THE TRANSPORT RIDER. 305 



and long hours in strict intimacy with stupid and 

 exasperating beasts. After working hours he 

 liked to wander out to watch those same beasts 

 grazing ! His mind was as full of cattle as 

 that ! Although we offered him reading matter, 

 he never seemed to care for it, nor for long- con- 

 tinued conversation with white people not of his 

 trade. In fact the only gleam of interest I could 

 get out of him was by commenting on the quali- 

 ties or peculiarities of the oxen. He had a small 

 mouth-organ on which he occasionally performed, 

 and would hold forth for hours with his childlike 

 Kikuyus. In the intelligence to follow ordinary 

 directions he was an infant. We had to iterate 

 and reiterate in words of one syllable our direc- 

 tions as to routes and meeting-points, and then 

 he was quite as apt to go wrong as right. Yet, I 

 must repeat, he knew thoroughly all the ins and 

 outs of a very difficult trade, and understood, 

 as well, how to keep his cattle always fit and in 

 good condition. In fact he was a little hipped 

 on what the " dear n'gombes " should or should 

 not be called upon to do. 



One incident will illustrate all this better than 

 I could explain it. When we reached the Naros- 

 sara River we left the wagon and pushed on 

 afoot. We were to be gone an indefinite time, 



