XIV 



ON SAFARI AN EAST AFRICAN PHRASE SIGNIFYING A 

 CARAVAN JOURNEY 



APART from the Uganda Railway roads do not exist 

 in Eastern Ethiopia : there are tracks made by the bare 

 feet of the natives, Swahili porters, and by cattle. The 

 native tracks from village to village or to distant 

 districts only permit the passage of man and beast. 

 Wheeled vehicles for travelling purposes are non- 

 existent. It is impossible to use horses on account of 

 tsetse flies and ticks. 



A wheel in the Rift Valley was formerly as big a 

 novelty as a polar bear would be on the Victoria Nyanza. 

 The pack animals for a long journey are Swahili 

 porters. Consequently, in the days before the construc- 

 tion of the railway, a journey to distant parts of the 

 country was, and in many instances still is, a serious 

 business. The traveller must take with him not only 

 food, and often water, changes of raiment and other- 

 personal effects, but also tents, bedding, cooks, cooking- 

 pans, and other requisites for preparing food ; the 

 quantity and character of the supplies will be regulated 

 by the size and length of time occupied by the 

 journey. 



When the safari is run for trading purposes, material 

 for bartering with the natives must be carried ; for 

 example, beads and coloured cotton goods ; iron, brass, 

 copper-wire, and things useful to the natives, and for 

 which in return they w r ill be willing to give food, tusks, 

 and hides. East African natives are no longer sold into 



