IN BKITISH EAST AFRICA 115 



clean white napery and briglitly-biirning lamps. Marrow- 

 soup, followed by cutlets of gazelle and a spatchcocked 

 guinea-fowl, then curried venison and a marvellous 

 pudding (cornflour from Glasgow, peaches from 

 Australia or pine-apple from Natal) form a sample 

 menu — the whole w^ashed down with tea, while a final 

 " tot " completes the feast. 



The best potatoes on earth grow in British East 

 Africa ; but these, and flour also, are bulky cargo, so 

 that, after a week or two, bread and the tuber are 

 replaced by camp biscuits. 



Commotion in the camp presently announces the 

 arrival of the porters carrying in the spoils of the day. 

 Silently, one by one, these emerge from outer darkness, 

 and advancing across the ring of firelight, each deposits 

 his burden of meat. This is placed in charge of the 

 headman, w^hile heads and horns are brought up to us, 

 to add to the ever-increasino^ Golo-otha behind our tents. 

 At once begins the work of preparing specimens, off^- 

 skinning, pegging-out hides, rubbing-in wood-ash, etc. 

 The responsibility for this rests with the Somali hunters, 

 aided by any Swahili recruits they may have enlisted 

 and tausfht this work.^ Meanwhile, the rest of the 

 crowd are busy cooking. Frying-pans and gridirons 

 are balanced on three stones at every fire, the fizzling 

 of broiling meat sounds through the camp, and soon all 

 are oorsfino- on unwonted abundance. 



& O o , 



In this superb climate appetites, even white appe- 

 tites scarcely recognisable at home, rapidly rival those 

 of hyenas. The Swahili, it would appear, remain 

 constitutionally at about that standard. 



Another constitutional feature noticed in the Swahili, 



1 Many Swahilis display considerable aptitude in this work, and 

 become quite reliable even in the more delicate operations, such as 

 cleaning the lips and eye-sockets, the claws of felidx, etc. They 

 are keen to be so employed, as not only does the accomplish- 

 ment give them a preference, but it also means receiving two 

 or three rupees a month over and above their regular wage as 

 porters. 



