes keep grazing as the train pa.s.ses by; and the hartebeeste, or kongonie, much larger than the gazelle, with a wedge-shaped head and an outline of body resembling the giraffe, is nearly as numerous as the clean-cut, nimble gazelle. The wildebeeste is seen feeding and swis.h.i.+ng his tail as contentedly as a cow in a pasture. Ostriches and zebras are on their native heath. Tigers, and other game also, may be seen while traveling through this most interesting stretch of country.

These plains, like an American prairie, are free of timber; and as far as the eye can see, from 50 feet off the railway track--to the horizon, in fact,--from Makindu to Nairobi, over a hundred miles, the eye feasts on a sportsman's paradise.

We reached Nairobi 23 hours after leaving Mombasa, 327 miles separating the chief port and the capital. What a terrible mixture of blacks was congregated on the platform and about the railway station!

They were as numerous and black as flies around a barrel of mola.s.ses on a hot day. We were certainly in Darkest Africa. The ricksha is the hack of Nairobi. One starts for his hotel, with a native in the shafts and another pus.h.i.+ng, a jingle-jangle taking place all the while. The pullers, while less fantastic and grotesque than their Zulu brothers in Durban, still have distinctiveness, namely, in wearing small bells about ankles and arms; the tinkle from these is constantly heard about the streets. For some distance from the station one is drawn along a level road, bordered with eucalyptus trees, to the business center.

Wood and iron buildings--corrugated iron--are mostly used in both dwelling houses and business places. There is no paving on the streets, no sidewalks, nothing inviting, about the capital of the British-East Africa Protectorate; but there is no gra.s.s growing on the streets, every one seemingly infused with a "boom" spirit. One finds, however, in this place a good, stone-built post office, a stone-built Treasury building, and structures of the same material under course of construction.

Nairobi was the blackest town visited. Though considerable building was being done, a white man--such as carpenter, mason, plasterer or bricklayer--was not seen engaged at that cla.s.s of work, all labor being done by Indians; most of the contractors also were Indians. The wages paid these blacks are from $1 to $1.25 a day. Natives carrying the hod, or bucket, rather, are paid from 6 to 12 cents a day.

Mention was made in Leg Four of Suva, Fiji, having a daily newspaper, by reason of two tri-weeklies appearing on alternate days. In Nairobi, however, two daily newspapers appear on six mornings of the week, and besides these there are also weekly and monthly publications issued.

Together with local news, brief cable dispatches are printed, enough to keep one in touch with important events taking place over the world. Even linotype machines are found in that spa.r.s.ely settled, out-of-the-way place. The Indian here, as everywhere, when he gets a foothold, has the printing trade killed in so far as a white man getting good wages is concerned. He sets type after a fas.h.i.+on for $15 to $18 a month.

In order that the reader may draw an accurate conclusion as to the meaning of the term "Darkest Africa," Nairobi, with only 1,200 whites, has the largest European population of any city north of Salisbury and Bulawayo (Rhodesia) as far as Cairo, (Egypt), or in the full length of Africa to the west and northwest.

The negro is not the horse of Nairobi. While few horses are seen, native oxen, with humps on their shoulders almost as large as a dromedary's, lumber through the streets yoked to wagons loaded with merchandise.

As the Zulu language is the key to the tribal dialects of South Africa, the Kiswahili language is likewise the key to the many native dialects in this section of Africa. The word "Wa" is plural in the Kiswahili language, and is prefixed to the name of a person or a tribe; "M" prefixed means man or individual; "U," in the same way, means place or locality, and "Ki" prefixed indicates the language. As an example, the Masai tribe would be Wamasai, Mmasai would be a Masai man, Umasai would be Masailand, and Kimasai would mean the Masai dialect or language.

Professor Diogenes Teufelsdrockh, an exponent of the philosophy of clothes, held that a majority of the people of the world devoted too much attention to the matter of unnecessary dress, a failing that militated against their moral and spiritual welfare. The men of this tribe, gaunt and gawky, wear nothing but a sort of s.h.i.+rt--a piece of cloth, with a hole in the center large enough to admit a head through, secured by neither string, band, nor suspenders. The original color of the s.h.i.+rt might once have been a mongrel brown, similar to unbleached muslin, but, as the Wakikuyu observe few wash days, the "garment" is usually many shades darker. Shoes and head covering, like the breeches, are also tabooed.

The Wakikuyu was the worst native tribe we had seen. The men looked half-starved, and it was tiresome to see them work. Excavation was being made for the foundation of a building, the dirt being carried out in small pans; sometimes these would not contain more than a cupful of earth. When coming up the incline from the excavation to the street their gait was that of a crippled snail. They receive from 6 to 12 cents a day, and possibly may earn it.

The women of the Wakikuyu tribe, on the other hand, are hard workers.

