ELMENTEITA IN FEBRUARY 149 



our porters, a N'yuniwezi named Ibrahim, died rather 

 suddenly. The apparent cause was inflammation of the 

 throat, rendering him speechless, nor had we either the 

 knowledge or the means to alleviate it. The first in- 

 timation was brouoiit us durino- the afternoon : we tried 

 such simple remedies as we had, but at seven o'clock, 

 just as we were sitting down to dinner, w^ord was sent 

 in that the poor fellow w-as dead. 



He was buried at dawn outside the camp, the grave 

 being five feet deep and the body, wa^apt in his blanket, 

 placed sidew^ays in a narrow^er trench dug some eighteen 

 inches deeper. This the men covered with piles of thorns 

 and brushwood before filling in the earth, the wdiole 

 being finally heaped over with stones. That night 

 hyenas and jackals kept up an unearthly concert aU 

 around the camp, but the grave remained intact in the 



mornmo-. 



A few days later, having in the meantime been 

 obliged, by an attack of fever, as below mentioned, to 

 abandon our intended expedition to Laikipia, we repassed 

 the spot and found that poor Ibrahim's remains had 

 been dug out by hyenas. 



An incident in this connection illustrates wdiat w^atchful 

 care the Colonial Government exercises over the rights 

 and interests of our black fellow-subjects. Months after- 

 wards, while paying-oflf our safari at Mombasa, I had 

 entered, on the official discharge form, this man as 

 "dead"; another as "missing — believed to be dead." 

 Objection, however, w^as taken, and further explanation 

 required, especially the precise dates, lest some balance 

 of w^aoes mio'ht remain due to their executors. Now 

 the contingency of African savages possessing such 

 modern refinements as " executors " had certainly not 

 occurred to me, and the suggestion almost provoked a 

 sense of the ludicrous. The grim picture opposite gives, 

 I fear, a more practical view^ of those functionaries. 

 These trustees may truly be said to be " dealing wath 

 the w^hole estate," since on totting up accounts it 

 appeared that poor Ibrahim had not run ofi" his advance- 



