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+Project Gutenberg's The Land of Footprints, by Stewart Edward White
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Land of Footprints
+
+Author: Stewart Edward White
+
+Posting Date: August 20, 2008 [EBook #1378]
+Release Date: July, 1998
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND OF FOOTPRINTS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Aaron Cannon
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LAND OF FOOTPRINTS
+
+by Stewart Edward White
+
+1913
+
+
+
+
+I. ON BOOKS OF ADVENTURE
+
+Books of sporting, travel, and adventure in countries little known to
+the average reader naturally fall in two classes-neither, with a very
+few exceptions, of great value. One class is perhaps the logical result
+of the other.
+
+Of the first type is the book that is written to make the most of far
+travels, to extract from adventure the last thrill, to impress the
+awestricken reader with a full sense of the danger and hardship the
+writer has undergone. Thus, if the latter takes out quite an ordinary
+routine permit to go into certain districts, he makes the most of
+travelling in "closed territory," implying that he has obtained an
+especial privilege, and has penetrated where few have gone before him.
+As a matter of fact, the permit is issued merely that the authorities
+may keep track of who is where. Anybody can get one. This class of
+writer tells of shooting beasts at customary ranges of four and five
+hundred yards. I remember one in especial who airily and as a matter
+of fact killed all his antelope at such ranges. Most men have shot
+occasional beasts at a quarter mile or so, but not airily nor as
+a matter of fact: rather with thanksgiving and a certain amount of
+surprise. The gentleman of whom I speak mentioned getting an eland at
+seven hundred and fifty yards. By chance I happened to mention this to a
+native Africander.
+
+"Yes," said he, "I remember that; I was there."
+
+This interested me-and I said so.
+
+"He made a long shot," said I.
+
+"A GOOD long shot," replied the Africander.
+
+"Did you pace the distance?"
+
+He laughed. "No," said he, "the old chap was immensely delighted. 'Eight
+hundred yards if it was an inch!' he cried."
+
+"How far was it?"
+
+"About three hundred and fifty. But it was a long shot, all right."
+
+And it was! Three hundred and fifty yards is a very long shot. It is
+over four city blocks-New York size. But if you talk often enough and
+glibly enough of "four and five hundred yards," it does not sound like
+much, does it?
+
+The same class of writer always gets all the thrills. He speaks of
+"blanched cheeks," of the "thrilling suspense," and so on down the gamut
+of the shilling shocker. His stuff makes good reading; there is no
+doubt of that. The spellbound public likes it, and to that extent it has
+fulfilled its mission. Also, the reader believes it to the letter-why
+should he not? Only there is this curious result: he carries away in
+his mind the impression of unreality, of a country impossible to
+be understood and gauged and savoured by the ordinary human mental
+equipment. It is interesting, just as are historical novels, or the
+copper-riveted heroes of modern fiction, but it has no real relation
+with human life. In the last analysis the inherent untruth of the
+thing forces itself on him. He believes, but he does not apprehend; he
+acknowledges the fact, but he cannot grasp its human quality. The affair
+is interesting, but it is more or less concocted of pasteboard for his
+amusement. Thus essential truth asserts its right.
+
+All this, you must understand, is probably not a deliberate attempt
+to deceive. It is merely the recrudescence under the stimulus of a
+brand-new environment of the boyish desire to be a hero. When a man
+jumps back into the Pleistocene he digs up some of his ancestors'
+cave-qualities. Among these is the desire for personal adornment. His
+modern development of taste precludes skewers in the ears and polished
+wire around the neck; so he adorns himself in qualities instead. It is
+quite an engaging and diverting trait of character. The attitude of mind
+it both presupposes and helps to bring about is too complicated for my
+brief analysis. In itself it is no more blameworthy than the small boy's
+pretence at Indians in the back yard; and no more praiseworthy than
+infantile decoration with feathers.
+
+In its results, however, we are more concerned. Probably each of us has
+his mental picture that passes as a symbol rather than an idea of the
+different continents. This is usually a single picture-a deep river,
+with forest, hanging snaky vines, anacondas and monkeys for the east
+coast of South America, for example. It is built up in youth by chance
+reading and chance pictures, and does as well as a pink place on the
+map to stand for a part of the world concerning which we know nothing at
+all. As time goes on we extend, expand, and modify this picture in the
+light of what knowledge we may acquire. So the reading of many books
+modifies and expands our first crude notions of Equatorial Africa. And
+the result is, if we read enough of the sort I describe above, we build
+the idea of an exciting, dangerous, extra-human continent, visited by
+half-real people of the texture of the historical-fiction hero, who have
+strange and interesting adventures which we could not possibly imagine
+happening to ourselves.
+
+This type of book is directly responsible for the second sort. The
+author of this is deadly afraid of being thought to brag of his
+adventures. He feels constantly on him the amusedly critical eye of the
+old-timer. When he comes to describe the first time a rhino dashed in
+his direction, he remembers that old hunters, who have been so charged
+hundreds of times, may read the book. Suddenly, in that light, the
+adventure becomes pitifully unimportant. He sets down the fact that "we
+met a rhino that turned a bit nasty, but after a shot in the shoulder
+decided to leave us alone." Throughout he keeps before his mind's eye
+the imaginary audience of those who have done. He writes for them,
+to please them, to convince them that he is not "swelled head," nor
+"cocky," nor "fancies himself," nor thinks he has done, been, or seen
+anything wonderful. It is a good, healthy frame of mind to be in; but
+it, no more than the other type, can produce books that leave on the
+minds of the general public any impression of a country in relation to a
+real human being.