They till the land, and raise flocks of goats, sheep, and cattle. They wear more clothing than the men, their princ.i.p.al covering being a tanned sheep or goat skin that has been soaked with grease. Dust and dirt coming in contact with the greased skin naturally give the garment an untidy appearance. What seems a cruel fas.h.i.+on among the women of this tribe is the mutilation of their ears. The lobes are slit, and thick chunks of sugar-cane, bamboo, calabashes, or other round articles, from the size of a thread spool to the circ.u.mference of a teacup, are pressed through. The plug and "ear bands" resemble an elastic band a quarter of an inch in width placed around a drinking gla.s.s. The plug is short, from two to three inches in length. These are forced between the "ear bands" so snugly that they will not fall out while the wearer is moving about. The woman wearing the largest plug is the best dressed, according to Wakikuyu fas.h.i.+on, and is envied by those of her sisters whose ear-lobes will not accommodate the larger "ornament." In many instances the punctured lobe is so extended that it becomes a loop, the ends of which sometimes rest on the shoulders. When not in use, so to speak, the ear loop is hung up on the top of the ear and seems to be secured by a knot made in that extended and flexible member. She carries her babe inside her goatskin covering in front, and a heavy basket of wood, potatoes, or other things on her back. A strap pa.s.ses across her forehead, the ends secured to the basket. The great weights carried in the baskets make in time an indentation in the forehead the width of the strap.

A native of that tribe would prefer to be killed rather than touch anything dead--even a rat. If one of their number should suddenly die in the hut, every one would immediately move out and leave the dead member behind. Before taking final leave of the old home, however, time is taken to dig a hole under the side of the hut large enough to admit either a jackal or hyena, when the body would be left to be devoured by these beasts later. The Mkikuyu, though, in order to retain his abode, takes care that few deaths take place in the hut.

When a member of a family becomes sick he is taken out of and led some distance away from the home and laid on the ground. Those accompanying the sick native may, with a short stick or wood, the ends resting in two crotches made of four shorter pieces held by a gra.s.s band, lay his head on the native "pillow," close to a lone thorn bush, with a short piece of goatskin covering the body. If the negro recovers he is taken back to the hut. While thus holding vigil on the veld, a vulture may be seen soaring above where the native is lying, with others appearing to view in the distance, and in the background the forms of jackals and the outline of slinking hyenas may also be apparent, for these vultures and beasts seem to know, not alone through instinct, but from former similar settings, that the body of the native, when life has left it, will not be put underground nor be removed by the superst.i.tious tribesmen.

Many of the natives are smeared with reddish, greasy clay from head to foot. The hair, worn long by some, is plastered and shaped to resemble a turtle, with head jutting out and tail extended. They wear no shoes, and seldom a hat. One sees the native in British East Africa little different than he lived a thousand years ago.

Men wearing two soft, broad-brimmed felt hats strikes one as out of the ordinary. Nairobi is but 80 miles south of the Equator, and heavy head-covering must be worn to guard against sunstroke. Helmets are worn by a great many, but the two hats, the top one over the under one, are worn as commonly as the helmet.

A library is one of the features of the town. An electric light plant was seen here; also bioscope theaters. One thing Nairobi did not have--colored postcards that were of any interest. Motor cars spin about the streets. Food, clothes and living expenses are cheaper in Nairobi than in South Africa. Hotel accommodation was but $1.60 a day.

Coffee growing is a promising industry of that section of the Protectorate. A French mission is located a few miles from Nairobi, and the fathers, some fifteen years ago, experimented with the coffee bush. It proved a success, and several large plantations have since been established. An exorbitant price is asked for land in this district.

Irish potatoes grow in these parts, but not along the coast. The alt.i.tude of Nairobi is 5,000 feet, and, while the sun is hot in the daytime, the nights are cool.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIGIL ON THE VELD (top).

BRITISH EAST AFRICA.

"TROLLEY" PUSHERS (bottom).

BEIRA, PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA.

See page 230.]

Most of the big-game hunting parties are equipped in Nairobi. The guides are about the town every few days, and a lion is guaranteed to be killed or no charge required. Eight lions were killed not far from here during our stay. One may stroll a mile from the center of the town, sit on a hill, and watch herds of gazelle grazing not a half mile away. The black-and-white monkey comes from this section of Africa.

"Boy! boy! boy!" is heard from nearly every room in a hotel in the morning. Everybody has a boy to black his shoes, lace his shoes, put away his clothes after dusting, get his shaving outfit--the sort of waiting on that spoils the white man. The hallways of the hotel are crowded with the guests' black servants. No one thinks of carrying a valise or bundle of any kind. The "boy" is expected to be in the hallway morning, noon and night waiting to serve his master.

Mount Kenia, 18,000 feet high, located directly under the Equator and 80 miles from Nairobi, may be seen from the town any clear day; also Mount Kilimanjaro, 19,000 feet high, about the same distance south of this place.

The Uganda Railway headquarters is located at Nairobi. Some of the locomotives used on this road are of American manufacture, easily distinguishable from English-built engines, for American-built locomotives are the only ones which carry a bell. The locomotive engineers are nearly all Indians. The Uganda Railway is a paying concern, for dividends of 33 per cent. are declared nearly every year.

Pa.s.senger fare is reasonable, but freight charges are said to be very high. It cost $50,000 a mile to build the Uganda Railway, which is 584 miles in length.

