342 



THE LAKE REGIONS OP CENTRAL AFRICA. 



feet are sore, and they walk half or wholly naked to 

 save their cloth for displays at home. They ignore 

 tent or covering, and sleep on the ground ; their only 

 supplies are their country's produce, a few worn-down 

 hoes, intended at times to purchase a little grain or to 

 be given as blackmail for sultans, and small herds of 

 bullocks and heifers that serve for similar purposes if 

 not lost, with characteristic African futility, upon the 

 road. Those who most consult comfort carry, besides 

 their loads and arms, a hide for bedding, an earthen 

 cooking pot, a stool, a kilindo or bark-box containing 

 cloth and beads, and perhaps a small gourd full of ghee. 

 They sometimes suffer severely from exposure to a 

 climate which forbids long and hard work upon short 

 and hard fare. Malignant epidemics, especially small- 

 pox, often attack caravans as they approach the coast ; 

 generally, however, though somewhat lean and haggard, 

 the porters appear in better condition than might be 

 expected. The European traveller will repent accom- 

 panying these caravans : as was said of a similar race, 

 the Indians of Guiana, " they will not deviate three 

 steps from the regular path." 



Porters engaged by Arab Mtajiri or Mundewa — the 

 former is the Kisawahili, the latter is the Inner African 

 term for a merchant or travelling trader — are known by 

 their superior condition; they eat much more, work much 

 less, and give far greater trouble to their commanders. 

 They expend part of the cloth and beads which they 

 have received as hire to procure for themselves occa- 

 sional comforts ; and on the down-journey they take with 

 them a few worn-down hoes to retain the power of 

 desertion without starving. The self-willed wretches 

 demean themselves with the coolest impudence ; reply im- 

 periously, lord it over their leaders, regulate the marches 



