THROUGH THE PLEISTOCENE 25 



ment in a land of ticks, jiggers, and scorpions; and a cot 

 to sleep on, so as to be raised from the ground. Quite a 

 contrast to life on the round-up! Then I had two tent boys 

 to see after my belongings, and to wait at table as well as in 

 the tent. Ali, a Mohammedan mulatto (Arab and negro), 

 was the chief of the two, and spoke some English, while 

 under him was "Bill," a speechless black boy; Ali being 

 particularly faithful and efficient. Two other Moham- 



plain covered with brown and withered grass 

 by Edmund Heller 



medan negroes, clad like the askaris, reported to me as my 

 gun-bearers, Muhamed and Bakari; seemingly excellent 

 men, loyal and enduring, no trackers, but with keen eyes 

 for game, and the former speaking a little English. My 

 two horse boys, or saises, were both pagans. One, Hamisi, 

 must have had in his veins Galla or other non-negro blood; 

 derived from the Hamitic, or bastard Semitic, or at least 

 non-negro, tribes which, pushing slowly and fitfully south- 

 ward and south-westward among the negro peoples, have 

 created an intricate tangle of ethnic and linguistic types 

 from the middle Nile to far south of the equator. Hamisi 

 always wore a long feather in one of his sandals, the only 