+
+As a matter of fact, the same trouble is at the bottom of both failures.
+The adventure writer, half unconsciously perhaps, has been too much
+occupied play-acting himself into half-forgotten boyhood heroics. The
+more modest man, with even more self-consciousness, has been thinking of
+how he is going to appear in the eyes of the expert. Both have thought
+of themselves before their work. This aspect of the matter would
+probably vastly astonish the modest writer.
+
+If, then, one is to formulate an ideal toward which to write, he might
+express it exactly in terms of man and environment. Those readers
+desiring sheer exploration can get it in any library: those in search
+of sheer romantic adventure can purchase plenty of it at any book-stall.
+But the majority want something different from either of these. They
+want, first of all, to know what the country is like-not in vague and
+grandiose "word paintings," nor in strange and foreign sounding words
+and phrases, but in comparison with something they know. What is it
+nearest like-Arizona? Surrey? Upper New York? Canada? Mexico? Or is it
+totally different from anything, as is the Grand Canyon? When you look
+out from your camp-any one camp-how far do you see, and what do you
+see?-mountains in the distance, or a screen of vines or bamboo near
+hand, or what? When you get up in the morning, what is the first thing
+to do? What does a rhino look like, where he lives, and what did you do
+the first time one came at you? I don't want you to tell me as though I
+were either an old hunter or an admiring audience, or as though you were
+afraid somebody might think you were making too much of the matter. I
+want to know how you REALLY felt. Were you scared or nervous? or did you
+become cool? Tell me frankly just how it was, so I can see the thing as
+happening to a common everyday human being. Then, even at second-hand
+and at ten thousand miles distance, I can enjoy it actually, humanly,
+even though vicariously, speculating a bit over my pipe as to how I
+would have liked it myself.
+
+Obviously, to write such a book the author must at the same time sink
+his ego and exhibit frankly his personality. The paradox in this is only
+apparent. He must forget either to strut or to blush with diffidence.
+Neither audience should be forgotten, and neither should be exclusively
+addressed. Never should he lose sight of the wholesome fact that old
+hunters are to read and to weigh; never should he for a moment slip
+into the belief that he is justified in addressing the expert alone. His
+attitude should be that many men know more and have done more than he,
+but that for one reason or another these men are not ready to transmit
+their knowledge and experience.
+
+To set down the formulation of an ideal is one thing: to fulfil it is
+another. In the following pages I cannot claim a fulfilment, but only an
+attempt. The foregoing dissertation must be considered not as a promise,
+but as an explanation. No one knows better than I how limited my
+African experience is, both in time and extent, bounded as it is by East
+Equatorial Africa and a year. Hundreds of men are better qualified than
+myself to write just this book; but unfortunately they will not do it.
+
+
+
+
+II. AFRICA
+
+In looking back on the multitudinous pictures that the word Africa
+bids rise in my memory, four stand out more distinctly than the
+others. Strangely enough, these are by no means all pictures of average
+country-the sort of thing one would describe as typical. Perhaps, in a
+way, they symbolize more the spirit of the country to me, for certainly
+they represent but a small minority of its infinitely varied aspects.
+But since we must make a start somewhere, and since for some reason
+these four crowd most insistently in the recollection it might be well
+to begin with them.
+
+Our camp was pitched under a single large mimosa tree near the edge of
+a deep and narrow ravine down which a stream flowed. A semicircle of low
+mountains hemmed us in at the distance of several miles. The other side
+of the semicircle was occupied by the upthrow of a low rise blocking
+off an horizon at its nearest point but a few hundred yards away. Trees
+marked the course of the stream; low scattered bushes alternated with
+open plain. The grass grew high. We had to cut it out to make camp.
+
+Nothing indicated that we were otherwise situated than in a very
+pleasant, rather wide grass valley in the embrace of the mountains. Only
+a walk of a few hundred yards atop the upthrow of the low rise revealed
+the fact that it was in reality the lip of a bench, and that beyond
+it the country fell away in sheer cliffs whose ultimate drop was some
+fifteen hundred feet. One could sit atop and dangle his feet over
+unguessed abysses.
+
+For a week we had been hunting for greater kudu. Each day Memba Sasa and
+I went in one direction, while Mavrouki and Kongoni took another line.
+We looked carefully for signs, but found none fresher than the month
+before. Plenty of other game made the country interesting; but we were
+after a shy and valuable prize, so dared not shoot lesser things. At
+last, at the end of the week, Mavrouki came in with a tale of eight
+lions seen in the low scrub across the stream. The kudu business was
+about finished, as far as this place went, so we decided to take a look
+for the lions.
+
+We ate by lantern and at the first light were ready to start. But at
+that moment, across the slope of the rim a few hundred yards away,
+appeared a small group of sing-sing. These are a beautiful big beast,
+with widespread horns, proud and wonderful, like Landseer's stags, and
+I wanted one of them very much. So I took the Springfield, and dropped
+behind the line of some bushes. The stalk was of the ordinary sort.
+One has to remain behind cover, to keep down wind, to make no quick
+movements. Sometimes this takes considerable manoeuvring; especially, as
+now, in the case of a small band fairly well scattered out for feeding.
