A PLEA FOR THE NATIVE 395 



So it came about by degrees that the despised Wakamba, 

 Massai or N'dorobo had a chance given him to prove what 

 he could do, and to-day the men who know, the men who 

 understand the pursuit of dangerous game, invariably place 

 confidence in the native rather than in the much-vaunted 

 Somali. 



I cannot conceive of men more brave, of men more abso- 

 lutely devoid of all nervousness, men more utterly faithful 

 and self-sacrificing than those good fellows who came with 

 me. My one difficulty with them was to prevent them 

 from thrusting their own bodies, in front of mine, into the 

 dangerous cover where death lurked. I found myself 

 one morning in long grass, with lions all round me, all of 

 them unseen, two of them wounded, deep nerve-shaking 

 grunts coming from all sides but a few yards away. My 

 Somali danced hither and thither like a nut on a hot frying- 

 pan; my Wakamba "Brownie" never moved a muscle. 



One thief, and one only, I had in my sefaris, in thirteen 

 months' travelling. He stole my precious letter bag, photos, 

 hunting knife, and seventy-five rupees. When I got back 

 to Nairobi I talked the matter over with Brownie. The 

 man was a Wakamba, one I had taken on at Nairobi for 

 a short sefari only. I asked Brownie what he could do to 

 catch the thief and save the honour of his people; he under- 

 took to do his best. He took up the man's trail, followed 

 him for several hundred miles, first to one outlying village 

 then to another, and finally at Kilinduni, the port of Mom- 

 bassa, ran him to ground. The job cost both of us much 

 trouble and me not a little expense. I may mention inci- 

 dentally that the affair was undertaken at the government's 

 request, and though I did thereby a real service to the 

 authorities by bringing to justice a most cunning criminal, 

 I could not even procure for Brownie so much as a pass on 

 the railroad from Mombassa back to Nairobi, but had to 

 pay this expense myself. They muddle things strangely 



