66 
IN AFRICA 
among strange and savage people, in strange and 
savage lands, and always threatened by strange and 
savage animals. The life is new and the scenery 
new. There is adventure and novelty in every day 
of such a life, and it is that phase of it that has 
the most insistent appeal. It is the call of the wild 
to which the pre-Adamite monkey in our nature 
responds. 
Even if one never used his rifle one would still 
enjoy life on safari . Safari is an Arabic word 
meaning expedition as it is understood in that coun¬ 
try. If you go on any sort of a trip you are on 
safari . It need not be a shooting trip. 
Of course everybody who has read the magazines 
of the last year has been more or less familiarized 
with African hunting. He has read of the amount 
of game that the authors have killed and of the nar¬ 
row escapes that they have had. 
He also has read about expeditions into districts 
with strange names, but naturally these names have 
meant nothing to him. I know that I read reams 
of African stuff about big game shooting and 
about safari, yet in spite of all that, I remained 
in the dark as to many details of such a life. I 
wanted to know what kind of money or trade stuff 
the hunter carried; what sort of things he had to eat 
each day; what he wore, and how he got from place 
to place. Most writers have a way of saying: “We 
equipped our safari in Nairobi and made seven 
marches to such and such a place, where we ran into 
some excellent eland.” All the important small de- 
