ouring by gestures and pleasant looks to inspire them
with the feeling that they were their best friends.
After they had visited with curiosity every portion of
our camp they returned to our tent; whereupon, Lieutenant
von Hohnel and I, bent on showing them what
hospitality we could, offered them some of the honey
they had just brought. They declined in their politest
manner to partake of it, and said it was not their
custom in any way to decrease the value of a gift
which they had made to their friends. I cannot say
this action on their part inspired us with greater
faith in them. They then expressed a desire that we
should keep in our camp during the night the female
sheep and donkey they had brought with them, offering
no explanation for their odd request. They also
endeavoured to procure a fez from one of my Soudanese.
We failed to understand their purpose in
making such a request, until two of our Masai interpreters
came to us in an excited manner, saying that
this which the Embe wished us to do would absolutely
deprive our ■ caravan of all the fighting power
it possessed. They said that should one of the
attacking party wear upon his head a hat worn by
one of our men, they would at once become imbued
with all the courage of our party. Further, that if
for one night they should leave in our camp two
female animals, over which they had doubtless spoken
many words of magic import, these animals upon
being removed from the camp in the morning would
draw with them the vigour and courage of my men.
I was then struck by the marked similarity between
my own followers and the savages with whom we were
dealing. What little intelligence my men seemed to
possess, and what skill they had acquired from contact
with Arabs and Europeans, had not in any way removed
them from the mental condition of the most
primitive native. They were equally superstitious. A t
the same time it occurred to me, that if my men
really possessed these superstitious ideas, and were
convinced of the power worked by the medicine-man
of these people, if we should treat the matter lightly,
and permit these elders to do as they wished, our
men might actually lose courage; so we politely but
P o r t e r s o n t h e M a r c h
firmly refused to entertain the request of the savages.
But in order to conceal from them our plans, we assured
them that we were in every way delighted with
the Embe, and that it was our intention to remain
with them for many days, in the hope of convincing
them of our friendliness, and of profiting not only by
their wise counsels, but also in the way of trade.
Upon learning our professed determination to spend
some days in their country, the faces of the old men
took on a most pleased expression. This satisfied us
that, whatever their purpose, they were not prepared
at that time to carry it to execution.