This is to confuse their minds, cause them
to forget their failure, and thus to make another attempt.
At one stretch we had three days of real mountains. N'gombe[21] Brown
shrieked like a steam calliope all the way through. He lasted the
distance, but had little camp-fire conversation even with his beloved
Kikuyus.
When the team is outspanned, which in the waterless country of forced
marches is likely to be almost any time of the day or night, N'gombe
Brown sought a little rest. For this purpose he had a sort of bunk that
let down underneath the wagon. If it were daytime, the cattle were
allowed to graze under supervision of one of the Kikuyus. If it was
night time they were tethered to the long chain, where they lay in a
somnolent double row. A lantern at the head of the file and one at the
wagon's tail were supposed to discourage lions. In a bad lion country
fires were added to these defences.
N'gombe Brown thus worked hard through varied and long hours in strict
intimacy with stupid and exasperating beasts. After working hours he
liked to wander out to watch those same beasts grazing! His mind was as
full of cattle as that! Although we offered him reading matter, he never
seemed to care for it, nor for long-continued conversation with white
people not of his trade. In fact the only gleam of interest I could get
out of him was by commenting on the qualities or peculiarities of the
oxen.
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