If they are cheerful and
willing, you are not nearly as particular as you would be were
their spirit becoming sullen. Then the infraction is not so
important in itself as an excuse for the punishment. For when
your men get sulky, you watch vigilantly for the first and
faintest EXCUSE to inflict punishment.
This game always seemed to me very fascinating, when played
right. It is often played wrong. People do not look far enough.
Because they see that punishment has a most salutary effect on
morale, and is sometimes efficacious in getting things done that
otherwise would lag, they jump to the conclusion that the only
effective way to handle a safari is by penalties. 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.
But in order to keep him up to the mark, it is not always
advisable to light into him with a whip, necessary as the whip
often is. If he is sullen, or inclined to make mischief, then
that is the crying requirement. But if he is merely careless, or
a little slow, or tired, you can handle him in other ways.
Ridicule before his comrades is very effective: a sort of
good-natured guying, I mean. "Ah! very tired!" uttered in the
right tone of voice has brought many a loiterer to his feet as
effectively as the kick some men feel must always be bestowed,
and quite without anger, mind you!
