MANAGING A SAFARI 



and has to be rounded up; he works three months 

 and, on a whim, deserts two days before the end of 

 his journey, thus forfeiting all his wages. Once two 

 porters came to us for money. 



"What for?" asked C. 



"'To buy a sheep," said they. 



For two months we had been shooting them all 

 the game meat they could eat, but on this occasion 

 two days had intervened since the last kill. If 

 they had been on trading safari they would have had 

 no meat at all. A sheep cost six rupees in that 

 country: and they were getting but ten rupees a 

 month as wages. In view of the circumstances, and 

 for their own good, we refused. Another man once 

 insisted on purchasing a cake of violet-scented soap 

 for a rupee. Their chief idea of a wild time in 

 Nairobi, after return from a long safari, is to sit in a 

 chair and drink tea. For this they pay exorbitantly 

 at the Somali so-called "hotels." It is a strange 

 sight. But then, I have seen cowboys off the range 

 or lumberjacks from the river do equally extrav- 

 agant and foolish things. 



On the other hand they carry their loads well, 

 they march tremendously, they know their camp 

 duties and they do them. Under adverse circum- 

 stances they are good-natured. I remember C. and 

 I, being belated and lost in a driving rain. We wan- 



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