+Often after one has succeeded in placing them all safely behind the
+scattered cover, a straggler will step out into view. Then the hunter
+must stop short, must slowly, oh very, very slowly, sink down out of
+sight; so slowly, in fact, that he must not seem to move, but rather to
+melt imperceptibly away. Then he must take up his progress at a lower
+plane of elevation. Perhaps he needs merely to stoop; or he may crawl
+on hands and knees; or he may lie flat and hitch himself forward by his
+toes, pushing his gun ahead. If one of the beasts suddenly looks
+very intently in his direction, he must freeze into no matter what
+uncomfortable position, and so remain an indefinite time. Even a
+hotel-bred child to whom you have rashly made advances stares no longer
+nor more intently than a buck that cannot make you out.
+
+I had no great difficulty with this lot, but slipped up quite
+successfully to within one hundred and fifty yards. There I raised my
+head behind a little bush to look. Three does grazed nearest me, their
+coats rough against the chill of early morning. Up the slope were two
+more does and two funny, fuzzy babies. An immature buck occupied the
+extreme left with three young ladies. But the big buck, the leader, the
+boss of the lot, I could not see anywhere. Of course he must be about,
+and I craned my neck cautiously here and there trying to make him out.
+
+Suddenly, with one accord, all turned and began to trot rapidly away to
+the right, their heads high. In the strange manner of animals, they had
+received telepathic alarm, and had instantly obeyed. Then beyond and
+far to the right I at last saw the beast I had been looking for. The old
+villain had been watching me all the time!
+
+The little herd in single file made their way rapidly along the face
+of the rise. They were headed in the direction of the stream. Now, I
+happened to know that at this point the stream-canyon was bordered by
+sheer cliffs. Therefore, the sing-sing must round the hill, and not
+cross the stream. By running to the top of the hill I might catch a
+glimpse of them somewhere below. So I started on a jog trot, trying to
+hit the golden mean of speed that would still leave me breath to shoot.
+This was an affair of some nicety in the tall grass. Just before I
+reached the actual slope, however, I revised my schedule. The reason was
+supplied by a rhino that came grunting to his feet about seventy yards
+away. He had not seen me, and he had not smelled me, but the general
+disturbance of all these events had broken into his early morning nap.
+He looked to me like a person who is cross before breakfast, so I ducked
+low and ran around him. The last I saw of him he was still standing
+there, quite disgruntled, and evidently intending to write to the
+directors about it.
+
+Arriving at the top, I looked eagerly down. The cliff fell away at an
+impossible angle, but sheer below ran out a narrow bench fifty yards
+wide. Around the point of the hill to my right-where the herd had gone-a
+game trail dropped steeply to this bench. I arrived just in time to see
+the sing-sing, still trotting, file across the bench and over its edge,
+on some other invisible game trail, to continue their descent of the
+cliff. The big buck brought up the rear. At the very edge he came to a
+halt, and looked back, throwing his head up and his nose out so that the
+heavy fur on his neck stood forward like a ruff. It was a last glimpse
+of him, so I held my little best, and pulled trigger.
+
+This happened to be one of those shots I spoke of-which the perpetrator
+accepts with a thankful and humble spirit. The sing-sing leaped high in
+the air and plunged over the edge of the bench. I signalled the camp-in
+plain sight-to come and get the head and meat, and sat down to wait. And
+while waiting, I looked out on a scene that has since been to me one of
+my four symbolizations of Africa.
+
+The morning was dull, with gray clouds through which at wide intervals
+streamed broad bands of misty light. Below me the cliff fell away clear
+to a gorge in the depths of which flowed a river. Then the land began
+to rise, broken, sharp, tumbled, terrible, tier after tier, gorge
+after gorge, one twisted range after the other, across a breathlessly
+immeasurable distance. The prospect was full of shadows thrown by the
+tumult of lava. In those shadows one imagined stranger abysses. Far down
+to the right a long narrow lake inaugurated a flatter, alkali-whitened
+country of low cliffs in long straight lines. Across the distances
+proper to a dozen horizons the tumbled chaos heaved and fell. The eye
+sought rest at the bounds usual to its accustomed world-and went on.
+There was no roundness to the earth, no grateful curve to drop this
+great fierce country beyond a healing horizon out of sight. The
+immensity of primal space was in it, and the simplicity of primal
+things-rough, unfinished, full of mystery. There was no colour. The
+scene was done in slate gray, darkening to the opaque where a tiny
+distant rain squall started; lightening in the nearer shadows to reveal
+half-guessed peaks; brightening unexpectedly into broad short bands
+of misty gray light slanting from the gray heavens above to the sombre
+tortured immensity beneath. It was such a thing as Gustave Dore might
+have imaged to serve as an abiding place for the fierce chaotic spirit
+of the African wilderness.
+
+I sat there for some time hugging my knees, waiting for the men to come.
