344 A NATURALIST IN MID-AFRICA. 



This was only known to me, and I found out he 

 had obtained relatively enormous advances of food 

 and cloth from most of his fellow-porters, promis- 

 ing to pay at Mombasa when he received his 

 wages, although he knew. that all these would have 

 been given to his creditors. 



The manner in which the now happily defunct 

 I.B.E.A. Co. played into the hands of these Hindu 

 usurers, and obtained payment from those indebted 

 to itself by this system of "family remittance," 

 was disgraceful. As a rule, this family remittance, 

 supposed to support the porter's wife, goes to his 

 master if, as in most cases, he is a slave ; but I 

 fervently hope the whole system of paying and 

 engaging porters has been thoroughly reorganised. 



The same kind of contradictory qualities appear 

 over and over again when one studies the Suahili 

 character. One of the pleasantest traits in their 

 disposition is the tendency to look on the cheerful 

 side of things. For instance, they were mightily 

 pleased because, on the march, if overtaken by 

 severe rain, I used to make them undo the baggage 

 tarpaulin and remain under it ; and while they 

 stood there, shivering all over with cold, they 

 would laugh and howl with delight at the witticisms 

 of the wag of the party. Even when pitching 

 camp, with all their scanty wardrobe soaked 

 through, they would take it as an enormous joke, 

 and never grew depressed and melancholy. More- 

 over, when they receive a punishment, which they 



