o do the job for me and then to take the meat. I of course
assented to this proposal, and in a very few minutes the skin had been
neatly taken off, and the famishing natives began a ravenous meal on
the raw flesh.

Wild dogs are also very destructive, and often caused great losses
among our sheep and goats. Many a night have I listened to these
animals hunting and harrying some poor creature of the wilds round my
camp; they never relinquish a chase, and will attack anything, man or
beast, when really driven by hunger. I was at Tsavo Station one
day--unfortunately without my rifle--when one of these dogs came up and
stood within about thirty yards of me. He was a fine-looking beast,
bigger than a collie, with jet-black hair and a white-tipped bushy
tail. I was very sorry that I had not brought my rifle, as I badly
wanted a specimen and never had another chance of obtaining one.

CHAPTER XI

THE SWAHILI AND OTHER NATIVE TRIBES

I have always been very keenly interested in the different native races
of Africa, and consequently availed myself of every opportunity of
studying their manners and customs. I had little scope for this at
Tsavo, however, as the district around us was practically uninhabited.
Still there was of course a good number of Swahili among my workmen,
together with a few Wa Kamba, Wa N'yam Wezi, and others, so I soon
became more or less acquainted with the habits of these tribes. The
Swahili live principally along the coast of British East Africa and at
Zanzibar. They are a mixed race, being the descendants of Arab fathers
and negro mothers. Their name is derived from the Arabic word suahil,
coast; but it has also been said, by some who have found them scarcely
so guileless as might have been expected, to be really a corruption of
the words sawa hili, that is, "those who cheat all alike." However that
may be, the men are as a rule of splendid physique and well qualified
for the calling that the majority of them follow, that of caravan
porters. They are a careless, light-hearted, improvident people, and
are very fond of all the good things of this world, enjoying them
thoroughly whenever they get the chance. Their life is spent in
journeying to and from the interior, carrying heavy loads of provisions
and trade-goods on the one journey, and returning with similar loads of
ivory or other products of the country. They are away for many months
at a time on these expeditions, and consequently--as th