+The tremendous landscape seemed to have been willed to immobility. The
+rain squalls forty miles or more away did not appear to shift their
+shadows; the rare slanting bands of light from the clouds were as
+constant as though they were falling through cathedral windows. But
+nearer at hand other things were forward. The birds, thousands of them,
+were doing their best to cheer things up. The roucoulements of doves
+rose from the bushes down the face of the cliffs; the bell bird uttered
+his clear ringing note; the chime bird gave his celebrated imitation of
+a really gentlemanly sixty-horse power touring car hinting you out of
+the way with the mellowness of a chimed horn; the bottle bird poured
+gallons of guggling essence of happiness from his silver jug. From
+the direction of camp, evidently jumped by the boys, a steinbuck loped
+gracefully, pausing every few minutes to look back, his dainty legs
+tense, his sensitive ears pointed toward the direction of disturbance.
+
+And now, along the face of the cliff, I make out the flashing of much
+movement, half glimpsed through the bushes. Soon a fine old-man baboon,
+his tail arched after the dandified fashion of the baboon aristocracy
+stepped out, looked around, and bounded forward. Other old men followed
+him, and then the young men, and a miscellaneous lot of half-grown
+youngsters. The ladies brought up the rear, with the babies. These rode
+their mothers' backs, clinging desperately while they leaped along, for
+all the world like the pathetic monkey "jockeys" one sees strapped to
+the backs of big dogs in circuses. When they had approached to within
+fifty yards, remarked "hullo!" to them. Instantly they all stopped.
+Those in front stood up on their hind legs; those behind clambered to
+points of vantage on rocks and the tops of small bushes: They all took
+a good long look at me. Then they told me what they thought about me
+personally, the fact of my being there, and the rude way I had startled
+them. Their remarks were neither complimentary nor refined. The old
+men, in especial, got quite profane, and screamed excited billingsgate.
+Finally they all stopped at once, dropped on all fours, and loped away,
+their ridiculous long tails curved in a half arc. Then for the first
+time I noticed that, under cover of the insults, the women and children
+had silently retired. Once more I was left to the familiar gentle bird
+calls, and the vast silence of the wilderness beyond.
+
+The second picture, also, was a view from a height, but of a totally
+different character. It was also, perhaps, more typical of a greater
+part of East Equatorial Africa. Four of us were hunting lions with
+natives-both wild and tame-and a scratch pack of dogs. More of that
+later. We had rummaged around all the morning without any results; and
+now at noon had climbed to the top of a butte to eat lunch and look
+abroad.
+
+Our butte ran up a gentle but accelerating slope to a peak of big
+rounded rocks and slabs sticking out boldly from the soil of the hill.
+We made ourselves comfortable each after his fashion. The gunbearers
+leaned against rocks and rolled cigarettes. The savages squatted on
+their heels, planting their spears ceremonially in front of them. One
+of my friends lay on his back, resting a huge telescope over his crossed
+feet. With this he purposed seeing any lion that moved within ten miles.
+None of the rest of us could ever make out anything through the fearsome
+weapon. Therefore, relieved from responsibility by the presence of this
+Dreadnaught of a 'scope, we loafed and looked about us. This is what we
+saw:
+
+Mountains at our backs, of course-at some distance; then plains in long
+low swells like the easy rise and fall of a tropical sea, wave after
+wave, and over the edge of the world beyond a distant horizon. Here and
+there on this plain, single hills lay becalmed, like ships at sea; some
+peaked, some cliffed like buttes, some long and low like the hulls of
+battleships. The brown plain flowed up to wash their bases, liquid as
+the sea itself, its tides rising in the coves of the hills, and ebbing
+in the valleys between. Near at hand, in the middle distance, far away,
+these fleets of the plain sailed, until at last hull-down over the
+horizon their topmasts disappeared. Above them sailed too the phantom
+fleet of the clouds, shot with light, shining like silver, airy as
+racing yachts, yet casting here and there exaggerated shadows below.
+
+The sky in Africa is always very wide, greater than any other skies.
+Between horizon and horizon is more space than any other world contains.
+It is as though the cup of heaven had been pressed a little flatter;
+so that while the boundaries have widened, the zenith, with its flaming
+sun, has come nearer. And yet that is not a constant quantity either. I
+have seen one edge of the sky raised straight up a few million miles, as
+though some one had stuck poles under its corners, so that the western
+heaven did not curve cup-wise over to the horizon at all as it did
+everywhere else, but rather formed the proscenium of a gigantic stage.
+On this stage they had piled great heaps of saffron yellow clouds, and
+struck shafts of yellow light, and filled the spaces with the lurid
+portent of a storm-while the twenty thousand foot mountains below,
+crouched whipped and insignificant to the earth.
+
+We sat atop our butte for an hour while H. looked through his 'scope.
+After the soft silent immensity of the earth, running away to infinity,
+with its low waves, and its scattered fleet of hills, it was with
+difficulty that we brought our gaze back to details and to things near
+at hand. Directly below us we could make out many different-hued specks.
+Looking closely, we could see that those specks were game animals. They
+fed here and there in bands of from ten to two hundred, with valleys and
+hills between. Within the radius of the eye they moved, nowhere crowded
+in big herds, but everywhere present. A band of zebras grazed the side
+of one of the earth waves, a group of gazelles walked on the skyline,
+a herd of kongoni rested in the hollow between. On the next rise was a
+similar grouping; across the valley a new variation. As far as the eye
+could strain its powers it could make out more and ever more beasts. I
+took up my field glasses, and brought them all to within a sixth of the
+distance. After amusing myself for some time in watching them, I swept
+the glasses farther on. Still the same animals grazing on the hills and
+in the hollows. I continued to look, and to look again, until even
+the powerful prismatic glasses failed to show things big enough to
+distinguish. At the limit of extreme vision I could still make out game,
+and yet more game. And as I took my glasses from my eyes, and realized
+how small a portion of this great land-sea I had been able to examine;
+as I looked away to the ship-hills hull-down over the horizon, and
+realized that over all that extent fed the Game; the ever-new wonder of
+Africa for the hundredth time filled my mind-the teeming fecundity of
+her bosom.
