2IO THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



gourd is also prepared with the charred wood of a certain tree, which I beheve 

 curdles the milk. Other pleasant native customs are those of mixing the milk with 

 blood or urine, or else they will put it by until it has curdled, and grown a fungus 

 on top. So unless the native can actually be caught milking his cattle, and made 

 to milk into one of your own utensils, it is not much use trying to obtain milk 

 otherwise. Some natives are very willing to oblige, but even with these it takes 

 perhaps a two days' stay in a place before you can obtain drinkable milk. 



On arrival at a place the chief will perhaps immediately come down with 

 presents, including a gourd full of curdled, putrefied milk, which has been put by 

 perhaps for months for some great occasion such as your coming. When he is 

 told that you cannot eat it he often sits down and eats it himself with the greatest 

 gusto. In the evening when the cattle come in he sends you down fresh milk in a 

 gourd smelling most abominably, and with bits of old and decayed milk floating 

 about in it, hoping this will satisfy you. 



Next morning you send a utensil to him to put the milk into, and he milks into 

 the gourd just the same, and then pours it into your utensil. He is very concerned 

 when he finds that this does not suit your fastidious palate, and so in the evening 

 a man is sent to superintend. He returns with the milk and reports that it has 

 been milked directly into your tin. Even then it is strong and unpalatable, and you 

 imagine that it must be something to do with the grazing. Your boy, however, 

 suggests that it is, maybe, caused by the dirty hands of the man who milked, a most 

 revolting thought, but which none the less proves correct, for when the boy makes 

 the herdsman first wash his hands and then the cows' udders, you at last obtain 

 pure, sweet milk. 



Having once obtained your fresh milk, it is such a godsend to drink with tea and 

 mix with your porridge made from native flour that if you are trekking on the next 

 day you will wish to preserve it for as long as possible. 



You should put aside what is required for immediate use and boil the remainder 

 immediately. It will then last throughout the next day, both for breakfast and the 

 evening meal. 



When using tinned milk, in spite of the very urgent exhortation on the lid to 

 punch two holes, I have found it advisable to punch only one. The milk can easily 

 be induced to come out by shaking the tin or by squeezing the top and bottom. 

 When the trek is resumed, a little plug can be put in the hole and none of the milk 

 will then be lost in transit. With two holes though, however carefully they are 

 plugged up, there is sure to be a little air leaking into one which allows of the milk 

 escaping from the other, as the tin among the porter's load rocks with each step. 