The various native tribes have peculiar marks by which they are distinguished. One tribe may have a certain tooth missing; another the end of their teeth filed to a sharp point; still another may have their teeth nicked, like a saw, done with a stone; or by other marks, easily distinguished.

Horse racing, football, cricket, and other English sports are indulged in. Sat.u.r.day afternoon is devoted to recreation, as the Sat.u.r.day half-holiday is observed. Government employees form a considerable proportion of the population.

CHAPTER IV

Nairobi was as far as we intended going when leaving the s.h.i.+p at Mombasa, but, finding the country so new and interesting, with traveling and living expenses reasonable, we decided to press on to the sh.o.r.es of Victoria Nyanza. From Nairobi going westward we rose to an elevation of 7,000 feet. Among the limbs of the trees, while traveling over that part of the railway line, can be seen crude, small barrels made of pieces of wood; these have been put in the trees by natives to intercept itinerant swarms of bees. The stations and surroundings were literally covered with blacks--natives and Indians.

With the Mkikuyu woman, in her greased goatskin and plugged ear lobes, and some of the men covered with the greasy, red clay from head to foot, with hair fixed to resemble the turtle; with the Indian wearing his cloth headgear, and the Indian woman with her ankle and wrist bangles; with no Europeans in sight save as pa.s.sengers--British-East Africa to-day offers more of interest, more for native study, than even interesting South Africa.

At Escarpment a splendid view was afforded, for the railway descends from a high point down the steep mountainside into what is known as the Great Meridional Rift, or Rift Valley, a depression in the earth that is said to extend to Egypt. As the train travels down a woody mountain, to the left and in front is the Rift Valley and Lake Naivasha. Traveling along we come to another game preserve, where gazelles, hartebeestes, wildebeestes, ostriches and zebras are grazing upon and scampering over the great valley, unaware of the pleasure their presence affords pa.s.sengers while traveling through that stretch of country.

No evidence of habitation is seen from the railway, yet people get off at stations--only stations--and often persons are seen waiting at those lonesome spots in that wild land for the train to take them beyond. The same took place when coming up the coast--pa.s.sengers got off and others got on the s.h.i.+p, though no white settlements were in sight. It is marvelous how white people settle in such untrodden sections in which to make a living, surrounded as they are on every side by the wildest and most uncertain phases of life.

Strange-looking berries were served at an eating station, and on inquiry as to the nature of the fruit, we were informed that an American had crossed two bushes--a strawberry and a raspberry--and the result, half-strawberry and half-raspberry, growing in that far-off land, we were now sampling.

We pa.s.sed through Masailand, a native preserve, occupied by what was formerly a troublesome tribe. They live on the plains, and are said to own a quarter of a million head of cattle. Pa.s.sing through attractive mountainous country, from Mau Summit, over 8,000 feet above sea level, we descended to Kavirondo Valley, a flat country.

Naked natives, free from civilization's binding customs, hoeing corn, weeding land, and watching sheep and goats, were seen working in the fields. These were the Wakavirondo, a tribe noted for its industriousness. They are chiefly engaged in farming and gardening, and their products are carried to Port Florence to be sold. Some of them have on a slight covering when they go to town, but it is discarded a short distance from where they left their produce.

Labor agents engage "boys" of the Wakavirondo tribe to work for a certain length of time away from their district. Of course, the men must wear some clothes. Returning in from three to six months, they have become accustomed to wearing covering and wish to continue doing so. Like the Maori women, though, the women of this African tribe insist on maintaining the custom of their ancestors, so the men have to discard the clothes they had become used to and resume their former clothesless existence. It is very warm where the Wakavirondo live--under the Equator.

Port Florence--or Kisumu, as that place is more often called--was now reached, and before us spread the blue, calm, green-island dotted water of Victoria Nyanza. We were at the western terminus of the Uganda Railway--the last railroad piercing Africa in that direction. A railway station, a dak bungalow--the only place at which to stop--and perhaps a dozen houses built on raised ground, with good wharves, a G.o.down and a marketplace, almost completed the "attractions" of Port Florence. Fever is very bad in Kisumu, and smallpox and bubonic plague were holding a levee at the time we visited the place. Bubonic plague is so common here that no one pays much attention to it. Blacks are taken off with the plague in large numbers, but few Europeans die from that pestilence.

Trains run but twice a week from Mombasa to Port Florence, and the lake boats connect with the trains; so if I remained in Kisumu it would necessarily be for three days, and people die in less than that time after having been bitten by the bubonic flea. I did not relish the idea of possibly breathing my last just then, nor at that place.

The blue water was alluring, the green islands bewitching, and in fancy we caught an echo of a call from Uganda's sh.o.r.e, inviting us to cross the great African lake and tarry a short while in the land of the Waganda. So, when the vessel moved from the wharf on her voyage across Victoria Nyanza, we were among the pa.s.sengers.

The boats traversing that sheet of water are from 500 to 1,000 tons'

displacement, lighted by electricity and of modern design. Every available sleeping place was occupied, and the vessel's water-line was concealed by the weight of her cargo.