Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 3, 2025
There frequently is no time for turning around, and so the first gunbearer is at your elbow with the barrel of one rifle pressed against your right leg that you may know that he is there. Sometimes they run away, but the Somali gunbearers are the most fearless and trustworthy, and seldom desert in time of need.
"Memba Sasa says you are half gunbearer. He was wrong. You are all porter; and you know no more than they do. It is in our mind to put you back to carrying a load. If you do not wish to taste the kiboko, you can take a load to-morrow." "The kiboko, bwana," pleaded Fundi, very abashed and humble. "Furthermore," we added crushingly, "you did not even hit the rhinoceros!"
It was a most astonishing performance. You must imagine us driving out the gate in a buckboard behind four small but lively white Abyssinian mules. In the front seat were Michael, the Hottentot driver, and McMillan's Somali gunbearer. In the rear seat were McMillan and myself, while a small black syce perched precariously behind. Our rifles rested in a sling before us.
There was a dry crackling of flames, and before we could count ten a deep growl came from somewhere in front of me, evidently on one of the edges of the creek bed. The second gunbearer was the first to locate him, and he signaled for me to come over on his side of the creek.
"You, the gunbearers, have been called because we wish to know what should be done with this man Fundi." It should be here explained that it is not customary to kiboko, or flog, men of the gunbearer class. They respect themselves and their calling, and would never stand that sort of punishment.
* Except in the greatest emergencies a gunbearer would never think of carrying any sort of a burden. This was pleasing, but it would never do, at this stage of the game, to let him think so, neither on his own account nor that of the real gunbearers. "You will bring in meat today also," said I, for I was indeed a little shorthanded, "and you will learn how to make the top incision straighter."
Of this lot some few stand out from the rest, and deserve particular attention. Of course I had my veterans, Memba Sasa and Mohammed. There was also Kongoni, gunbearer, elsewhere described. The third gunbearer was Marrouki, a Wakamba. He was the personal gunbearer of a Mr. Twigg, who very courteously loaned him for this trip as possessing some knowledge of the country.
Then, leading forward a tall savage of some thirty-five years of age, of magnificent physique, he introduced the man as Mafuta, the half-brother of the injured man, and informed Dick that he, Mafuta, had specially requested the honour of being allowed to act as gunbearer to his brother's benefactor on this occasion.
Then the second gunbearer, a keen-eyed Kikuyu, discovered the lion three hundred yards off to the right. After reaching the top of the hill the animal had swung directly off at right angles with the idea of reaching cover in a dry creek bed some distance away. I started to shoot at three hundred yards, but before I could take a careful aim the lion had disappeared in the grass.
My second gunbearer was on the opposite side, and the stillness of death hung over the burning plain. There was not a sign of life in any direction. The second gunbearer was instructed to set fire to the grass in the hope of awakening some protest from the lion in case he was still in the vicinity.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking