ey cannot spend
money on the march--they have a goodly number of rupees to draw on
their return to Mombasa. These generally disappear with wonderful
rapidity, and when no more fun can be bought, they join another caravan
and begin a new safari to the Great Lakes, or even beyond. Many a time
have I watched them trudging along the old caravan road which crossed
the Tsavo at a ford about half a mile from the railway station: here a
halt was always called, so that they might wash and bathe in the cool
waters of the river.

Nothing ever seems to damp the spirits of the Swahili porter. Be his
life ever so hard, his load ever so heavy, the moment it is off his
back and he has disposed of his posho (food), he straightway forgets
all his troubles, and begins to laugh and sing and joke with his
fellows as if he were the happiest and luckiest mortal alive. Such was
my cook, Mabruki, and his merry laugh was quite infectious. I remember
that one day he was opening a tin of biscuits for me, and not being
able to pull off the under-lid with his fingers, he seized the flap in
his magnificent teeth and tugged at it. I shouted to him to stop,
thinking that he might break a tooth; but he misunderstood my
solicitude and gravely assured me that he would not spoil the tin!

The Swahili men wear a long white cotton garment, like a night-shirt,
called a kanzu; the women--who are too liberally endowed to be entirely
graceful--go about with bare arms and shoulders, and wear a long
brightly-coloured cloth which they wind tightly round their bosoms and
then allow to fall to the feet. All are followers of the Prophet, and
their social customs are consequently much the same as those of any
other Mohammedan race, though with a good admixture of savagedom. They
have a happy knack of giving a nickname to every European with whom
they have to do, such nickname generally making reference to something
peculiar or striking in his habits, temper, or appearance. On the
whole, they are a kindly, generous folk, whom one cannot help liking.

Of the many tribes which are to be seen about the railway on the way up
from the coast, perhaps the most extraordinary-looking are the Wa
Nyika, the people who inhabit the thorny nyika (wilderness) which
borders on the Taru Desert. They are exceedingly ugly and of a low
type. The men wear nothing in the way of dress but a scanty and very
dirty cloth thrown over the shoulders, while the women attire
themselves only in a s