II AT NAIROBI 21 



have had some premonition of what his own sad and 

 untimely end was to be — but this is another story, 

 and will be told in a later chapter. 



It was now the favourite shooting season in 

 East Africa, and numbers of sportsmen were arriving 

 from England. Among these were Mr. and Mrs. S. 

 and Captain and Mrs. P., who brought with them 

 letters of introduction from mutual friends. As they 

 were anxious to set out for a shoot in the same 

 direction as that in which I was going, we decided 

 to join forces, and travel together for part of the 

 way at any rate. 



Our safari ^ consisted of a motley crowd of men, 

 horses, mules and donkeys. As is usual, the 

 morning fixed for the start was a very busy one. 

 The porters whom we had engaged all came crowd- 

 ing round, clamouring for their advance of pay, 

 blankets, posho (food), &c. Their names had to be 

 entered on a roll, and some of these were most amus- 

 ing — such as Putida (donkey), Fozv" (rhino), Kazi 

 tnoto (hot worker), Kazi mbaya (bad worker), Nussii 

 rupeea (half rupee), Nyiunbu (mule), and a host of 

 other similar ones, given for some well-marked or 



* This word safari is no doubt derived from the Arabic "safar," a 

 journey. In Swahili, however, it means not only a journey but every- 

 thing connected with it, including men, animals, equipment, (S:c. 



"^ The caravan porter always uses the yNOxAfow for rhino, and not 

 kifaru, as given in the Swahili text-books. 



