VII 
THE SWAHILI AND THE SOMALI 
7 1 
that from the point of view of the dwellers in and 
owners of the country, the trait is not quite so 
desirable. 
Money being the objective of the Somali, two classes 
through which that end can be attained lie open for 
exploitation : the European and the native. And both 
will serve the purpose according to the taste and 
individual characteristics of each man; the native being 
despoiled by means of trade, and the European through 
some menial occupation such as headboy, leader of a 
“ Safari ” or caravan, or as gunbearer. As a trader 
of sheep or stock from the natives, the Somali stands 
facile princeps and his success can only be compared to 
that of the Indian in store-keeping. No journey is 
too hard, no privation too great, and, I regret to add, 
no expedient too mean by which sheep or stock can be 
obtained at a quarter their true value from the un¬ 
sophisticated savage. In the central portions of the 
country this cozening of the native will soon right 
itself; the latter is no fool at bottom, and is rapidly 
learning that there is not really any adequate reason 
for the enormous profit obtained by this species of 
middleman. It is in the out-districts that the trading 
Somali requires more careful watching, since to safe¬ 
guard his own obvious interests he fills the minds of 
the natives of those parts with contempt and distrust 
of any white men who might be inclined to follow in 
his footsteps. Thus in 1910 Somalis penetrated over 
the Southern Abyssinian frontier and brought back 
very considerable mobs of Boran cattle and horses 
in strict defiance of the so-called Government of 
Abyssinia. An expedition, sent up to the same place 
by our Government in the following year for the 
purpose of putting this same trading on a proper basis, 
