PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION 153 
A good pair of binoculars with a strap to hang them around the 
neck is an important detail of the outfit. 
After supplies and equipment have been selected and ordered 
there remains only the matter of securing a safari or caravan. This 
consists of a head man and his head porter, gun bearers, syces or 
grooms for the riding horses or mules, tent boys or personal servants, 
cooks and, last but far from least, the porters. These vary in numbers 
according to the number in the party and the length of the stay in the 
interior. The Roosevelt party started with more than two hundred. 
The entire safari is native of course and consists usually of Somalis, 
Swahilis, Kikuyu, Wakamba, Uganda, Matabele, Masai, etc. Of these 
the Somalis receive the highest wages, as they are superior in every 
way to the rest. As gun bearers their bravery in a tight place makes 
them invaluable, and as porters they are able to carry greater weights 
than any of the other tribes. Mr. R. J. Cunninghame, the leader of 
Mr. Roosevelt's safari, takes exception to the Somalis, however, 
claiming that punishment is absolutely necessary in handling East 
African natives. Somalis will not stand beating, and it is difficult 
to enforce discipline and keep them up to their work without it. The 
other natives expect beating as part of the day's work and will lie 
down on order to take their whipping with the heavy sjambok or 
hippopotamus hide whip common to South and East Africa. 
These preliminaries having been arranged for Mr. Roosevelt, al! 
that was necessary for him to do on arriving at Mombasa was to take 
the train on the Uganda Railway to Nairobi, pick up his outfit and 
begin hunting. 
