284 ON SAFARI 



Presuming tliat it is intended to penetrate some 

 distance back from the railway, a force of at least thirty 

 to forty porters, or upwards, will be required — for in 

 East Africa beasts of burden are not available, owing to 

 the terror of the tsetse -fly. 



Add to these a couple of Somali hunters with two 

 gun-bearers apiece, tent-boys, cook and cook's mates, 

 wdtli the requisite number of askaris — as by law 

 recjuired — and you have a fair-sized mob of savages. 



Now when one's whole thoughts and attention are 

 absorbed by the primary objects of the expedition, it is 

 in the last degree inconvenient to the leaders to be con- 

 stantly called upon to settle details of organisation, 

 discipline and the like. Yet these matters must be 

 settled ; and upon their efficient execution day by day 

 depends nothing less than the comfort and success of 

 the entire venture. 



Nor are these duties any slight or insignificant 

 business. They involve, for example, the provision, 

 superintendence and daily issue of rations, together with 

 their due subdivision among the various " messes " ; the 

 apportionment of loads and other duties, both in camp 

 and on the march, to each individual ; the setting and 

 relief of watches and work-parties for wood and water, 

 too;ether with the constant maintenance of order and 

 content, and a hundred minor matters. 



All this falls — or should fall — upon the Neapara 

 or headman aforesaid. An efficient headman, strong, 

 insighted and forceful, means a contented safari and a 

 smooth-running exjDedition. On the other hand, a feeble 

 eye-serving neapara wrecks the w^liole show. 



All this, it may be urged, is self-evident. Admittedly 

 so ; when put thus in plain words, after the event. But 

 in practice foresight sometimes fails, and one may only 

 come to realise such facts when face to face with an ill- 

 managed mob of half-mutinous savages far away in 

 African wilds. That event may easily occur should 

 your headman belong to the second of the two cate- 

 gories above defined. I speak from experience of both. 



