To the four
cardinal points of the compass they darted away, running up and down the
side streets, beating on the doors, screaming at the tops of their lungs
the word "Cazi"[10] over and over again.

The village hummed like a wasps' nest. Men poured from the huts in
swarms. The streets were filled; the idle sauntering youths were
swamped, and sunk from view. Clamour and shouting arose where before had
been a droning silence. The mob beat up to where we stood, surrounding
us, shouting at us. From somewhere some one brought an old table and two
decrepit chairs, battered and rickety in themselves, but symbols of
great authority in a community where nobody habitually used either. Two
naked boys proudly took charge of our bicycles.

We seated ourselves.

"Fall in!" we yelled.

About half the crowd fell into rough lines. The rest drew slightly to
one side. Nobody stopped talking for a single instant.

We arose and tackled our job. The first part of it was to segregate the
applicants into their different tribes.

"Monumwezi hapa!" we yelled; and the command was repeated and repeated
again by the headman, by his four personal assistants, by a half-dozen
lesser headmen. Slowly the Monumwezi drew aside. We impressed on them
emphatically they must stay thus, and went after, in turn, the Baganda,
the Wakamba, the Swahilis, the Kavirondo, the Kikuyu. When we had them
grouped, we went over them individually. We punched their chests, we ran
over all their joints, we examined their feet, we felt their muscles.
Our victims stood rigidly at inspection, but their numerous friends
surrounded us closely, urging the claims of the man to our notice. It
was rather confusing, but we tried to go at it as though we were alone
in a wilderness. If the man passed muster we motioned him to a rapidly
growing group.

When we had finished we had about sixty men segregated. Then we went
over this picked lot again. This time we tried not only to get good
specimens, but to mix our tribes. At last our count of twenty-nine was
made up, and we took a deep breath. But to us came one of them
complaining that he was a Monumwezi, and that we had picked only three
Monumwezi, and--We cut him short. His contention was quite correct. A
porter tent holds five, and it does not do to mix tribes.
Reorganization! Cut out two extra Kavirondos, and include two more
Monumwezi. "Bass! finished! Now go get your effects. We start
immediately."

As quickly as it had