178 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



a bad plan to allow one porter to every four or five askaris, to 

 carry their food, sleeping mats, &c. This would save a good deal 

 of grumbling and discontent amongst the porters, as it would 

 prevent the askaris from taking advantage of them by piling 

 their private kits and food on to the load of a porter already 

 heavily laden. By right, askaris should carry their own kits, but 

 in a shooting trip, when perhaps the sportsman wishes to get 

 as far and do as much as he can in a given time, it is well to 

 avoid all causes of friction amongst the men as much as pos- 

 sible by a little judicious leniency of this kind. The pay of 

 an askari is 12 rupees per month, and his posho is half as 

 much again as a porter's that is, one and a half ' kibaba ' or its 

 equivalent. On the coast their posho is 12 pice. 



The porters (' pagazi '), of whom there are several grades, 

 good, bad and indifferent, although they often exasperate their 

 master even to the verge of desperation, are, as a rule, first- 

 rate fellows. A porter will do, considering his pay and food, what 

 few other men, if any, will or can do. He is naturally cheerful 

 and easily pleased, but no one can be more sulky and obstinate. 

 Provided, however, that his stomach is kept full, it is possible 

 to do almost anything with him. On the march and a march 

 varies considerably, from six to eighteen miles, and sometimes 

 more the porter will carry, besides his regulation load of 65 

 Ibs., his sleeping-mat, with ten days' posho on the top of it, a 

 Snider carbine, and belt with ten rounds of ammunition, and 

 also his water calabash (' mbuyu '). At the end of the march it 

 is his duty to cut down thorn-trees and bushes, and drag them 

 into camp to make the boma, when his work for the day is 

 over, excepting that he has to collect firewood and water for 

 himself and his mess Should the sportsman go out to shoot, 

 he is ever ready to follow his master for the sake of the meat. 

 I have known many porters, even at the end of a long, tiring, 

 waterless march, who, after quenching their thirst, have filled 

 their calabashes and gone back several miles, of their own 

 accord, to help the stragglers into camp. A porter's wage is 

 10 rupees per month and his posho, one 'kibaba' (a measure 



