A MUSICAL 'HEADMAN' 43 



under meagre bushes or tufts of grass ; some say- 

 that they are sick, and others that their loads are 

 too heavy ; generally the truth is not in them, but 

 in all cases they must be urged onwards. If the 

 ' niampara,* or headman, is a person of authority 

 with the porters, one can go ahead at a more reason- 

 able pace than the usual two and a half miles an 

 hour and wait for them at the camping-place, but as 

 often as not he is as lazy as the laziest porter, and if 

 left alone they will come strolling in at four or five 

 o'clock in the afternoon. Some of these niamparas, 

 who of course carry no loads, have an evil habit of 

 playing upon a whistle (of the ' penny ' variety) as 

 they walk along. On my first journey I put up with 

 it for a day or two, and then bought the instrument 

 at an exorbitant price ; but the next day the niampara 

 was playing upon a larger and even shriller whistle, 

 and I had to submit to music for the rest of the way. 

 ' A very little little let us do ' might be taken as 

 the guiding principle in life of the Uganda porter. 

 So long as he can carry the lightest load at the 

 slowest possible pace for the shortest possible dis- 

 tance, he is content. The only thing that he does 

 willingly and without encouragement is to eat, and 

 this he does whole-heartedly, and, as a rule, with a 

 magnificent array of teeth. There are stories told 

 of porters' capacity for food, some of which are 

 perhaps not true, but I have myself seen fifteen 

 porters who had just finished consuming three 

 antelopes and one hippopotamus, the latter skin and 



