42 
THROUGH SOMALILAND AND ABYSSINIA ch. n 
with shield and spear and joins your caravan. In a few days 
he has shown some special qualification, for tracking or camel- 
loading, for helping the cook, or carrying the theodolite. An 
accident deprives you of one of your men, and he receives the 
sick man’s rifle and cartridge-belt, and is numbered among your 
escort. In a fortnight he has come to the front as one of your 
best men, and on the next expedition he may be head camelman, 
and perhaps on a third or fourth interpreter and caravan leader. 
When he first joined you a year before he knew no language but 
Som&li and a little Arabic, but while in your service he has 
picked up a fair amount of Hindustani. A few years later you 
meet him again as a merchant, who has in the interim 
accompanied half a dozen European sportsmen on shooting trips, 
and has now invested his savings in merchandise, trading with 
tribes which be would never have dared to visit except in the 
service of his white masters. Many a time have I wished that I 
could transform the complacent, shaven-headed, sleek-looking 
scoundrel back into the original unsophisticated cub with the 
mop of hair who came into my camp two or three years before ! 
