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AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
could talk freely with them. These black soldiers be¬ 
haved excellently, and the attitude, both toward them and 
toward us, of the natives in the various villages we came 
across was totally incompatible with any theory that these 
natives had suffered from any maltreatment; they behaved 
just like the natives in British territory. There had to be 
the usual parleys with the chiefs of the villages to obtain 
food for the soldiers (we carried the posho for our own 
men), and ample payment was given for what was brought 
in; and in the only two cases where the natives thought 
themselves aggrieved by the soldiers, they at once brought 
the matter before us. One soldier had taken a big gourd 
of water when very thirsty; another, a knife from a man 
who was misbehaving himself. On careful inquiry, and 
delivering judgment in the spirit of Solomon, we decided 
that both soldiers had been justified by the provocation 
received; but as we were dealing with the misdeeds of 
mere big children, we gave the gourd back to its owner 
with a reprimand for having refused the water, and per¬ 
mitted the owner of the knife, whose offence had been 
more serious, to ransom his property by bringing in a 
chicken to the soldier who had it. 
The natives lived in the usual pointed beehive huts in 
unfenced villages, with shambas lying about them; and 
they kept goats, chickens, and a few cattle. Our perma¬ 
nent camp was near such a village. It was interesting 
to pass through it at sunrise or sunset, when starting on or 
returning from a hunt. The hard, bare earth was swept 
clean. The doors in the low mud walls of the huts were 
but a couple of feet high and had to be entered on all-fours; 
black pickaninnies scuttled into them in wild alarm as we 
