48 THE LAND OF THE LION 



carry one) he reduced the toughest kongoni to something 

 edible, and before the trip was over he was equal to roasting 

 quite appetizingly a partridge or duck. 



He had to be outfitted, of course, i. e., provided with 

 khaki coat, trousers and boots, for the rags he stood up 

 in were not decent. Amid all the dire misfortunes that had 

 overtaken him since he was with me, he had managed, 

 he told me with evident pride, to retain three hats, and he 

 produced them. Two were like his trousers, and were 

 hats only by courtesy. But the third was a brand-new 

 blazing scarlet tarbushe. His belongings he said had been 

 stolen the same time as his chits, and he saved his hats 

 from the fate of his clothes by wearing them night and day. 

 Peter with two black hats, and the tarbushe, of course, 

 on top, was a sight not easily forgotten. As he marched 

 along, a kettle usually in each hand, the flaming red top 

 hamper would tip rakishly first to one side then to the 

 other. When we got among game, I suppose to make 

 assurance doubly sure, and to save its loved colour from 

 the drenching rains of the wet season, which we were then 

 encountering, he actually extemporized a fourth and most 

 serviceable head covering of raw kongoni skin, which he 

 drew down over all his precious headgear. The last was 

 all you saw on his head till the end of the trip, when oily, 

 but otherwise good as new, the temporary eclipsed tar- 

 boushe shone forth in tarnished splendour, to celebrate 

 his return to Nairobi and civilization. 



I began with the headman, the director and guide of 

 my little company. I have come now to its tail the toto 

 its apprentice boy, not entered on your list of men. 

 You have no knowledge of his existence till some day, 

 from somewhere, he bobs up before you, just a toto. It 

 may be you see him first, though this is unlikely, wedged 

 in among the legs of a dozen or fifteen men, in one of the 

 already dreadfully crowded third class compartments 



