It was simply a choice of evils, and it seemed to me 

 better to let him go, clearly understanding the con- 

 ditions, than drive him into breaking away with the 

 bad results to him and the bad effects on the others 

 of disobeying orders. It was, as a rule, far indeed 

 from saving me trouble, for after the first bout of 

 drinking he almost invariably found his way back to 

 the waggons : the drink always produced a ravenous 

 craving for meat, and when his money was gone and 

 he had fought his fill and cleared out all opposition, 

 he would come back to the waggons at any hour of 

 the night, perhaps even two or three times between 

 dark and dawn, to beg for meat. Warnings and 

 orders had no effect whatever ; he was unconscious 

 of everything except the overmastering craving for 

 meat. He would come to my waggon and begin 

 that deadly monotonous recitation, " Funa 'nyama, 

 Inkos ! Wanta meat, Baas ! " There was a kind 

 of hopeless determination in the tone conveying 

 complete indifference to all consequences : meat 

 he must have. He was perfectly respectful ; every 

 order to be quiet or go away or go to bed was received 

 with the formal raising of the hand aloft, the most 

 respectful of salutations, and the assenting, " Inkos ! " 

 but in the very next breath would come the old 

 monotonous request, " Funa 'nyama, Inkos," just as 

 if he was saying it for the first time. The persistency 

 was awful it was maddening ; and there was no 

 remedy, for it was not the result of voluntary or even 

 conscious effort on his part ; it was a sort of automatic 

 process, a result of his physical condition. Had he 

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