CHAP. XVI A MIXED CHARACTER 309 



certain privileges, which are usually held sacred. The men pro- 

 tested ; but I told them that the only dastiiri on Laikipia was 

 to be speared by the Masai and eaten by the hyenas. If 

 they wanted that fate they could easily get it ; if not, they had 

 better not talk about dastiiri till we reached a safer country. 

 The men laughed, and we heard no more about the matter. 



Greatly though the Zanzibar! loathe any interference with 

 their customs and privileges, they will tolerate even that rather 

 than an act of injustice. This rankles in the Zanzibar! mind, 

 and is certain to be paid off some day. Amongst my porters 

 was a Mgindo, serving under an assumed name, which we will 

 suppose to have been Wadi. He was my most faithful personal 

 attendant. When we were in a waterless camp at night, Wadi 

 would wait till no one was looking, and then sneak my water- 

 bottle and fill it up from his own small calabash. Several 

 times when our food supplies were approaching exhaustion, and 

 we were on short rations, he would tie up half of his in a 

 corner of his loin-cloth to save it for me. I only found this 

 out by accident in Kikuyu. As soon as the natives brought 

 food into camp and the prospect of famine was averted, Wadi 

 produced his store and began to eat it. I chaffed him about 

 his caution, and he did not seem to like it. Omari afterwards 

 remonstrated with me for my banter, for he said, " Did you not 

 know that the food was all being saved for you ? " Wadi had 

 remarked to him a day or two before that if the Kikuyu would 

 give us no food, " Mpokwa " would want the beans sooner than 

 he would. Wadi was always doing things of that sort, walking 

 miles after the day's work was done to collect herbs for food, 

 and then giving them all to others. Nevertheless he was a 

 man with a bad record. He had been one of the two ring- 

 leaders in perhaps the worst act of mutiny that has disgraced 

 the annals of British East Africa. Wadi was with a caravan 

 in the interior. According to his account, the leader knew no 

 Ki-suahili and was dependent entirely on his interpreters — a lot 

 of mission boys. One of these committed an act of theft. The 

 leader of the caravan said the thief must be found. Wadi was 

 accused. His defence was falsely translated by the interpreter, 

 who was a confederate of the thief Wadi was condemned and 

 flogged. A fortnight later there was a mutiny one afternoon in 

 camp. Ninety porters suddenly seized their guns, some loads 



