THE SEFARI 25 
is not seeing one of the most beautiful and interesting 
countries anywhere; and, third, is not real sefari life at all. 
Now it is of sefari life I want to write, and it is to 
enable even an inexperienced sportsman to enjoy something 
better than what usually passes for it, that I beg some pa- 
tience for my seeming prolixity when I try to describe a 
little of its interest and charm. Before I put foot in East 
Africa, I did what I could to gain reliable information 
as to what my sefari should consist of. How could I man- 
age it? How far march it? etc., etc. One said leave 
all to your ““headman”’; he will do everything. Well, the 
first headman I had, though more than highly recommended, 
and though armed with chits (testimonials) that if true 
made him out too good for the job, had among a multitude 
of other shortcomings one insuperable one — he couldn’t 
walk —and arrived at camping ground from one to four 
hours ajter the sefari. 
Another said, “‘Hire a professional hunter and leave 
everything in his hands.” Elsewhere I speak strongly 
of the value of a good professional hunter. If you want 
to spend some time in a really interesting country, and kill 
interesting and dangerous beasts, unless you have reason- 
ably complete command both of your nerves and of your 
weapon, you will be foolish not to secure such a man. 
But I like doing things myself. I like to try to understand 
the men by whose aid I alone can do them. 
So much for the general view of the case. And, next, 
I don’t like, as a rule, the Afrikander’s views on natives 
and native questions in this land, any more than I liked 
the views of trappers and miners and settlers, on Indians 
and Indian questions in our own land, when first I became 
well acquainted with them many years ago. 
To feel the interest and charm of a new country, 
you want to feel it not through the eye or ear alone but 
surely through touch and knowledge (however necessarily 
