CARAVAN LIFE 



29 



through, and his arm was gashed in several places. Others 

 had spear-thrusts and cuts on their bodies. I believe some 

 twenty porters lost their lives, owing to their recklessness in 

 not keeping some trustworthy men to watch over the common 

 safety. 



Camp-cookery is primitive in the extreme, and takes place 

 in the open air ; in rainy weather a rough grass-hut is 

 run up to serve as a kitchen. It is very difficult to upset 

 what is called " dusturi," or caravan custom, according 

 to which the cook is exempted from carrying anything but 

 the camp-kettle. The porter who has to carry the pots 

 a n d p a n s i s 

 styled "cook's 

 mate," acts as 

 scullery drudge, 

 and acquires a 

 sort of prescrip- 

 tive right of suc- 

 cession to the 

 cook's position. 

 The cook sits 

 by and directs. 

 However little 



CAMP-COOKERY. 



he may have 



to do, he always expects to be supplied with one or more 

 assistants. The photo shows the cook comfortably settled 

 in the shadiest spot, and leisurely awaiting the boiling up of 

 something or other in the pot in front of him ; the cook's mate 

 is busy peeling green bananas, the only vegetable procurable at 

 the time, and one of the boys is assisting in plucking a bird 1 

 had shot for dinner ; the big earthen pot behind him shows that 

 it was he too, probably, who had to fetch the water. 



If the cook's mate is intelligent, he soon knows as much 

 as the cook, since the latter makes him do all the work ; and 

 if he has any aptitude for it, he in time learns something addi- 

 tional from other cooks, when, as now and then happens, 

 travellers meet and share a meal. The judge at Kampala dis- 

 covered one day that his cook never by any chance prepared 

 a meal ; everything was done by the cook's mate, the cook 

 reserving as his part of work the duty of marketing, which led 

 to " perquisites," or, according to Shakespeare, " convey the 



