vii THE SWAHILI AND THE SOMALI 71 



that from the point of view of the dwellers in and 

 owners of the country, the trait is not quite so 

 desirable. 



Money being the objective of the Somali, two classes 

 through which that end can be attained lie open for 

 exploitation : the European and the native. And both 

 will serve the purpose according to the taste and 

 individual characteristics of each man ; the native being 

 despoiled by means of trade, and the European through 

 some menial occupation such as headboy, leader of a 

 " Safari " or caravan, or as gunbearer. As a trader 

 of sheep or stock from the natives, the Somali stands 

 facile princeps and his success can only be compared to 

 that of the Indian in store-keeping. No journey is 

 too hard, no privation too great, and, I regret to add, 

 no expedient too mean by which sheep or stock can be 

 obtained at a quarter their true value from the un- 

 sophisticated savage. In the central portions of the 

 country this cozening of the native will soon right 

 itself; the latter is no fool at bottom, and is rapidly 

 learning that there is not really any adequate reason 

 for the enormous profit obtained by this species of 

 middleman. It is in the out-districts that the trading 

 Somali requires more careful watching, since to safe- 

 guard his own obvious interests he fills the minds of 

 the natives of those parts with contempt and distrust 

 of any white men who might be inclined to follow in 

 his footsteps. Thus in 19 10 Somalis penetrated over 

 the Southern Abyssinian frontier and brought back 

 very considerable mobs of Boran cattle and horses 

 in strict defiance of the so-called Government of 

 Abyssinia. An expedition, sent up to the same place 

 by our Government in the following year for the 

 purpose of putting this same trading on a proper basis, 



