OUR TRADING DIFFICULTIES 



237 



imminent. We did not get anytliing lil^e as much cattle as 

 we wanted, and had to draw upon our stores of dhurra. No 

 oxen or camels were brought for sale, and for the numerous 

 sheep and goats offered nothing but tobacco was accej)ted. 

 Whereas in Eeshiat the cry had ever been for Tcharra or 

 Mborro beads, here tumbao or tobacco was perpetually dinned 

 in our ears, and for tobacco, of which, alas, we had none, we 

 might have bought any amount of cattle. 



Our trading difficulties were further increased by the fact 

 that some of our men had a little tobacco with them, and were 

 able to buy plenty of sheep and goats on their own account, 

 whilst we, with all our wares, could only get some thirty small 

 animals. So enamoured of tobacco were the natives that they 

 would sell sheep and goats for a mere pinch of it. Count 

 Teleki let things take their course, as he knew that some fine 

 day, when all the rest of the food was gone, the men would have 

 to give up or to eat the animals they had bought, and we also 

 hoped that when all the tobacco was exhausted the natives 

 would be more willing to accept our beads and wire. Qualla, 

 who conducted our purchases for us, had a very difficult task, 

 and finally quite lost all patience, never, so to speak, recovering 

 his good temper whilst we remained in Turkana. He paid for 

 sheep and goats, according to their size, three to five coils of 

 iron wire some eight inches in diameter, with as many strings of 

 white Masai beads, all the coloured ones being exhausted. But 

 hundreds of transactions were broken off or bargains backed 

 out of because the natives could not be brought to believe that 

 none of the bales contained tobacco, or thought that they would 

 try once more to get tobacco from some of our people. Finalfy 

 Qualla was compelled to realise that he was in very bad odour 

 with the natives, partly because of his refusal to give them 

 tobacco, and partly because of the rough and ready manner in 

 which he treated them when he was out of humour. Meanwhile 



