The answer which came back turned pressure from an individual. “The carriers say,” reported the steward boy, “no one say he no fit. They all say they no fit!”
“Oh, do they,” observed Mr Bensusan; and he put on his helmet to go and make his recalcitrant servants toe the line. I followed to support his action.
“Who say he no fit to go for Tilde Fulani?” demanded Mr Bensusan, as he faced the half-dozen men. No words; only scowls.
“You take up your load, and you, and you, and you,” was the order given along the line. The men did, and they had not gone 500 yards when they were laughing among themselves as though nothing had happened. The essay had failed, as did the one on me in the village of Lafee Sala. Doubtless the men reflected, at least they had tried.
These men were not professional carriers, men who had taken to the calling from choice. They were labourers on the mine called upon for the special service. As a rule the labourer does not accept kindly the work of a carrier, and the carrier can seldom be prevailed upon to keep to any other occupation.
Soon after daybreak next morning Hanza’s whistle and Amadu’s musical pipe roused the carriers, who had been sleeping in the scattered huts, near my own, on the small tableland of grass on which the village stood.
For the last time in this stage of trekking they headed their loads and we were off towards Naraguta.
There are no fresh features of the country, which, however, is rather more open and flat. The tall hills on the left are of irregular height, and towards Naraguta they bend inwards to the path to a point where the way, after a short climb, is through a gorge. That leads to another broad expanse of country, also edged by a series of unconnected hills which in their turn bend inwards. Swerving round the end of them one rides on to the sub plateau which contains Naraguta.
A wide panorama is unfolded, circled by hills clearly and sharply defined against the sky background, and beyond these hills, showing between them, are others, fainter by the blue haze covering them as though it were gauze, giving the effect of what artists term “distance.”