CHAPTER XV 
DOWN THE NILE : THE GIANT ELAND 
We spent two or three days in Nimule, getting every¬ 
thing ready for the march north to Gondokoro. 
By this time Kermit and I had grown really attached 
to our personal followers, whose devotion to us, and 
whose zeal for our success and welfare and comfort, had 
many times been made rather touchingly manifest; 
even their shortcomings were merely those of big, 
naughty children, and, though they occasionally needed 
discipline, this was rare, whereas the amusement they 
gave us was unending. When we reached Nimule we 
were greeted with enthusiasm by Magi, Kermit’s Kikuyu 
sais, who had been in charge of the mules which we did 
not take into the Lado. Magi was now acting as sais 
for me as well as for Kermit, and he came to Kermit to 
discuss the new dual relationship. “ Now I am the sais 
of the Bwana Makuba, as well as of you, the Bwana 
Merodadi ” (the Dandy Master, as, for some inscrutable 
reason, all the men now called Kermit); “ well, then, 
you’ll both have to take care of me,” concluded the 
ruse Magi. 
Whenever we reached one of these little stations 
where there was an Indian trading store, we would see 
that those of our followers who had been specially 
devoted to us—and this always included all our imme- 
430 
