MOMBASSA TO LION LAND 13 



Amwazi porters, Wakamba trackers, Waganda, Massai 

 guides and totos* all breakfastless had then scrambled 

 into the cars, and, according to the benighted custom of 

 the country, had been at once locked into iron trucks 

 assigned them. 



Potio f they had, of course, each man carrying six 

 kabalas, i. e., six days' rations about nine pounds. 

 But meal or rice cannot be eaten raw, and on a railroad 

 journey cooking was out of the question. So these break- 

 fastless men had had nothing to eat since the afternoon 

 of two days before, yet cheerfully they shouldered their 

 unusually heavy burdens, and marched more than five 

 hours up hill and down dale to the first convenient camping: 

 place. 



Now, few porters anywhere would cheerfully, as these 

 did, undertake such a job. The eminent politician I 

 lately referred to, has just published in the Strand Maga- 

 zine some account of his brief experience of sefari life in 

 Uganda. He describes his sefari's start on the march 

 between the lakes his strongest porters scrambled for 

 the lightest loads, while the heaviest remained to be 

 carried by the weaker ones, who wept over their jobs. 

 And he goes on to say that though there was one 

 headman to every twenty porters, such a state of things, 

 was permitted. 



I have had no experience of sefarying in Uganda, but I 

 can confidently say that in an ordinarily well arranged 

 sefari nothing of the sort could possibly happen in British 

 East Africa. Travelling with such men, and under such 

 circumstances would be intolerable. There never should 

 be any scrambling for loads. All of these should be 

 weighed carefully before any start is made. The loads are 



*Totos are boys learning to be porters. They are not reckoned on the "strength" of a sefari nor 

 do they receive potio. They are engaged as a private matter by men in the sefari to help carry 

 their belongings. Hence often arises difficulty. 



f Potio the meal allowance of about ij Ibs. which each porter has a right ta daily. 



