8 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



shaves from puff-adders, two from mambas, and one from 

 a deadly type of water snake. 



I will now leave the subject of pests and mention the 

 building of my camp, which may be of interest to any 

 wanderer who intends to live or settle here for a time. 



It was in May, 1912, when I started operations, having 

 already been ten years in Central Africa, so I was quite 

 well experienced in this kind of work. 



The first thing I did was to get labourers, and there was 

 no difficulty about this, as scores of natives came to me to 

 apply for work. In 1903 I had lived in this district and 

 they knew that there would be plenty of meat going, for 

 nothing attracts a native here more than nyama (meat or 

 game). Some of my carriers wished to stay on for a month, 

 and, including them, I wrote on over fifty men and boys. 

 The women here do not work much for Europeans, as they 

 do in India, for they have their own duties to perform. 

 However, when I wanted grass for thatching purposes 

 later on, they brought me thousands of bundles, receiving 

 for each load a lump of fresh meat, or in some cases 

 partially cooked meat, which is the best way to preserve it 

 here. I make stands with fires underneath and cut the 

 meat in long strips, gashing it all over so that the heat and 

 smoke can get well into it. In this condition it lasts for 

 several months, and if it gets slightly " high," this is no 

 matter, as the natives like their meat with a strong gamey 

 flavour. 



After noting the names of the labourers, I went off with 

 a few men to look for a site not too far from the Bua River. 

 The first spot I picked was unsuitable; as the natives 

 informed me it had been used as a cemetery, so I selected 

 another site near it. Even here there were three old graves 

 within 50 yards, but as I am not superstitious, and as the 

 natives said that they had no objections, I got the men to 

 come along and clear the ground of all grass and bushes, 

 and I had to fell some trees also. 



In a dambo, or open grassy space, pretty clear of bush and 

 usually wet in its lower parts in the rainy season, I found a 



