MEN OF THE TREES 



just in a bad humour. They had had a very heavy meat 

 meal the evening before and I decided that their be- 

 haviour was the outcome of excess. As I approached the 

 buffoon of the party he rose to his feet and asked me 

 to give him an advance on his pay. I asked him why 

 he wanted this and he repHed, "To buy food." My re- 

 tort was, "You're always thinking about your tummy, 

 Tumbu Impera," whereupon everybody laughed and the 

 carriers who had apparently been so tired a few min- 

 utes before, without another word picked up their loads 

 and gaily finished their journey to the lilt of a merry 

 song. 



Once, doing a three months' Safari, I had thirty-six 

 different camps and travelled over twelve hundred miles, 

 but the most strenuous journey covered two weeks when 

 I made a new camp every night, travelling over three 

 hundred miles. 



But it was at Kikuyu that I had some of my most 

 pleasant experiences when the day's work was done. 

 Chiefs and headmen would gather around the friendly 

 fire for they love to recite the history of the past which 

 had been handed down to them by their fathers. On 

 one such an occasion I was becoming more than ever 

 interested, when, suddenly, the recitation stopped. I 

 said, "Go on, I want to hear more." The story teller had 

 mentioned something about an ancient kingdom in 

 the heart of Equatorial Africa. My curiosity had been 

 greatly aroused and I wanted to hear more. A venerable 

 chief at this stage interposed this remark, "Shauri ya 



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