There was not a secret of our inner life that remained intact.

Even the ladies, from the banana-bellied little girls of five and six up to the leathery-limbed old matrons, inclusive, were not above a feminine curiosity in things which doubtless interested them, but didn't concern them.

The standing army of the Ketoshians sat around all day wearing out the grass and being frequently stumbled over.
If we asked a sultan if there were any elephants in the neighborhood it meant at least fifteen minutes of loose conversation through a relay of interpreters, with the final answer boiled down to a "no" in English.
For a language that has only a few words like _shauri_, _backsheesh_, _apana_, and _chukula_ the native lingo is a most elastic one.
There were two or three things that we had come to Mount Elgon for and about which we desired information.

The first was "elephants," and we found, after hours of talk, that there was none in the vicinity.
Secondly, we wanted to get food for our men, and thirdly, we wanted guides to take us up to the ancient cave-dwellings in the mountain and more guides to take us up to the top of the mountain itself.
It seemed almost impossible to get satisfactory information upon either of the last two subjects.

The natives didn't want to part with their grain, while for their cattle they asked outrageous prices.