Playing Cards

Amongst the contents of the little brown suitcase is a boxed set of playing cards which date back to my schooldays in England. It was bought in East Africa and I liked the cards because, when used, they impressed my friends with photographs of the sort of things with which I was very familiar - or so I told them.

Of some things this was true: we did, for example, see some very impressive elephants when we visited game parks such a Tsavo, along with huge herds of buffalo, numerous rhino and, in the Nairobi park, cheetah and lion, but....

....I didn't see many warriors.

The King was always a chief, and some of them looked old and a bit tired, and the Jacks were warriors, but the Queens....

....were young tribal maidens and my friends particularly liked them as none of them wore tops. I also told them that this was quite normal.

The cards also illustrated many aspects of life in East Africa, including the railways: this picture is of one of East African Railways & Harbours magnificent Garratt locomotives, British-built (of course) and amongst the world's most powerful steam locomotives - more about them here.

At an early point one of the cards was mislaid so the pack became rather less useful but, like so many things, I didn't have the heart to throw it away.