Mr. Churchill's Journey 



large party, tents were pitched in a twinkling 

 with the aid of the forty soldiers comprising my 

 escort. There were also some 400 porters 

 employed in carrying the various loads ; each 

 of these latter was as compact as possible, and 

 weighed not more than 60 lbs. The porters 

 housed themselves according- to custom. After 

 all the loads not required by the cook that night 

 had been piled under the watchful eye of the 

 sentry outside the guard-room, the head men told 

 off certain porters to fetch firewood from the 

 surrounding jungle, others to go and draw water 

 from the river, and a few to help generally in 

 various ways, whilst the remainder were dismissed 

 to build shelters for themselves and their pals on 

 duty. It did not take long to run up these 

 shelters. A few growing bushes were hollowed 

 out, the remaining branches tied together at their 

 tips with strips of bark to form a foundation for 

 bundles of grass to be thrown anyhow on top — 

 thus the jungle in the precincts of the camp was 

 converted into the likeness of a colony of beehives. 

 Then in the evening about four p.m. came 

 "posho" time. The natives had been warned 

 beforehand to bring in so many loads of food to 

 each camp on such and such a date successively, 

 on payment ; and great excitement invariably 

 ensued at the time when the " posho " or food 

 was served up. One native would wrangle with 

 another because the latter had half a sweet potato 



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