24 



AT NYEMPS 



exhausted. We felt this the more as the game of Africa is 

 very lean. In fact, we craved as eagerly for fat or grease as 

 do the Esquimaux. We could have eaten pounds of it, and 

 we gloated over the thought of the fat humps of the oxen days 

 before we ate them. They were to us the daintiest tid-bits, 

 and we would not have exchanged them for all the triumphs 

 of European culinary arts. 



Our men, meanwhile, had become quite accustomed to a 

 flesh diet, and had not had any dhurra for weeks. The people 

 of caravans never so much as see salt during their wanderings, 

 and this is perhaps the reason why they prefer the entrails to 

 any other portion of an animal. We did not notice any un- 

 pleasant results from this exclusive use of meat, and as a matter 

 of fact, if the transition from vegetables to meat is not too 

 sudden, but is effected gradually in four or six days, there are 

 seldom any ill results, the men becoming thinner it is true, but 

 stronger and better able to endure fatigue, &c. They, too, 

 craved for fat, and thefts of it were almost the only mis- 

 demeanours now requiring punishment, for our men had grown 

 very trustworthy and conscientious. 



On the afternoon of December 27 the trading caravan at 

 last arrived from Nyemps, and camped near us, glad of a chance 

 of once more eating their fill, the Count having- the day before 

 shot a quantity of game, including two buffaloes. The amount 

 of meat negroes can consume is perfectly marvellous, as is also 

 their power to endure hunger. The people of this caravan 

 had subsisted for more than three months on a handful each 

 of dhurra or eleusine and were about to undertake the return 

 journey to Miansini without any store of provisions with them. 

 The hardships connected with the bringing of ivory down to 

 the coast are very great, and nothing but an enthusiastic love 

 of travelling can account for the fact that numbers yearly 

 leave Dar es Salaam and Mombasa for the interior with just 



