38 Wild Life in Central Africa. 



Then he left his work and went off to barter the meat for 

 beer, and he thus got very tipsy. Ubibu, the name he 

 went by, was when sober a kind of mountebank, as he used 

 to make a fool of himself and try to make the natives laugh. 



On getting back to the village from the bush where I had 

 been shooting, the natives told me that Ubibu had stolen 

 the meat, so I sent to the place where he ought to have 

 been working to call him, but he was absent. 



At last he was found, and came swaggering up in a very 

 cheeky manner and asked what I wanted with him. 



I then asked him why he had left his work and why he 

 had had the impertinence to steal my meat, when he usually 

 got a very plentiful share, as he was strong and accustomed 

 to carry heavy loads. 



He was very insolent, so I lost my temper, very 

 naturally, and told some men to get hold of him, for he 

 had moved off, shouting as he went. The men came back 

 w r ith him ; at least, he was walking in the centre singing and 

 shouting. 



Now, I did not wish to take the law into my own hands, 

 but I knew from past experience that if he was allowed to 

 go without being hurt 1 would lose respect and control ; 

 so I told the men to lay him down and instructed my head 

 capitao, Nterimanja, to give him eight strokes with the 

 thin end of a knobkerry. 



Nterimanja, having served as an askari (soldier), was a 

 pretty lusty fellow, and he knew his duty, so he laid on 

 pretty hard, but Ubibu got up smiling, and went off cursing 

 Nterimanja, who was a Yao like himself, and saying he 

 would bewitch him. As Ubibu had been paid for his 

 previous month's work the day before, there was nothing 

 due to him, so I told him he was dismissed. 



At that time there were several natives returning from 

 the South African mines with a good deal of money and a 

 box of clothes, and Ubibu met one of these fellows in an 

 adjoining village, and this man after several days had 

 elapsed persuaded him to go to the Boma (Government 

 office) and report me. 



