i8 SAFARI 



become mired and all my photographic materials 

 might be ruined. 



Altogether I had about as much trouble with my 

 transportation problems as a general of the A. E. F., 

 and now there was the problem of recruits. The 

 most experienced and capable I selected out of that 

 black host of grinning faces that had already mo- 

 bilized from all over East Africa. 



To start, I enrolled Ndundu, a wise and crafty 

 gun-bearer, good at his job, but temperamental and 

 as vain as a turkey cock when given a little authority ; 

 Japandi, a skinner, who had been with the elder 

 Roosevelt; Omara, a Meru, whom we would use as 

 gardener at Lake Paradise; Abdulla, a Buganda, for 

 chauffeur and mechanic; Jagongua, a big strapping 

 Kavarando, for head porter of cameras; Thu, a young 

 Kikuyu, to help with the simplest work in pictures; 

 Nasero, a Minumewasa, as assistant head porter 

 and gun-bearer, for he fell just short of the ability to 

 have charge of any important job; Suku, a young 

 Meru, as first boy or body servant; Semona, a 

 Buganda, for second boy; two Merus whose names 

 I cannot remember, for rough carpentering; and 

 above all, Bukhari, my head man, a six foot Nu- 

 bian, black as ink, powerful of limb, statuesque of 

 feature, and a real African aristocrat. 



There were others, of course, who would serve as 

 ordinary porters for carrying things on safari, cutting 