+
+"Look here," said H. without removing his eye from the 'scope, "just
+beyond the edge of that shadow to the left of the bushes in the
+donga-I've been watching them ten minutes, and I can't make 'em out yet.
+They're either hyenas acting mighty queer, or else two lionesses."
+
+We snatched our glasses and concentrated on that important detail.
+
+To catch the third experience you must have journeyed with us across the
+"Thirst," as the natives picturesquely name the waterless tract of two
+days and a half. Our very start had been delayed by a breakage of some
+Dutch-sounding essential to our ox wagon, caused by the confusion of a
+night attack by lions: almost every night we had lain awake as long as
+we could to enjoy the deep-breathed grumbling or the vibrating roars of
+these beasts. Now at last, having pushed through the dry country to
+the river in the great plain, we were able to take breath from our mad
+hurry, and to give our attention to affairs beyond the limits of mere
+expediency. One of these was getting Billy a shot at a lion.
+
+Billy had never before wanted to shoot anything except a python. Why a
+python we could not quite fathom. Personally, I think she had some vague
+idea of getting even for that Garden of Eden affair. But lately, pythons
+proving scarcer than in that favoured locality, she had switched to a
+lion. She wanted, she said, to give the skin to her sister. In vain
+we pointed out that a zebra hide was very decorative, that lions go to
+absurd lengths in retaining possession of their own skins, and other
+equally convincing facts. It must be a lion or nothing; so naturally we
+had to make a try.
+
+There are several ways of getting lions, only one of which is at all
+likely to afford a steady pot shot to a very small person trying to
+manipulate an over-size gun. That is to lay out a kill. The idea is to
+catch the lion at it in the early morning before he has departed for
+home. The best kill is a zebra: first, because lions like zebra; second,
+because zebra are fairly large; third, because zebra are very numerous.
+
+Accordingly, after we had pitched camp just within a fringe of mimosa
+trees and of red-flowering aloes near the river; had eaten lunch, smoked
+a pipe and issued necessary orders to the men, C. and I set about the
+serious work of getting an appropriate bait in an appropriate place.
+
+The plains stretched straight away from the river bank to some
+indefinite and unknown distance to the south. A low range of mountains
+lay blue to the left; and a mantle of scrub thornbush closed the view to
+the right. This did not imply that we could see far straight ahead, for
+the surface of the plain rose slowly to the top of a swell about two
+miles away. Beyond it reared a single butte peak at four or five times
+that distance.
+
+We stepped from the fringe of red aloes and squinted through the dancing
+heat shimmer. Near the limit of vision showed a very faint glimmering
+whitish streak. A newcomer to Africa would not have looked at it twice:
+nevertheless, it could be nothing but zebra. These gaudily marked beasts
+take queer aspects even on an open plain. Most often they show pure
+white; sometimes a jet black; only when within a few hundred yards does
+one distinguish the stripes. Almost always they are very easily made
+out. Only when very distant and in heat shimmer, or in certain half
+lights of evening, does their so-called "protective colouration" seem to
+be in working order, and even then they are always quite visible to the
+least expert hunter's scrutiny.
+
+It is not difficult to kill a zebra, though sometimes it has to be done
+at a fairly long range. If all you want is meat for the porters, the
+matter is simple enough. But when you require bait for a lion, that; is
+another affair entirely. In the first place, you must be able to stalk
+within a hundred yards of your kill without being seen; in the second
+place, you must provide two or three good lying-down places for your
+prospective trophy within fifteen yards of the carcass-and no more than
+two or three; in the third place, you must judge the direction of the
+probable morning wind, and must be able to approach from leeward. It is
+evidently pretty good luck to find an accommodating zebra in just such
+a spot. It is a matter of still greater nicety to drop him absolutely in
+his tracks. In a case of porters' meat it does not make any particular
+difference if he runs a hundred yards before he dies. With lion bait
+even fifty yards makes all the difference in the world.
+
+C. and I talked it over and resolved to press Scallywattamus into
+service. Scallywattamus is a small white mule who is firmly convinced
+that each and every bush in Africa conceals a mule-eating rhinoceros,
+and who does not intend to be one of the number so eaten. But we had
+noticed that at times zebra would be so struck with the strange sight of
+Scallywattamus carrying a man, that they would let us get quite close.
+C. was to ride Scallywattamus while I trudged along under his lee ready
+to shoot.
+
+We set out through the heat shimmer, gradually rising as the plain
+slanted. Imperceptibly the camp and the trees marking the river's course
+fell below us and into the heat haze. In the distance, close to the
+stream, we made out a blurred, brown-red solid mass which we knew for
+Masai cattle. Various little Thompson's gazelles skipped away to the
+left waggling their tails vigorously and continuously as Nature long
+since commanded "Tommies" to do. The heat haze steadied around the dim
+white line, so we could make out the individual animals. There were
+plenty of them, dozing in the sun. A single tiny treelet broke the plain
+just at the skyline of the rise. C. and I talked low-voiced as we went
+along. We agreed that the tree was an excellent landmark to come to,
+that the little rise afforded proper cover, and that in the morning the
+wind would in all likelihood blow toward the river. There were perhaps
+twenty zebra near enough to the chosen spot. Any of them would do.
