102 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



he struck the Wakamba. These were real savages who 

 filed their teeth and delighted in raw flesh, and Heller's 

 explanation of their doing well was that their taste for the 

 raw flesh kept them thoroughly interested in their job, so 

 that they learned without difficulty. The porters speedily 

 christened each of the white men by some title of their 

 own, using the ordinary Swahili title of Bwana (master) as 

 a prefix. Heller was the Bwana Who Skinned; Loring, 

 who collected the small mammals, was named, merely 

 descriptively, the Mouse Master, Bwana Pania. I was 

 always called Bwana Makuba, the chief or Great Master; 

 Kermit was first called Bwana Medogo, the young mas- 

 ter, and afterward was christened " the Dandy," Bwana 

 Merodadi. 



From Potha the safari went in two days to McMillan's 

 place, Juja Farm, on the other side of the Athi. I stayed 

 behind, as I desired to visit the American Mission Station 

 at Machakos. Accordingly, Sir Alfred and I rode thither. 

 Machakos has long been a native town, for it was on the 

 route formerly taken by the Arab caravans that went from 

 the coast to the interior after slaves and ivory. Riding 

 toward it we passed herd after herd of cattle, sheep, and 

 goats, each guarded by two or three savage herdsmen. 

 The little town itself was both interesting and attractive. 

 Besides the natives there were a number of Indian traders 

 and the English Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner, 

 with a small body of native soldiers. The latter not a long 

 time before had been just such savages as those round about 

 them, and the change for the better wrought in their phy- 

 sique and morale by the ordered discipline to which they 

 had submitted themselves could hardly be exaggerated. 



