284 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



ing on spears watched us puff heavily by. Women, 

 richly ornamented with copper wire or beads, 

 toiled along bent under loads carried by means 

 of a band across the top of the head.* Naked 

 children rushed out to wave at us. We were 

 steaming quite comfortably through Africa as it 

 had been for thousands of years before the white 

 man came. 



At Kikuyu Station we came to a halt. Kikuyu 

 Station ordinarily embarks about two passengers 

 a month, I suppose. Now it was utterly swamped 

 with business, for on it had descended all our 

 safari of thirty-nine men and three mules. Thirty 

 of the thirty-nine yelled and shrieked and got in 

 the wrong place, as usual. C. and the train men 

 and the stationmaster and our responsible boys 

 heaved and tugged and directed, ordered, com- 

 manded. At length the human element was 

 loaded to its places and locked in. Then the 

 mules had to be urged up a very narrow gang- 

 plank into a dangerous-looking car. Quite sen- 

 sibly they declined to take chances. We per- 

 suaded them. The process was quite simple. 

 Two of the men holding the ends at a safe dis- 

 tance stretched a light strong cord across the 

 beasts' hind legs, and sawed it back and forth. 



* After the fashion of the Canadian tump line. 



