84 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
one word or one phrase which, when we asked to have it 
translated, might or might not prove to be entirely mean¬ 
ingless. The headmen carried no burdens, and the tent 
boys hardly anything, while the saises walked with the 
spare horses. In addition to the canonical and required 
costume of blouse or jersey and drawers, each porter wore 
a blanket, and usually something else to which his soul 
inclined. It might be an exceedingly shabby coat; it might 
be, of all things in the world, an umbrella, an article for 
which they had a special attachment. Often I would see 
a porter, who thought nothing whatever of walking for 
hours at midday under the equatorial sun with his head 
bare, trudging along with solemn pride either under an 
open umbrella, or carrying the umbrella (tied much like 
Mrs. Gamp’s) in one hand, as a wand of dignity. Then 
their head-gear varied according to the fancy of the indi¬ 
vidual. Normally it was a red fez, a kind of cap only used 
in hot climates, and exquisitely designed to be useless 
therein because it gives absolutely no protection from the 
sun. But one would wear a skin cap; another would sud¬ 
denly put one or more long feathers in his fez; and another, 
discarding the fez, would revert to some purely savage 
head-dress which he would wear with equal gravity whether 
it were, in our eyes, really decorative or merely comic. One 
such head-dress, for instance, consisted of the skin of the 
top of a zebra’s head, with the two ears. Another was 
made of the skins of squirrels, with the tails both sticking 
up and hanging down. Another consisted of a bunch of 
feathers woven into the hair, which itself was pulled out 
into strings that were stiffened with clay. Another was 
really too intricate for description because it included the 