+
+But the zebra did not give a hoot for Scallywattamus. At five hundred
+yards three or four of them awoke with a start, stared at us a minute,
+and moved slowly away. They told all the zebra they happened upon that
+the three idiots approaching were at once uninteresting and dangerous.
+At four hundred and fifty yards a half dozen more made off at a trot. At
+three hundred and fifty yards the rest plunged away at a canter-all
+but one. He remained to stare, but his tail was up, and we knew he
+only stayed because he knew he could easily catch up in the next twenty
+seconds.
+
+The chance was very slim of delivering a knockout at that distance, but
+we badly needed meat, anyway, after our march through the Thirst, so I
+tried him. We heard the well-known plunk of the bullet, but down went
+his head, up went his heels, and away went he. We watched him in vast
+disgust. He cavorted out into a bare open space without cover of any
+sort, and then flopped over. I thought I caught a fleeting grin of
+delight on Mavrouki's face; but he knew enough instantly to conceal his
+satisfaction over sure meat.
+
+There were now no zebra anywhere near; but since nobody ever thinks
+of omitting any chances in Africa, I sneaked up to the tree and took
+a perfunctory look. There stood another, providentially absent-minded,
+zebra!
+
+We got that one. Everybody was now happy. The boys raced over to the
+first kill, which soon took its dismembered way toward camp. C. and I
+carefully organized our plan of campaign. We fixed in our memories the
+exact location of each and every bush; we determined compass direction
+from camp, and any other bearings likely to prove useful in finding so
+small a spot in the dark. Then we left a boy to keep carrion birds off
+until sunset; and returned home.
+
+We were out in the morning before even the first sign of dawn. Billy
+rode her little mule, C. and I went afoot, Memba Sasa accompanied us
+because he could see whole lions where even C.'s trained eye could not
+make out an ear, and the syce went along to take care of the mule. The
+heavens were ablaze with the thronging stars of the tropics, so we found
+we could make out the skyline of the distant butte over the rise of the
+plains. The earth itself was a pool of absolute blackness. We could not
+see where we were placing our feet, and we were continually bringing up
+suddenly to walk around an unexpected aloe or thornbush. The night
+was quite still, but every once in a while from the blackness came
+rustlings, scamperings, low calls, and once or twice the startled
+barking of zebra very near at hand. The latter sounded as ridiculous as
+ever. It is one of the many incongruities of African life that Nature
+should have given so large and so impressive a creature the petulant
+yapping of an exasperated Pomeranian lap dog. At the end of three
+quarters of an hour of more or less stumbling progress, we made out
+against the sky the twisted treelet that served as our landmark. Billy
+dismounted, turned the mule over to the syce, and we crept slowly
+forward until within a guessed two or three hundred yards of our kill.
+
+Nothing remained now but to wait for the daylight. It had already begun
+to show. Over behind the distant mountains some one was kindling the
+fires, and the stars were flickering out. The splendid ferocity of the
+African sunrise was at hand. Long bands of slate dark clouds lay close
+along the horizon, and behind them glowed a heart of fire, as on a small
+scale the lamplight glows through a metal-worked shade. On either side
+the sky was pale green-blue, translucent and pure, deep as infinity
+itself. The earth was still black, and the top of the rise near at hand
+was clear edged. On that edge, and by a strange chance accurately in
+the centre of illumination, stood the uncouth massive form of a shaggy
+wildebeeste, his head raised, staring to the east. He did not move;
+nothing of that fire and black world moved; only instant by instant it
+changed, swelling in glory toward some climax until one expected at any
+moment a fanfare of trumpets, the burst of triumphant culmination.
+
+Then very far down in the distance a lion roared. The wildebeeste,
+without moving, bellowed back an answer or a defiance. Down in the
+hollow an ostrich boomed. Zebra barked, and several birds chirped
+strongly. The tension was breaking not in the expected fanfare and burst
+of triumphal music, but in a manner instantly felt to be more fitting
+to what was indeed a wonder, but a daily wonder for all that. At one and
+the same instant the rim of the sun appeared and the wildebeeste, after
+the sudden habit of his kind, made up his mind to go. He dropped his
+head and came thundering down past us at full speed. Straight to the
+west he headed, and so disappeared. We could hear the beat of his hoofs
+dying into the distance. He had gone like a Warder of the Morning whose
+task was finished. On the knife-edged skyline appeared the silhouette of
+slim-legged little Tommies, flirting their rails, sniffing at the
+dewy grass, dainty, slender, confiding, the open-day antithesis of the
+tremendous and awesome lord of the darkness that had roared its way to
+its lair, and to the massive shaggy herald of morning that had thundered
+down to the west.
