WILD HUNTING COMPANIONS 173 



one of them might improvise a song. It was 

 usually a very simple song; perhaps about some- 

 thing Kermit or I had done during the day, 

 and of how we lived far away in an unknown 

 land across vast oceans but had come to Africa 

 with wonderful rifles to kill hons and elephants. 

 Once the song was merely an expression of 

 gratified approval of the quahty of the meat 

 of an eland I had shot during the day. Once we 

 hstened to a really humorous song describing 

 the disapproval of the women about something 

 their husbands had done, the shrill scolding of 

 the women being mimicked with much effect. 

 Some of the songs dealt with traditions and ex- 

 periences which I did not understand, and which 

 were probably far more interesting than any 

 that I did understand. 



My gun-bearers accompanied me whenever 

 I visited the native villages of the different 

 tribes. These tribes differed widely from one 

 another in almost every respect. In Uganda 

 my men stood behind me when some dignified 

 and formally polite chief or great noble came to 

 visit me; clothed in white, and perhaps dragged 

 in a rickshaw or riding a mule with silver trap- 

 pings, while his drummer beat on the huge native 

 drum the distinctive clan tune which, when he 

 walked abroad, bade all take notice just who 



