TO THE UASIN GISHU 
331 
employed on a safari. In camp the men of each tribe group 
themselves together in parties, each man sharing any un¬ 
wonted delicacy with his cronies. 
Very rarely did we have to take such long marches as to 
exhaust our strapping burden-bearers; usually they came 
into camp in high good humor, singing and blowing ante¬ 
lope horns; and in the evening, after the posho had been 
distributed, cooked, and eaten, the different groups would 
gather each around its camp fire, and the men would chant 
in unison while the flutes wailed and the buzzing harps 
twanged. Of course individuals were all the time meeting 
with accidents or falling sick, especially when they had the 
chance to gorge themselves on game that we had killed; 
and then Cuninghame or Tarlton—than whom two stancher 
and pleasanter friends, keener hunters, or better safari 
managers are not to be found in all Africa—would have 
to add the functions of a doctor to an already multifarious 
round of duties. Some of the men had to be watched lest 
they should malinger; others were always complaining of 
trifles; others never complained at all. Gosho, our excel¬ 
lent headman, came in the last category. On this Uasin 
Gishu trip we noticed him limping one evening; and in¬ 
quiry developed the fact that the previous night, while in 
his tent, he had been bitten by a small poisonous snake. 
The leg was much swollen, and looked angry and inflamed; 
but Gosho never so much as mentioned the incident until 
we questioned him, and in a few days was as well as ever. 
Heller’s chief feeling, by the way, when informed what had 
happened, was one of indignation because the offending 
snake, after paying the death penalty, had been thrown 
away instead of being given to him as a specimen. 
