MANAGING A SAFARI 



throne of the canvas chair, witness should be heard, 

 judgment formally pronounced, and execution in- 

 trusted to the askaris or gunbearers. 



It is, as I have said, a most interesting game. It 

 demands three sorts of knowledge: first, what a 

 safari man is capable of doing; second, what he 

 customarily should or should not do; third, an ability 

 to read the actual intention or motive back of his 

 actions. When you are able to punish or hold your 

 hand on these principles, and not merely because 

 things have or have not gone smoothly or right, 

 then you are a good safari manager. There are 

 mighty few of them. 



As for punishment, that is quite simply the whip. 



The average writer on the country speaks of this 

 with hushed voice and averted face as a necessity 

 but as something to be deprecated and passed over 

 as quickly as possible. He does this because he 

 thinks he ought to. As a matter of fact, such an 

 attitude is all poppycock. In the flogging of a 

 white man, or a black who suffers from such a 

 punishment in his soul as well as his body, this is 

 all very well. But the safari man expects it, it 

 doesn't hurt his feelings in the least, it is ancient 

 custom. As well sentimentalize over necessary 

 schoolboy punishment, or over father paddy-whack- 

 ing little Willie when little Willie has been a bad 



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