84 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



one word or one phrase which, when we asked to have it 

 translated, might or might not prove to be entirely mean- 

 ingless. The headmen carried no burdens, and the tent 

 boys hardly anything, while the saises walked with the 

 spare horses. In addition to the canonical and required 

 costume of blouse or jersey and drawers, each porter wore 

 a blanket, and usually something else to which his soul 

 inclined. It might be an exceedingly shabby coat; it might 

 be, of all things in the world, an umbrella, an article for 

 which they had a special attachment. Often I would see 

 a porter, who thought nothing whatever of walking for 

 hours at midday under the equatorial sun with his head 

 bare, trudging along with solemn pride either under an 

 open umbrella, or carrying the umbrella (tied much like 

 Mrs. Gamp's) in one hand, as a wand of dignity. Then 

 their head-gear varied according to the fancy of the indi- 

 vidual. Normally it was a red fez, a kind of cap only used 

 in hot climates, and exquisitely designed to be useless 

 therein because it gives absolutely no protection from the 

 sun. But one would wear a skin cap; another would sud- 

 denly put one or more long feathers in his fez; and another, 

 discarding the fez, would revert to some purely savage 

 head-dress which he would wear with equal gravity whether 

 it were, in our eyes, really decorative or merely comic. One 

 such head-dress, for instance, consisted of the skin of the 

 top of a zebra's head, with the two ears. Another was 

 made of the skins of squirrels, with the tails both sticking 

 up and hanging down. Another consisted of a bunch of 

 feathers woven into the hair, which itself was pulled out 

 into strings that were stiffened with clay. Another was 

 really too intricate for description because it included the 



