266 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 
camp 44 posho,” or food for the porters. He announced 
that they were all in readiness in a letter to Cuning- 
hame, which was meant to be entirely respectful, but 
which sounded odd, as it was couched in characteristic 
Baboo English. The opening lines ran : 44 Dear K-ham, 
the donkeys are altogether deadly.” 
At last fifty Kikuyus assembled—they are not able to 
carry the loads of regular Swahili porters—and I started 
that moment, though it was too late in the afternoon to 
travel more than three or four miles. The Kikuyus 
were real savages, naked save for a dingy blanket, 
usually carried round the neck. They formed a 
picturesque safari; but it was difficult to make the 
grasshopper-like creatures take even as much thought 
for the future as the ordinary happy-go-lucky porters 
take. At night if it rained they cowered under the 
bushes in drenched and shivering discomfort; and yet 
they had to be driven to make bough shelters for them¬ 
selves. Once these shelters were up, and a little fire 
kindled at the entrance of each, the moping, spiritless 
wretches would speedily become transformed into beings 
who had lost all remembrance of ever having been wet 
or cold. After their posho had been distributed and 
eaten they would sit, huddled and cheerful, in their 
shelters, and sing steadily for a couple of hours. Their 
songs were much wilder than those of the regular 
porters, and were often warlike. Occasionally, some 
44 chanty man,” as he would be called on shipboard, 
improvised or repeated a kind of story in short sentences 
or strophes; but the main feature of each song was the 
endless repetition of some refrain, musically chanted in 
chorus by the whole party. This repetition of a short 
sentence or refrain is a characteristic of many kinds of 
savage music, I have seen the Pawnees grow almost 