+
+
+
+
+III. THE CENTRAL PLATEAU
+
+Now is required a special quality of the imagination, not in myself, but
+in my readers, for it becomes necessary for them to grasp the logic of
+a whole country in one mental effort. The difficulties to me are very
+real. If I am to tell you it all in detail, your mind becomes confused
+to the point of mingling the ingredients of the description. The
+resultant mental picture is a composite; it mixes localities wide
+apart; it comes out, like the snake-creeper-swamp-forest thing of
+grammar-school South America, an unreal and deceitful impression. If,
+on the other hand, I try to give you a bird's-eye view-saying, here
+is plain, and there follows upland, and yonder succeed mountains and
+hills-you lose the sense of breadth and space and the toil of many
+days. The feeling of onward outward extending distance is gone; and that
+impression so indispensable to finite understanding-"here am I, and what
+is beyond is to be measured by the length of my legs and the toil of
+my days." You will not stop long enough on my plains to realize their
+physical extent nor their influence on the human soul. If I mention them
+in a sentence, you dismiss them in a thought. And that is something the
+plains themselves refuse to permit you to do. Yet sometimes one must
+become a guide-book, and bespeak his reader's imagination.
+
+The country, then, wherein we travelled begins at the sea. Along the
+coast stretches a low rolling country of steaming tropics, grown with
+cocoanuts, bananas, mangoes, and populated by a happy, half-naked race
+of the Swahilis. Leaving the coast, the country rises through hills.
+These hills are at first fertile and green and wooded. Later they turn
+into an almost unbroken plateau of thorn scrub, cruel, monotonous,
+almost impenetrable. Fix thorn scrub in your mind, with rhino trails,
+and occasional openings for game, and a few rivers flowing through palms
+and narrow jungle strips; fix it in your mind until your mind is filled
+with it, until you are convinced that nothing else can exist in the
+world but more and more of the monotonous, terrible, dry, onstretching
+desert of thorn.
+
+Then pass through this to the top of the hills inland, and journey over
+these hills to the highland plains.
+
+Now sense and appreciate these wide seas of and the hills and ranges
+of mountains rising from them, and their infinite diversity of
+country-their rivers marked by ribbons of jungle, their scattered-bush
+and their thick-bush areas, their grass expanses, and their great
+distances extending far over exceedingly wide horizons. Realize how many
+weary hours you must travel to gain the nearest butte, what days of toil
+the view from its top will disclose. Savour the fact that you can spend
+months in its veriest corner without exhausting its possibilities. Then,
+and not until then, raise your eyes to the low rising transverse range
+that bands it to the west as the thorn desert bands it to the east.
+
+And on these ranges are the forests, the great bewildering forests.
+In what looks like a grove lying athwart a little hill you can lose
+yourself for days. Here dwell millions of savages in an apparently
+untouched wilderness. Here rises a snow mountain on the equator. Here
+are tangles and labyrinths, great bamboo forests lost in folds of the
+mightiest hills. Here are the elephants. Here are the swinging vines,
+the jungle itself.
+
+Yet finally it breaks. We come out on the edge of things and look down
+on a great gash in the earth. It is like a sunken kingdom in itself,
+miles wide, with its own mountain ranges, its own rivers, its own
+landscape features. Only on either side of it rise the escarpments which
+are the true level of the plateau. One can spend two months in this
+valley, too, and in the countries south to which it leads. And on its
+farther side are the high plateau plains again, or the forests, or the
+desert, or the great lakes that lie at the source of the Nile.
+
+So now, perhaps, we are a little prepared to go ahead. The guide-book
+work is finished for good and all. There is the steaming hot low coast
+belt, and the hot dry thorn desert belt, and the varied immense plains,
+and the high mountain belt of the forests, and again the variegated wide
+country of the Rift Valley and the high plateau. To attempt to tell
+you seriatim and in detail just what they are like is the task of an
+encyclopaedist. Perhaps more indirectly you may be able to fill in the
+picture of the country, the people, and the beasts.
+
+
+
+
+
+IV. THE FIRST CAMP
+
+Our very first start into the new country was made when we piled out
+from the little train standing patiently awaiting the good pleasure
+of our descent. That feature strikes me with ever new wonder-the
+accommodating way trains of the Uganda Railway have of waiting for you.
+One day, at a little wayside station, C. and I were idly exchanging
+remarks with the only white man in sight, killing time until the engine
+should whistle to a resumption of the journey. The guard lingered about
+just out of earshot. At the end of five minutes C. happened to catch his
+eye, whereupon he ventured to approach.
+
+"When you have finished your conversation," said he politely, "we are
+all ready to go on."
+
+On the morning in question there were a lot of us to disembark-one
+hundred and twenty-two, to be exact-of which four were white. We were
+not yet acquainted with our men, nor yet with our stores, nor with the
+methods of our travel. The train went off and left us in the middle of
+a high plateau, with low ridges running across it, and mountains in the
+distance. Men were squabbling earnestly for the most convenient loads to
+carry, and as fast as they had gained undisputed possession, they marked
+the loads with some private sign of their own. M'ganga, the headman,
+tall, fierce, big-framed and bony, clad in fez, a long black overcoat,
+blue puttees and boots, stood stiff as a ramrod, extended a rigid right
+arm and rattled off orders in a high dynamic voice. In his left hand he
+clasped a bulgy umbrella, the badge of his dignity and the symbol of his
+authority. The four askaris, big men too, with masterful high-cheekboned
+countenances, rushed here and there seeing that the orders were carried
+out. Expostulations, laughter, the sound of quarrelling rose and fell.
+Never could the combined volume of it all override the firecracker
+stream of M'ganga's eloquence.
