Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-28

stall, he darted into little grove of cocoanut
trees and instantly reappeared bearing III his
are known as mad lfoo,'' They contain moth
ing but milk. The white nut is not yet formed,
and the shell is rs soft as the rind OF turnip.
With a dexterous slash or two of knife my
young friend sliced off the upper end of the
madafoo, and presented me with goblet Of
cool, delicious drink.
Every evening after this the Young slave would
be ready with a nice cooled madafoo when
passed his STALL used to give him a
and then for mis- trouble and thoughtfulness, and
one evening II occurred to me to ask him how
he managed to climb the tall cocoanut palms
from which my evening beverage was obtained.
Only too happy to show his skill IS q climber
to the white man, the youth with a very broad
grim, set about bringing down cocoanut. He
slipped his feet into q moose or loop OF rope
about three feet in circumference. Instead of
corksc-ewing his legs about the tree as an
American boy does he half encircled it with feet
and rope. and alternately advancing feet and
hands, hoped upwsrd in frog-like jumps. The
ease and rapidity with which he mounted the
tall cocoanut palm was hardly TO be surpassed
by monkey.
Another youth whom have very vivid recol-
lection of was my own tent boy, Alfred Cnristo-
pher. Alfred was older than the Zanzibar slave
Frere Town, Mombasa. When a small boy he
had been captured by Arab slave raiders in
Kavirondo, near the Victoria Nyanza. The
slavers brought him, with many others, down
to the coast, and putting HIM on dhow, ma
tive vessel, attempted TO convey him to the slave
market on The Island of Pemba. whence comes
most of the cloves we use in America. The slave
dhow was captured by British man of-war,
and the slaves liberated and the Arabs pun
ished. The boys were turned over to the mis-
sionaries at Frere Town to be educated and
taken care OF Christian names were bestowed
upon them, and the youth in question was
called Alfred Christopher in honor of some be-
nevolent person in England who helped support
the mission
was camped near Frere Town, looking ont
for men, and also Tor boy who could speak
English. One morning there came shyly up to
my tent very black youth. with small. beady
black eyes That were almost sunk in his head.
None of the whites were visible and / thought
him strangely like the missing link of the
hand rude sling, made OF a piece of leather
and two strings. seeing him reluctant to speak
first, asked MIN what he wanted. grin that
seemed to sever his black face in half and to
push his out of position was the answer
Come, now." said 1, ''what Is itf''
Alfred Christopher, sir" said he, "good
morning.
''You' re fine looking young mau," re-
sumed. In bantering tone; what can you
dof''
az can XII Nasal warriors with this sling,
sIr.''
Nasal warriors are the terror of Eas. Africa.
Their very name sets the knees of the other |
Inhabitants to quaking with fear. Alfred would |
have jumped out of his skin almost had some |
one behind him houted '.Masai. ~
The story of David and Goliah. which he had |
probably heard in the mission schools that |
very day. had evidently taken possession of his |
about thirty yards away. The stone came |
nearer hitting my tent than the tree but Alfred |
still insisted upon it that he could hit Masia. II
he couldn't aim we'll enough to hit single
rior he said he could cast stones among crowd |
and hit some of them.
was not IN quest of q modern David, even
had he been able to hit anything with his sling;
out as Alfred could talk fairly good English |