Evening star., 1923-05-27

young Jan HanSraJ, squattlng over
coffee and exchanging compliments
and yarns with him.
Now here was romance that most
folk would have passed. unknowing.
by; for Jan HansraJs father
financed Tipoo Tib, and Tipoo Tib was
the great Zanzibar Arab who fought
over and conquered, in his search for
ivory (white and black), all that vast
territory which stretches from the
head waters OF the Congo and the
Nile 10 the waters of the Indian
ocean. between Cape Delgado and
Mogadishe. This Tipoo Tib was the
chief support and guide of Stanley in
his perambulations about Central
Africa and prime factor in the rescue
of Emin Pasha, who was reluctantly
obliged to abdicate from the inner
with cynical amusement the fate that
engulfed him at Khartoum.
90 the tales / heard nonchalantly
- spoken between weaving wreaths
Of cigarette smoke and over carda-
mon favored coffee, OF white ivory
and black, of piratical dhows and
sinister court intrigues. OF the seeth-
ing slave market around the corner
and the great safaris that gathered
at Bagamoyo. on the mainland across
the way. and vanished into the heart
of the Black Continent for twelve and
fourteen years at stretch-these
tales were such as you hear over
narghilehs amid the babble OF the
bazaar, but can never, never remem-
ber to repeat in prose.
saw much of the tangled, Shiny,
tawdry, teeming bazaar in Alis COM
pany. He was a good tutor. omitting
nothing, as might a finicky Parsi,
anxious not to offend a sahib's nice
taste or corrupt his own. He jib-
bered and grunted and nodded his
head soIemnly or grinned maliciously
and initiated me in all the mysteries.
Once he even took me to look at his
sister, though I promised to pretend
I saw nothing. Down an alley in
the tin bazaar we passed certain
shop.
"There. bvana, look! It is she!"
souatting on the floor near the
door of the shop, with q nearly naked
baby, tubby and tattsred with tinsei
and baubeis, turnblirg about her. Aifs
sister presented q lovely picture. Her
complexion was warm and de1icately
glowing; her hair. black and smooth,
seemed to glisten with life: while
her large eyes gazed with abstraction
down the tempting thoroughfare.
There was about her an air OF pen
sive melancholy, OF unrest, OF sup
pressed fire, that was tempered and
rendered beautiful by the cold cameo
fineness Of her features. the undis-
turbed tranquility of her pose.
Ali twitched nervously at my elbow,
no doubt regretting his indiscretion'
and I passed on, wondering at the
destiny that left such genuine beauty
to grow up in darkness in the back
alley of a bazaar-to rear brown
brats whose whole object IN life
would be to sell shoddy cloth, bits
of tin and sweetmeats, and TO haggle
shrilly over pice.
from the hour Of singing dawn, when
I awakened to the greeting of the
dusky damsels who brought the wa
ter for my bath, their broad splayed
feet flip-1opping on the stone floor,
their eyes rolling under the dripping
vessels poised on their. kinky heads,
the great red and yellow buttons in
their stretched ears cleaning against
vast expanses Of brown skin, their
colored hodrunks drawn tightly about
their swaying bodies. and their betel-
stained gums showing in broad g-trs
as each called in turn:
| "Jambo, bwana! (Peace, mastery
/ Jambo. Jambo! Jambo"
| , !: 4 x x
oNE day / saw a small fish, which
~ a fisherman had sold for pice,
retaiIed for 1000 rupees because it
| was discovered that Allah had in
/ scribed its scales with sacred
phrase from the Koran! On the edge
of the town broad, palmfringed foot
ball fields are Uttered with youths
lin many-colored garbs like chips upon
| a green baize table; and under the
| protection of grove of palms there
! rises a canvas temple, reared for the
great god of mirth
| Every night within this temple -
| where gather wrinkled Arab sailors
: from Muscat or Madagascar, or red
! faced, burly English sailors frcm
where the Severn flows; black askaris
~ 11I
poys from the Punjab. hilarious tom
mics from Battersea, precise Parsis
| in linen busters, with round. var
| nished hats. squatting, half-naked
| Banians, with loin-cloths tucked be-
| tween their knees: Goanese, dressed
like mid-victorians and speaking
Portuguese; Swahilis. in red tar
measurable grins across their black
| faces; natives Of Seychelles, aborigi-
| nal wahadimu. Khojas and Japanese;
old, young and middle-aged, their
| children, all--all wait with the same
emotions the coming of the god.
I. F. And the high priest. standing
] on a chair, waves for silence.
! He is sightless in one eye, his
cr.atered face indicating that small
| pox was to blame. Old blue-and-
| white striped pantaloons and well
| worn sandals. a discarded tweed
waistcoat, dirty, badly rolled tur-
; Ian, set, him off and lend dignity
Re makes his announcements in a
to the impressiveiy raised hands as
cracked voice in four languages,