324 



AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



At last fifty Kikuyus assembled they are not able to 

 carry the loads of regular Swahili porters and I started 

 that moment, though it was too late in the 

 afternoon to travel more than three or four 

 miles. The Kikuyus were real savages, naked 

 save for a dingy blanket, usually carried round 

 the neck. They formed a 

 picturesque safari; but it was 

 difficult to make the grass- 

 hopper-like creatures take 

 even as much thought for the 

 future as the ordinary happy- 

 go-lucky porters take. At 

 night if it rained they cow- 

 ered under the bushes in 

 drenched and shivering dis- 

 comfort; and yet they had 

 to be driven to make bough 

 shelters for themselves. Once 

 these shelters were up, and a 

 little fire kindled at the en- 

 trance of each, the moping, 

 spiritless wretches would 

 speedily become transformed 

 into beings who had lost all re- 

 membrance of ever having 

 been wet or cold. After their 

 posho had been distributed 

 and eaten they would sit, 

 huddled and cheerful, in 

 their shelters, and sing 

 steadily for a couple of hours. 

 Their songs were much wilder 

 than those of the regular porters, and were often warlike. 

 Occasionally, some "shanty man," as he would be called 

 on shipboard, improvised or repeated a kind of story in 

 short sentences or strophes; but the main feature of each 



Kikuyu warrior 

 From a photograph by Edmund Heller 



