356 IN AFRICA 



certain conditions. Beneath that dopy somnolence 

 of manner his senses were alert and his eyes were 

 usually the first to see distant game. 



He had originally been a porter when we started 

 out, but I gave him a new suit of khaki and pro- 

 moted him to the position of second gunbearer. As 

 long as we were in touch with civilization he kept 

 that khaki suit in a condition of spotlessness, but 

 when we got out in the wilds, away from the girls, 

 it soon became stiff with blood-stains and dirt. The 

 natural savage instinct became predominant ; he re- 

 verted to type. 



His jaunty red fez was replaced by a headgear 

 made of the beautiful skin of a Uganda cob. Os- 

 trich and maribou feathers stuck out from the top, 

 while upon his feet were sandals made from the 

 thick skin of a waterbuck. A zebra tail was fash- 

 ioned into a sheath for his skinning-knife, so that, 

 little by little, he resolved himself back into a con- 

 dition of savage splendor. He usually did most of 

 my skinning, and that being dirty work, I was dis- 

 posed to be tolerant with the disgraceful condition 

 of his khaki suit. 



Finally we approached civilization once more, 

 and I told Sulimani that he'd have to clean up, 

 otherwise the girls wouldn't like him. I gave him 

 half a day off to wash his clothes, and he dutifully 

 disappeared from society for that period. When 

 he once more turned up he was resplendent in his 

 clean clothes. As we marched along toward Nai- 

 robi he broke his long silence by bursting into song. 



