"POSHO" 



adequately certain matters in connection with the safari, 

 and it is not advisable that your table boy should be 

 able to carry away to the camp fire the conversation 

 that has passed between you. Again, if you always 

 have a boy by your side who speaks English, you will 

 never learn Swahili, and I do not care what character 

 that boy bears, there is nothing like dealing with the 

 safari yourself. There is no chance of your words being 

 misconstrued, or your interpreter sulking at an Indaba 

 with the village headman, and cutting out certain passages 

 of a speech that may be of great import to the subject 

 under discussion. There is no excuse for anybody not 

 learning Swahili, at least sufficient to make himself 

 understood, in two months. It is a mere bagatelle com- 

 pared to the Zulu, Basuto and South African languages. 



We left a large number of loads in the camp under 

 charge of two of our boys. Having packed up sufficient 

 stores for a three months' trip we set out for Wadelai 

 on the third day after reaching Koba. 



We wended our way in Indian file down the slope 

 towards a belt of forest-like country a half-mile below 

 our camp. 



The track was bordered by fairy-like ferns, great 

 trees matted together by a network of creepers, through 

 which most magnificent views of the Nile could be seen, 

 a solitary canoe was being forced against the stream by a 

 silent native, who sat perched in the extreme after-part 

 of the boat taking deep strokes with his quaintly shaped 

 paddle. A rough winding path ran through this gor- 

 geously bedecked stretch of country. The heavy storms 

 of the last few days had left great pools of water in the 

 pathway. A damp though not unpleasant aroma rose 

 up from the hundred and one species of tropical growth. 

 Every now and then we came upon patches of soft green 

 grass into which our feet sank as into a thick carpet. 

 We were soon swallowed up in the uncertain light of 



5i 



