MOMBASSA TO LION LAND IZ 
Amwazi porters, Wakamba trackers, Waganda, Massai 
guides and totos*—all breakfastless —had then scrambled 
into the cars, and, according to the benighted custom of 
the country, had been at once locked into iron trucks 
assigned them. 
Potio ¢ they had, of course, each man carrying six 
kabalas, i. e., six days’ rations— about nine pounds. 
But meal or rice cannot be eaten raw, and on a railroad 
journey cooking was out of the question. So these break- 
fastless men had had nothing to eat since the afternoon 
of two days before, yet cheerfully they shouldered their 
unusually heavy burdens, and marched more than five 
hours up hill and down dale to the first convenient camping 
place. 
Now, few porters anywhere would cheerfully, as these 
did, undertake such a job. The eminent politician I 
lately referred to, has just published in the Strand Maga- 
zine some account of his brief experience of sefari life in 
Uganda. He describes his sefari’s start on the march 
between the lakes —his strongest porters scrambled for 
the lightest loads, while the heaviest remained to be 
carried by the weaker ones, who wept over their jobs. 
And he goes on to say that though there was one 
headman to every twenty porters, such a state of things: 
was permitted. 
I have had no experience of sefarying in Uganda, but I 
can confidently say that in an ordinarily well arranged 
sefari nothing of the sort could possibly happen in British 
East Africa. Travelling with such men, and under such 
circumstances would be intolerable. There never should 
be any scrambling for loads. All of these should be 
weighed carefully before any start is made. The loads are 
*Totos are boys learning to be porters. They are not reckoned on the “strength” of a sefari nor 
do they receive potio. They are engaged as a private matter by men in the sefari to help carry, 
their belongings. Hence often arises difficulty. 
{Potio—the meal allowance of about 1} lbs. which each porter has a right to daily. 
