A Thousand Miles in a Machilla 



personal appearance had greatly improved since he 

 had first entered our service. As porter his only 

 garment had been a chocolate-coloured loin-cloth; 

 but to this, on his promotion to machilla boy at Fort 

 Jameson, he had added a red fez and a vest of many 

 colours. At Mpika he substituted a white "dotee" 

 for the coloured one, so that he quite looked the 

 part of capitao, and kept his team very well 

 together. 



After Maso came his friend Mgombo, another 

 Blantyre boy. He was a Yao, an intelligent, useful 

 lad, belonging to the same tribe as John. Next 

 came John of Dedza, as we called him, and his 

 brother, both excellent, willing lads. Unfortunately, 

 however, John of Dedza could not accommodate 

 himself to the Mpika boys' habit of shirking their 

 turn. This, combined with racial antipathy, resulted 

 in frequent rows and two or three free fights. 



A smart-looking lad from Kasama, in the north, 

 named Kazembe, who had come to Kulukenias on 

 the look-out for work, was also engaged; he was 

 intelligent, but a bit of a shirker. I do not think he 

 had ever carried a machilla before, so the unaccus- 

 tomed work was probably trying. He had a fine 

 voice, and when Hearing a village gave tongue lustily. 

 He sang a couple of songs, one with the refrain: 



A A 



Mo - to, mo to, mo - to I 



which was shouted in chorus, some of the men 

 taking 'seconds.' Occasionally, when very excited, 



170 



