A SAFARI AND WHAT IT IS 67 



tails are thus left out, and the reader remains in 

 ignorance of what the tent boy does, who skins the 

 game that is killed, and what sort of a cook stove 

 they use. 



The purpose of this chapter is to tell something 

 about the little things that happen on safari. First 

 of all, at the risk of repeating what has been writ- 

 ten so often before, I will say a few words about 

 the personnel of a safari, such as the one I was with. 



There were four white people in our expedition 

 Mr. and Mrs. Akeley, Mr. Stephenson, and myself. 

 Mr. Akeley 's chief object was to get a group of five 

 elephants for the American Museum of Natural 

 History and incidentally secure photographic and 

 moving picture records of animal life. Eoth he 

 and Mrs. Akeley had been in Africa before and 

 knew the country as thoroughly perhaps as any who 

 has ever been there. Mr. Akeley undoubtedly is the 

 foremost taxidermist of the world, and his work is 

 famous wherever African animal life has been 

 studied. Mr. Stephenson went for the experience 

 in African shooting, and I for that experience and 

 any other sort that might turn up. 



To supply an expedition of four white people, 

 we had one head-man, whose duty it was to run the 

 safari that is, to get us where we wanted to go. 

 The success and pleasure of the safari depends al- 

 most wholly upon the head-man. If he is weak, the 

 discipline of the camp will disappear and all sorts 

 of annoyances will steadily increase. If he is 

 strong, everything will run smoothly. 



