By This I Do
Not At All Mean That They Act Savagely, Or Punish To Brutal
Excess.
Merely they hold rigidly to the letter of the work and
the day's discipline.
Because it is sometimes necessary to punish
severely slight infractions when the men's tempers need
sweetening, they ALWAYS punish slight infractions severely.
And in ordinary circumstances this method undoubtedly results in
a very efficient safari. Things are done smartly, on time, with a
snap. The day's march begins without delay; there is a minimum of
straggling; on arrival the tents are immediately got up and the
wood and water fetched. But in a tight place, men so handled by
invariable rule are very apt to sit down apathetically, and put
the whole thing up to the white man. When it comes time to help
out they are not there. The contrast with a well-disposed safari
cannot be appreciated by one who has not seen both.
The safari-man loves a master. He does not for a moment
understand any well-meant but misplaced efforts on your part to
lighten his work below the requirements of custom. Always he will
beg you to ease up on him, to accord him favour; and always he
will despise you if you yield. The relations of man to man, of
man to work, are all long since established by immemorial
distauri-custom-and it is not for you or him to change them
lightly. If you know what he should or can do, and hold him
rigidly to it, he will respect and follow you.
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