“I want them money with woman that live for inside.”
Native, having difficulty to cook in a high wind:
“This breeze no fit let them fire stand up.”
Native, detecting that something is burning:
“Some cloth go burn? I hear him smell.”
All through the expedition the natives had to crush their own grain into meal—always the woman’s task at home. One day I said to Sakari:
“Now you savvy how to beat them meal plenty fine you will be able to save your wife much work.”
He replied:
“Oh no, sir! When I go catch Kano again I lose him sense plenty quick. I no be fool go tell my wife that.”
With two unsophisticated worthies like Ali and Sakari, fresh from the wilderness, I had to be prepared for anything when we landed in England. To say that they were excited and astonished would be putting it mildly indeed. They were amazed. In Hausa, when addressing me, or in pidgin English, when speaking to others, they expressed bewilderment of all they saw, and were as delighted as children on an eventful holiday. Everything was novel to them. Everything required explanation.