The Journal of a Sporting Nomad 



amused me. He had on a shirt and nothing else, 

 an ordinary " boiled " shirt as worn in England, 

 save that it was printed all over the front and 

 back with large black spots as big as a shilling. 



On the Forcados River the stranger sees several 

 tiny grass huts, perhaps two feet square, built 

 out from the banks, the front parts of the quaint 

 structures being supported on two stakes driven 

 into the bed of the river, and adorned by odd 

 pieces of calico, white or coloured. Within is a 

 small wooden god, or Ju-ju. Again, you may 

 be walking up a native path, and come to another 

 intercepting the first. At this junction an old 

 egg, a bit of broken crockery, or some fragments 

 of calico are sure to be lying propitiatory gifts 

 for the same deity. 



The troops employed in the Protectorate in 

 my time were recruited from the Hausa tribes 

 extremely keen soldiers, who very soon pick up 

 their business. They fight well too, and will 

 follow their white officers with the greatest pluck. 



On one occasion I accompanied a Captain 

 Searle, who commanded a company of Hausas, 

 to barracks, to unpack a seven-pounder muzzle- 

 loading gun which had just arrived from home. 

 The men who were to form the gun's crew were 

 wildly enthusiastic, and when the piece had been 

 undone, and leisurely put together, Searle ex- 

 plained its mechanism to them. Before he had 

 finished with them that afternoon the men had 



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