It Resembles, As Much As Anything Else, The Rolling,
Beautiful Downs Of A First-Class Country Club, And The Illusion
Is Enhanced By The Commissioner's House Among Some Trees Atop A
Hill.
Well-kept roadways railed with rustic fences lead from the
house to the native quarters lying in the hollow and to the
Government offices atop another hill.
Then also there are the
quarters of the Nubian troops; round low houses with conical
grass roofs.
These, and the presence everywhere of savages, rather take away
from the first country-club effect. A corral seemed full of a
seething mob of natives; we found later that this was the market,
a place of exchange. Groups wandered idly here and there across
the greensward; and other groups sat in circles under the shade
of trees, each man's spear stuck in the ground behind him. At
stated points were the Nubians, fine, tall, black, soldierly men,
with red fez, khaki shirt, and short breeches, bare knees and
feet, spiral puttees, and a broad red sash of webbing. One of
these soldiers assigned us a place to camp. We directed our
safari there, and then immediately rode over to pay our respects
to the Commissioner.
The latter, Horne by name, greeted us with the utmost cordiality,
and offered us cool drinks. Then we accompanied him to a grand
shauri or council of chiefs.
Horne was a little chap, dressed in flannels and a big slouch
hat, carrying only a light rawhide whip, with very little of the
dignity and "side" usually considered necessary in dealing with
wild natives. The post at Meru had been established only two
years, among a people that had always been very difficult, and
had only recently ceased open hostilities. Nevertheless in that
length of time Horne's personal influence had won them over to
positive friendliness. He had, moreover, done the entire
construction work of the post itself; and this we now saw to be
even more elaborate than we had at first realized. Irrigating
ditches ran in all directions brimming with clear mountain water;
the roads and paths were rounded, graded and gravelled; the
houses were substantial, well built and well kept; fences, except
of course the rustic, were whitewashed; the native quarters and
"barracks" were well ranged and in perfect order. The place
looked ten years old instead of only two.
We followed Horne to an enclosure, outside the gate of which were
stacked a great number of spears. Inside we found the owners of
those spears squatted before the open side of a small,
three-walled building containing a table and a chair. Horne
placed himself in the chair, lounged back, and hit the table
smartly with his rawhide whip. From the centre of the throng an
old man got up and made quite a long speech. When he had finished
another did likewise. All was carried out with the greatest
decorum. After four or five had thus spoken, Horne, without
altering his lounging attitude, spoke twenty or thirty words,
rapped again on the table with his rawhide whip, and immediately
came over to us.
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