THE SECRET OF THE KIAMA 



grandfather, who was Honorary Chaplain of a Work 

 House. When one of the inmates had complained sim- 

 ilarly that another had gotten more than he, he was told to 

 divide the portions as he considered fair. The complain- 

 ing man piled all the choice morsels on his own plate, 

 leaving little for the other. When he had finished he 

 was asked, "Are you quite sure that the food is now 

 fairly divided?" and upon acquiescing the plates were 

 exchanged. I think that this must have been back of 

 my mind when I told the greedy carrier to divide the 

 posho as he saw fit, whereupon he delightedly heaped up 

 his kababa ^ leaving the others very much depleted. 

 In the same way I asked him if he was quite sure that 

 the portions were equal and when he protested that 

 they were, I changed the measures and gave the other 

 fellow the heaped portion. Thereupon ensued violent 

 protests from the greedy man. He was a huge fellow, 

 with an abnormally large stomach. I wanted to teach 

 him a lesson so my only reply was, "Run away Tumba 

 Impera.*' From then on he was known by this name 

 amongst all the carriers who considered him a good joke. 

 On one occasion we had tramped over twenty miles 

 on a very hot day and at four o'clock in the afternoon 

 the carriers set down their loads and told the head man 

 that they were not going any farther. This was a serious 

 matter for we were five miles from water. I made no 

 comment but just walked along the line closely inspect- 

 ing each man to see if they were really fatigued or 



2 Kababa — measure. 



131 



