270 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



that they were all in readiness in a letter to Cuninghame, 

 which was meant to be entirely respectful, but which 

 sounded odd, as it was couched in characteristic Baboo 

 English. The opening lines ran: "Dear K-harn, the 

 donkeys are altogether deadly." 



At last fifty Kikuyus assembled they are not able to 

 carry the loads of regular Swahili porters and I started 

 that moment, though it was too late in the afternoon to 

 travel more than three or four miles. The Kikuyus were 

 real savages, naked save for a dingy blanket, usually carried 

 round the neck. They formed a picturesque safari; but it 

 was difficult to make the grasshopper-like creatures take 

 even as much thought for the future as the ordinary happy- 

 go-lucky porters take. At night if it rained they cow- 

 ered under the bushes in drenched and shivering discom- 

 fort; and yet they had to be driven to make bough shelters 

 for themselves. Once these shelters were up, and a little 

 fire kindled at the entrance of each, the moping, spiritless 

 wretches would speedily become transformed into beings 

 who had lost all remembrance of ever having been wet or 

 cold. After their posho had been distributed and eaten 

 they would sit, huddled and cheerful, in their shelters, and 

 sing steadily for a couple of hours. Their songs were 

 much wilder than those of the regular porters, and were 

 often warlike. Occasionally, some "shanty man," as he 

 would be called on shipboard, improvised or repeated a 

 kind of story in short sentences or strophes; but the main 

 feature of each song was the endless repetition of some re- 

 frain, musically chanted in chorus by the whole party. 

 This repetition of a short sentence or refrain is a charac- 

 teristic of many kinds of savage music; I have seen the 



