202 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



As these two will at most have only a few words in common, no very sustained 

 conversation can ever be held. 



I must say, however, that often when I have been struggling back to camp in 

 the dark, or when trying to strike the camp and am uncertain as to its position, 

 I have been very glad to hear the loud talking of the porters in the distance, and 

 know that food and rest were at hand. 



Although most of the noise is wrangling and arguing over childish matters or is 

 the singing of obscene songs, it is often possible to hear quite interesting and 

 amusing conversations. Among a " safari" of coast or professional porters there are 

 certain to be a certain number who have been on all sorts of interesting and, perhaps, 

 historic expeditions, and their accounts and versions of the different events are most 

 quaint and entertaining. 



You may hear about the old days when the trek up to Uganda used to be 

 performed on foot, or you may hear of the fights against Kabarega and the 

 Soudanese Mutineers, or of expeditions to the I^orian, Rudolf, and many out-of- 

 the-way places, and all manner of other things. These accounts are generally so 

 profuse in minor details and so haphazard as to the aims, objects, names, and dates 

 of the expeditions, that it is often some time before you can gather the drift 

 of affairs. 



For instance, a native might commence, " When I was with Bangusi (or some 

 other nickname), the white man who paid the Government for permission to take war 

 up to such and such a country." This might mean anything. It might refer to 

 some trader who was seen paying money for his licence (hence the paying to the 

 Government), and who subsequently fired off a rifle to frighten away some hostile 

 natives, or it might equally well refer to a shooting expedition or some small 

 punitive expedition. 



At times I have taken my chair round to the porters' fire, to listen to the 

 headman or some other telling stories, either of the fairy-tale description or of 

 folk-lore. Sometimes I have been asked to contribute something in the way of a 

 story, and on such occasions I have found that any of the " Thousand and One 

 Nights " permits readily of being translated into Swahili, and is greatly appreciated, 

 so long as any very subtle points or matters referring to local customs not likely to 

 be understood are omitted. With the higher-class Swahilis of the coast these 

 stories can be told verbatim, as their modes of living and ways of thinking are 

 almost identical with those of the Arab. 



These story-telling occasions, however, are in the minority, for the almost 

 nightly recreation consists of singing obscene or topical improvised songs in a 



