THE SEFARI 41 



Their eye for country is poor. They are superstitiously 

 afraid of strange people, and rhino have a terror for them. 

 Let but one of these beasts come within fifty yards of the 

 marching line, and no well drilled battalion of infantry 

 ever grounded their musket butts with more simultaneous 

 ring, than will they throw down their loads, and take to 

 the nearest tree. You cannot make assistant gunbearers 

 out of these. If your syce is useless, or runs away, the 

 chances are you cannot replace him from among fifty of 

 them. They cannot often be taught to skin well or to 

 take care of heads and trophies, which here, in the changing 

 weather, require the greatest watchfulness, and some skill, 

 too. It will be seen, then, that there are many important 

 items of sefari life they are in no wise fitted to fill. Now, 

 one of the important things to remember in making up a 

 working sefari is to so organize it, that within its ranks 

 are to be found men who can fill gaps unexpectedly made 

 in those ranks. Sickness may disable many of your de- 

 pendable men for a time, or your own change of plans, 

 or change of country, may result in some of your fellows 

 taking their wages, as they have a right to, and leaving 

 you. Others will misbehave or prove too incompetent 

 to be of further use, and to retain such is but to weaken 

 your discipline. Their places must somehow be filled 

 and for this you must fall back on the body of your sefari. 

 My first sefari were all Wanyamwazi. I had them, 

 because I was told, and told truly, they were the best 

 porters in Africa. The consequences were, I found 

 myself with a body of men who could march anywhere 

 and could do little else. They could pitch my tent 

 admirably, but could not save my skins or heads. As 

 gunbearers, they knew nothing of game, where to look 

 for it, or how to kill it. 



In a tight place they always ran away. Not one of them 

 could track, only one of them could skin. That sefari 



