144 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



I may here notice the method of carrying burdens adopted 

 by these people. The load is suspended by a strap passing 

 across the forehead, and lies on the back of the bearer, who 

 walks in a stooping attitude. This practice has evidently 

 originated in a bush country, where it is most awkward to 

 get along, under overhanging branches, with, a burden on the 

 head (as one sees exemplified in one's own porters' difficulties). 

 On the other hand, close to the coast and in the far interior, 

 where the country is for the most part more open, the natives 

 carry on the head. As might be expected, the consequence 

 is that the Wakamba and kindred races do not hold them- 

 selves nearly so well as those tribes who are forced, by their 

 mode of carrying, to stand erect. This stooping attitude, 

 induced by a similar cause, may be observed in parts of 

 Scotland, where the women carry peats in a basket slung on 

 the back. 



The Wakamba are most assiduous bee-keepers. Their 

 " bee-tubs " may be seen in the bush at immense distances 

 from their kraals. The big baobabs are favourite trees for 

 the purpose, and their huge, soft trunks have frequently a 

 row of pegs, driven in at intervals, to serve as steps, by which 

 a man may mount to the higher branches. The honey is 

 used to make a kind of mead, on which they commonly get 

 intoxicated. They also make a similar drink of the juice 

 of pounded sugar-cane. The extraction of this syrup is a 

 sort of festival. A party of them, each with a pole, may be 

 seen dancing and singing round a huge mortar, keeping time 

 to the tune by plunging their long pestles alternately into 

 the pulp. 



A rather curious custom of the Wakamba women is to 

 take pet lambs or sheep (sometimes two or three) about with 

 them. The object is, I imagine, to fatten these creatures, 

 which follow their owners about while they work in their fields, 

 and find pickings or are given food which they would not get 

 if grazing with the flock. Once I met a little damsel, on the 



