144 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
I may here notice the method of carrying burdens adopted 
by these people. The load is suspended by a strap passing 
across the forehead, and lies on the back of the bearer, who 
walks in a stooping attitude. This practice has evidently 
originated in a bush country, where it is most awkward to 
get along, under overhanging branches, with a burden on the 
head (as one sees exemplified in one’s own porters’ difficulties). 
On the other hand, close to the coast and in the far interior, 
where the country is for the most part more open, the natives 
carry on the head. As might be expected, the consequence 
is that the Wakamba and kindred races do not hold them¬ 
selves nearly so well as those tribes who are forced, by their 
mode of carrying, to stand erect. This stooping attitude, 
induced by a similar cause, may be observed in parts of 
Scotland, where the women carry peats in a basket slung on 
the back. 
The Wakamba are most assiduous bee-keepers. Their 
“ bee-tubs ” may be seen in the bush at immense distances 
from their kraals. The big baobabs are favourite trees for 
the purpose, and their huge, soft trunks have frequently a 
row of pegs, driven in at intervals, to serve as steps, by which 
a man may mount to 'the higher branches. The honey is 
used to make a kind of mead, on which they commonly get 
intoxicated. They also make a similar drink of the juice 
of pounded sugar-cane. The extraction of this syrup is a 
sort of festival. A party of them, each with a pole, may be 
seen dancing and singing round a huge mortar, keeping time 
to the tune by plunging their long pestles alternately into 
the pulp. 
A rather curious custom of the Wakamba women is to 
take pet lambs or sheep (sometimes two or three) about with 
them. The object is, I imagine, to fatten these creatures, 
which follow their owners about while they work in their fields, 
and find pickings or are given food which they would not get 
if grazing with the flock. Once I met a little damsel, on the 
