CH. IV] NATIVE XATl^HATJSTS do 



pleasant adventure. He slept in his own tent, and his 

 Wakainba skinners slept under the Hy not tar off. One 

 night they let the fires die down, and were roused at 

 midnight by hearing the grunting of a hungry lion 

 apparently not a dozen yards off in the darkness. 

 Heller quiekly lit his lantern, and sat up with his shot- 

 gun loaded with bird-shot, the only weapon he had with 

 him. The lion walked round and round the tent, 

 grunting at intervals. Then, after some minutes of 

 suspense, he drew off. While the grunting had been 

 audible, not a sound came from the tent of the Wakam- 

 bas, who all cowered under their blankets in perfect 

 silence. But once he had gone, there was a great 

 chattering, and in a few minutes the fires were roaming, 

 nor were they again suffered to die down. 



Heller's skinners had learned to work very well when 

 under his eye. He had encountered much difficulty in 

 getting men who would do the work, and had tried the 

 representatives of various tribes, but without success, 

 until he struck the Wakamba. These were real savages' 

 who filed their teeth and delighted in raw flesh, and 

 Heller's explanation of their doing well was that their 

 taste for the raw flesh kept them thoroughly interested 

 in their job, so that they learned without difficulty. 

 The porters speedily christened each of the white men 

 by some title of their own, using the ordinary SwahiH 

 title of Bwana (master) as a prefix. Heller was the 

 Bwana Who Skinned ; Loring, who collected the small 

 mammals, was named, merely descriptively, the Mouse 

 Master, Bwana Pania. I was always called Bwana 

 Makuba, the Chief or Great Master ;'Kermit was first 

 called Bwana Medogo, the Voung Master, and after- 

 ward was christened •' the Dandy," Bwana Merodadi. 



From i'otha the safari went in two days to 



