i 
Tie ed 
The Young Folks. 
Different Ways of Travelling. 
One of the strangest and one of the 
most amusing ways of travelling which 
has ever been heard of was that which 
was adopted by the King of Obbo, a 
country near the upper part of the 
Nile. He was not a good walker, and so 
he usually rode; but he did not choose a 
horse or a camel, as we might expect that 
aking would do; he put himself upon 
the back of one of his strongest subjects 
and rode pickaback as,children do, When 
he travelled, he was:usually accompanied 
by two or three strong men, who took’ it 
in turn to carry him in this way. When 
an English traveller who had a_ horse 
visited him, he thought he would like to 
try what a ride on horseback was like ; 
but he was no sooner mounted than the 
disloyal animal kicked him off. He was 
at first rather stunned, but when he 
recovered himself he concluded that the 
horse was‘too high’ for him, and he 
thought that a ‘little horse’? or donkey 
would suit him better. But the truth 
was that he was safer on the back of one 
of his subjects, who could hold him on as 
Well as bear his weight. 
Probably there is no other country in 
which men are ridden in this way; but 
in some of the countries on the western 
Coast of South America, through which 
the lofty mountain range of the Andes 
passes, there is a mode of travelling which 
is somewhat similar. In Columbia 
Ecuador, and Peru, travellers and goods 
are usually carried by mules, but many 
of the mountain roads or paths are only 
used by men, who carry everything on 
their backs. ‘The traveller in these wild 
and lonely districts sits in a chair which. 
is strapped upon the back of an Indian 
Who toils slowly and painfully up the 
Tugged, winding, and dangerous paths. 
Some years ago nearly all the heavy 
household furniture, chairs, cabinets, and 
®ven pianos, which were found in Cuzco 
had been carried up from the seaports by 
Indians. 
In many parts of the world it is quite 
impossible to travel 
porters to carry the loads of provisions 
are required on the way. . 
of porters which a single traveller requires 
if he is making a long journey, is often 
~-any moment, 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
without. native 
ammunition, clothing, and tents, which 
The number 
surprising. Speke, an English traveller 
in Africa, started from Zanzibar with 
He kept .a 
record of their services, and from that 
account we learn that they nearly all de- 
serted him at different places on the 
way. Only twelve of them remained with 
him to the end of the journey, Fortun- 
ately, as the provisions and other things. - 
were consumed or used up, the loads 
became fewer and lighter, and he did not. 
need so many porters. He hired a few 
new ones on the way, until he. reached © 
Cairo, in Egypt. 
about ninety native carriers, 
He called these seven- 
teen or eighteen blacks who completed - 
the journey his ‘ faithful children? He_ 
had them all photographed, showed them 
all the sights of Cairo, gave them each:.:. 
_ three years’ pay, and sent them back 
home to Zanzibar by ship; so I think 
they were well rewarded for their faith- - 
fulness. It would, however, haye been 
quite impossible for him to travel from 
Zanzibar to Cairo without their help. 
The strength of African native carriers 
is surprising. Livingstone knew one who 
‘had carried a load of ivory weighing ten 
stone for hundreds of miles.. Marching 
along under a hot sun with a heavy load 
upon ones’ back is hard work, and the 
advance is slow, Afew miles a day is 
often as much as an expedition on foot 
can accomplish. 
where the path is difficult to find and very 
encumbered, half a mile in the hour is 
sometimes the quickest rate of pro™ 
gress. Indeed, an explorer who had 
travelled in forests very often, once said 
that he never accomplished more than 
ten milesin a day, and that journey 
occupied him ten hours, 
In forests and swamps 
The chief of nearly every savage tribe» ° 
has his trained runners who carry his 
messages and orders from place to 
place, and the fleetness of these men is © 
just as surprising as the strength of the 
porters. In Uganda they stand about 
the king, ready to receive his orders a; 
.~No.sooner isthe order 
6 
37 
given than they start off at a run, fearing 
the anger of the king if they should 
appear slow to carry out his commands. A 
traveller in-Africa once sent off a negro. 
runner who ran one hundred and eighty 
miles in four and a half days—that is, at 
the rate of forty miles a day.., 
In ancient times, when roads were not 
so good, and vehicles not so numerous as. 
they are now, nearly every country had 
runners-or foot-posts to carry important 
messages. In China these foot posts had 
heuses at short distances along the main 
roads, and each post carried his letter 
from his own house to. the next. Each 
had a‘belt.with bells upon it round his 
waist, and as he ran the -tinkling of the 
bells warned’ the post whose house he was 
approaching | to be out and ready.to receive 
the letter, By this means all waste of 
» time was avoided, and a letter might be 
carried in two days a distance which the 
ordinary traveller would Ouse Beco DULL 
in ten days; fs =a 
The Incas ‘of Peru, who were conquered 
by. the: Spaniards some thrdo. and a ‘half 
centuries ago, had several 5 ‘high roads 
extending” from Cuzco, the capital; to 
_Yarious parts of, the country, On these 
“roads they had post houses like those of 
_ancient China, and swift runners carried 
messages from place to place very 
quickly. “One of these roads passed over 
, the Andes from Cuzco to the shores of the 
Pacific Ocean, a distance of more than 
three hundred . miles. of _the most 
mountainous country. It was said that 
the king residing in Cuzco couldeat fresh 
fish which had been caught in the sea on 
the previous day, and was carried by the 
foot-posts before it had lost its fresh- 
ness. ‘he Indian runners can at the 
present time run nine and a half miles an 
hour, it is said, and thus, allowing that a 
greats number, of runners were employed 
to carry ‘the fish from’ stage to stage, it is 
~ quite possible that this account was 
true. 
am 
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7 Conundrums. 
Why's would you ‘suppose a clock | to" ‘be 
bashful? 
Because it always oops 45 hinds before: 
its face. ans 
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prin | edu duewateriese 3 REST 
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