18 THE PLEISTOCENE AGE [ch. i 
lines, the first containing the fifteen askaris, the second 
the porters with their head-men. The askaris were 
uniformed, each in a red fez, a blue blouse, and white 
knickerbockers, and each carrying his rifle and belt. 
The porters were chosen from several different tribes or 
races, to minimize the danger of combination in the 
event of mutiny. 
Here and there in East Africa one can utilize ox- 
waggons or pack-trains of donkeys ; but for a consider¬ 
able expedition it is still best to use a safari of native 
porters, of the type by which the commerce and ex¬ 
ploration of the country have always been carried on. 
The backbone of such a safari is generally composed 
of Swahili, the coast men, negroes who have acquired 
the Moslem religion, together with a partially Arabi- 
cized tongue and a strain of Arab blood from the Arab 
warriors and traders who have been dominant in the 
coast towns for so many centuries. It was these Swa¬ 
hili trading caravans, under Arab leadership, which, in 
their quest for ivory and slaves, trod out the routes 
which the early white explorers followed. Without 
their work as a preliminary, the work of the white 
explorers could not have been done; and it was the 
Swahili porters themselves who rendered this work 
itself possible. To this day every hunter, trader, mis¬ 
sionary, or explorer must use either a Swahili safari or 
one modelled on the Swahili basis. The part played by 
the white-topped ox-waggon in the history of South 
Africa, and by the camel caravan in North Africa, has 
been played in middle Africa by the files of strong, 
patient, childlike savages, who have borne the burdens 
of so many masters and employers hither and thither, 
through and across, the dark heart of the continent. 
Equatorial Africa is in most places none too healthy 
