UGANDA JOURNAL.


'ghost music', with the result that directly the sound of the pipes came within
earshot, the old man and all his warriors gave one wild simultaneous yell, and fled
incontinently back across the Ghost Mountains, never once halting till they reached
their own city of Rimi-Rimi.
 VI. Living conditions.
 Living conditions for Europeans in the Territories were much as we might
expect. The Residency was a commodious building, situated quite close to the
sea, at a place called M'piti. By day there was often a fresh breeze, strong enough
to blow all one's papers on to the floor, but at night it was desperately hot and
sleep was often a difficulty.
 The main sitting-room is described as follows:-
 "A great room, the walls of varnished match-boarding, the bare floor covered
 in patches by skins. There are twelve windows with fine mesh wire and
 looking out on to the broad verandah which runs round the bungalow. The
 furniture is mainly wicker-work,-a table or two, bearing framed photo-
 graphs. There is also a huge gramophone, the property of Bones, and the
 pictures mainly consist of portraits of the royal family, from Queen Victoria
 onwards. There is a big table in the middle of the room, over which hangs
 an oil lamp".
 We are not told much about the other rooms, save that Sanders had a
sanctum, which was forbidden ground to his colleagues, and to the world in
general, until the arrival of Patricia, who insisted on giving it a thorough spring-
cleaning. Hamilton and Bones messed in the Residency but slept out in their own
quarters near the Houssa lines. The latter, with his usual ingenuity, rigged up in
his bath-room a somewhat Heath Robinson type of shower. Water was collected
into tanks by gutters from the corrugated iron roofs.
 Sanders paid his cook Shs. 10/- a month, but the latter sometimes got at
the gin and was not very enterprising. Too frequently the menu consisted of a
chicken of minute proportions, rice pudding and sweet potatoes. But on at least
one occasion there was pork for lunch and on another Yorkshire-pudding. Here
too the advent of Patricia brought about great changes for the better in the
standard of living (23) and the efficiency of the boys.
 On safari chicken was even more familiar, and a good deal of tinned food
had to be carried.
 All the officers appear to have been extremely moderate in the matter of
alcohol, but they drank a fair amount of tea, coffee, lime juice, and, after fever,
barley water.
 Some of the soldiers acted as personal boys or batmen, and their wives under-
 took the dhobi work. Bones had a special henchman of his own, one Ali Abib,
 who had previously been in the employ of a Bacteriologist and talked babu
 English, with a strong scientific flavouring.

 (23) Such as cucumber sandwiches for tea.