CHAPTER VIII
SAFARI HUNTERS
In 1905 Nairobi was a town of tin houses, many
black people, a few Hindus, and fewer white men.
Before my departure for the Athi Plains, where
I planned to begin my collections, I wished to find
a place in Nairobi where I might store material as
I sent it in from time to time from the field. Around
and around I wandered without finding any one who
was able to offer a helpful suggestion. Then one day,
as I was passing the open door of an unpromising
galvanized iron building, I heard the encouraging
clatter of a typewriter and lost no time in investigating.
At the rear of a bare room about thirty feet
wide and forty feet long was a door on the other side
of which someone was plying the typewriter furiously.
Finally there came forth from behind that closed
door a blue-eyed, red-haired chap, apparently extraordinarily
busy and much annoyed at being interrupted.
However, his annoyance vanished when
I told him what I was looking for and he suggested
that I use a third of the front part of his building at a
rental of five rupees—about a dollar and a half—per
month. This arrangement was eminently satisfactory
to me and we closed the bargain at once.
