384 



AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



I was glad to wear a mackinaw, a lumberman's jacket, which 

 had been given me by Jack Greenway, and which I cer- 

 tainly never expected to wear in Africa. 



The porters always minded cold, especially if there was 

 rain, and I was glad to get them to the Uasin Gishu, where 

 the nights were merely cool enough to make one appre- 

 ciate blankets, 

 while the days 

 were never op- 

 pressively hot. 

 Although the 

 Swahilis have 

 furnished the 

 model for all 

 East African 

 safari work, 

 and supply the 

 lingua franca 

 for the country, 

 they no longer 

 compose the 



bulk of the porters. Of our porters at this time about two- 

 fifths were stalwart M'nuwezi from German East Africa, 

 two-fifths were Wakamba, and the remainder Swahilis with 

 half a dozen Kavirondos and Kikuyus. The M'nuwezi are 

 the strongest of all, and make excellent porters. They will 

 often be as much as two or three years away from their 

 homes; for safari work is very attractive to the best type 

 of natives, as they live much better than if travelling on 

 their own account, and as it offers almost the only way in 

 which they can earn money. The most severe punishment 

 that can be inflicted on a gun-bearer, tent boy, sais, or 

 porter is to dismiss him on such terms as to make it im- 

 possible for him again to be employed on a safari. In 

 camp the men of each tribe group themselves together in 

 parties, each man sharing any unwonted delicacy with his 

 cronies. 



Kassitura with the roan antelope 

 From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt 



