THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



skeleton. This again necessitates a great many more por- 

 ters than the ordinary hunter needs. Thus, for instance, 

 it required forty men to carry the skin and skeleton of 

 my largest rhino from the place where he fell to the camp, 

 where the skin was cut thin and prepared, whereas if this 

 rhino had only been taken as a trophy two men could easily 

 have carried anything that the sportsman would have liked 

 to take home with him. My first trip to East Africa has 

 several times been mentioned in the annals of the museum 

 as the " Tjader East African Expedition." About one 

 third of its actual expenses were afterwards contributed 

 by the American Museum of Natural History, which re- 

 ceived the greater part of the collection, or somewhat over 

 four hundred specimens of mammals, reptiles, and birds. 

 The rest of the *' spoil," besides a couple of dozen trophies 

 which I kept for myself, was presented to the Royal Swed- 

 ish Academy of Science in Stockholm. 



In getting the safari together it is often of great im- 

 portance to take porters of different tribes, such as the 

 Wa-Swahili, the Wa-Nyamwezi, the Wa-Kamba, and the 

 Wa-Kikuju, as they are then not so apt to try any con- 

 spiracy or mutiny of any sort, which hunters have some- 

 times had to contend with; and it is also possible to get 

 more work out of the men by playing one tribe off against 

 another, for they all want to show that their tribe is better 

 than any other. This worked very well indeed when I 

 sometimes had to make exceptionally long and hard 

 marches over difficult territory and waterless tracts of the 

 country. 



The porters generally like to start out very early in the 

 morning, long before the sun rises, so as to be able to 



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