CHAP. XVI A GOOD EXAMPLE 303 



theory of fighting is to live to do it on another day ; they have 

 no notion how to find their way in the jungle or how to track 

 game, but they have an uncommonly keen eye for business and 

 bargaining. The natives of some tribes, on the contrary, are 

 born hunters and trappers, who have been trained from their 

 youth to deeds of daring in war and in the chase, or, like the 

 Wa-nyamwezi, have a high sense of union and discipline. 

 Others, like the Wa-digo, are intelligent, courteous, but 

 cowardly, and such excellent linguists that this tribe supplies 

 interpreters to most of the up-country caravans. The Man- 

 yema are a cannibal tribe, whose stupidity and roughness are 

 scarcely redeemed by the dash and daring of first-class fighting 

 men. The Wa-konde are brusque and business-like, and you 

 can lay responsibilities on them for which the sullen, grumbling 

 Wa-kame are totally unfit. It is evident that the methods of 

 dealing with such varieties of character should, if possible, be 

 as varied. A joke may do with one man what a threat alone 

 could achieve with another ; one may be most moved by a 

 promise of reward at the coast, when another can be touched 

 by an appeal to his honour. It is from caravan leaders who 

 do not study the characters of their men that we hear most of 

 the stories of mutiny and desertion, and that the only argument 

 a Zanzibari can understand is the whip. 



I may mention the following incident as illustrating the 

 inspiriting example of a good leader, and the Zanzibari's 

 capacity for following it. On one occasion, after being forty 

 hours without water, we came upon a scanty supply, and my 

 headman Omari, who had been trained by Stanley, refused his 

 share. He shook his head at first, for so dry and stiff were 

 our tongues that we could hardly speak, and then stammered 

 out that he was not thirsty. When I insisted on his taking 

 his small share, he quietly handed it to the porter who appeared 

 most overcome with thirst. As I looked at his face, grimy 

 with the labours of the long day, I could not help thinking of 

 Kipling's lines — 



" But for all 'is dirty 'ide 

 He is white, pure white inside." 



Later on I asked him how he had denied himself He said, 

 " It was nothing ! I've seen Bula Matari (Stanley) do the same 

 thing lots of times, and if he could do it, Inshallah ! so can I." 



