The girl Markham was left to run wild with Kipsigis boys, wearing a cowrie shell on a leather thong around… — Beryl Markham
The girl Markham was left to run wild with Kipsigis boys, wearing a cowrie shell on a leather thong around her wrist to ward off evil spirits. She ate with her hands, her first language was Swahili, and she could hurl a spear […] Markham practically grew up in the saddle; she told a friend that she felt better on a horse than on her feet.
Source: Wikiquote · CC BY-SA 4.0
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Moreover, it seemed that the printers of the African maps had a slightly malicious habit of including, in large letters, the names of town, junctions, and villages which, while most of them did exist in fact, as a group of thatched huts may exist or a water hole, they were usually so inconsequential as completely to escape discovery from the cockpit.
p. 32
So far as I know I was the only professional woman pilot in Africa at that time period I had no freelance competition in Kenya, man or woman.
Why I ran at all or with what purpose in mind is beyond my answering, but when I had no specific destination I always ran as fast as I could in the hope of finding one--and I always found one.
p. 57