+
+We had nothing to do with it all, but stood a little dazed, staring at
+the novel scene. Our men were of many tribes, each with its own cast
+of features, its own notions of what befitted man's performance of his
+duties here below. They stuck together each in its clan. A fine free
+individualism of personal adornment characterized them. Every man
+dressed for his own satisfaction solely. They hung all sorts of things
+in the distended lobes of their ears. One had succeeded in inserting a
+fine big glittering tobacco tin. Others had invented elaborate topiary
+designs in their hair, shaving their heads so as to leave strange tufts,
+patches, crescents on the most unexpected places. Of the intricacy of
+these designs they seemed absurdly proud. Various sorts of treasure
+trove hung from them-a bunch of keys to which there were no locks,
+discarded hunting knives, tips of antelope horns, discharged brass
+cartridges, a hundred and one valueless trifles plucked proudly from
+the rubbish heap. They were all clothed. We had supplied each with a
+red blanket, a blue jersey, and a water bottle. The blankets they were
+twisting most ingeniously into turbans. Beside these they sported a
+great variety of garments. Shooting coats that had seen better days, a
+dozen shabby overcoats-worn proudly through the hottest noons-raggety
+breeches and trousers made by some London tailor, queer baggy homemades
+of the same persuasion, or quite simply the square of cotton cloth
+arranged somewhat like a short tight skirt, or nothing at all as the
+man's taste ran. They were many of them amusing enough; but somehow they
+did not look entirely farcical and ridiculous, like our negroes
+putting on airs. All these things were worn with a simplicity of quiet
+confidence in their entire fitness. And beneath the red blanket turbans
+the half-wild savage faces peered out.
+
+Now Mahomet approached. Mahomet was my personal boy. He was a Somali
+from the Northwest coast, dusky brown, with the regular clear-cut
+features of a Greek marble god. His dress was of neat khaki, and he
+looked down on savages; but, also, as with all the dark-skinned races,
+up to his white master. Mahomet was with me during all my African stay,
+and tested out nobly. As yet, of course, I did not know him.
+
+"Chakula taiari," said he.
+
+That is Swahili. It means literally "food is ready." After one has
+hunted in Africa for a few months, it means also "paradise is opened,"
+"grief is at an end," "joy and thanksgiving are now in order," and
+similar affairs. Those two words are never forgotten, and the veriest
+beginner in Swahili can recognize them without the slightest effort.
+
+We followed Mahomet. Somehow, without orders, in all this confusion, the
+personal staff had been quietly and efficiently busy. Drawn a little to
+one side stood a table with four chairs. The table was covered with a
+white cloth, and was set with a beautiful white enamel service. We
+took our places. Behind each chair straight as a ramrod stood a neat
+khaki-clad boy. They brought us food, and presented it properly on the
+left side, waiting like well-trained butlers. We might have been in
+a London restaurant. As three of us were Americans, we felt a trifle
+dazed. The porters, having finished the distribution of their loads,
+squatted on their heels and watched us respectfully.
+
+And then, not two hundred yards away, four ostriches paced slowly across
+the track, paying not the slightest attention to us-our first real
+wild ostriches, scornful of oranges, careless of tourists, and rightful
+guardians of their own snowy plumes. The passage of these four solemn
+birds seemed somehow to lend this strange open-air meal an exotic
+flavour. We were indeed in Africa; and the ostriches helped us to
+realize it.
+
+We finished breakfast and arose from our chairs. Instantly a half dozen
+men sprang forward. Before our amazed eyes the table service, the chairs
+and the table itself disappeared into neat packages. M'ganga arose to
+his feet.
+
+"Bandika!" he cried.
+
+The askaris rushed here and there actively.
+
+"Bandika! bandika! bandika!" they cried repeatedly.
+
+The men sprang into activity. A struggle heaved the varicoloured
+multitude-and, lo! each man stood upright, his load balanced on his
+head. At the same moment the syces led up our horses, mounted and headed
+across the little plain whence had come the four ostriches. Our African
+journey had definitely begun.
+
+Behind us, all abreast marched the four gunbearers; then the four syces;
+then the safari single file, an askari at the head bearing proudly his
+ancient musket and our banner, other askaris flanking, M'ganga bringing
+up the rear with his mighty umbrella and an unsuspected rhinoceros-hide
+whip. The tent boys and the cook scattered along the flank anywhere, as
+befitted the free and independent who had nothing to do with the serious
+business of marching. A measured sound of drumming followed the beating
+of loads with a hundred sticks; a wild, weird chanting burst from the
+ranks and died down again as one or another individual or group felt
+moved to song. One lot had a formal chant and response. Their leader, in
+a high falsetto, said something like,
+
+"Kuna koma kuno,"
+
+and all his tribesmen would follow with a single word in a deep gruff
+tone,
+
+"Za-la-nee!"
+
+All of which undoubtedly helped immensely.
+
+The country was a bully country, but somehow it did not look like
+Africa. That is to say, it looked altogether too much like any amount
+of country at home. There was nothing strange and exotic about it. We
+crossed a little plain, and up over a small hill, down into a shallow
+canyon that seemed to be wooded with live oaks, across a grass valley
+or so, and around a grass hill. Then we went into camp at the edge of
+another grass valley, by a stream across which rose some ordinary low
+cliffs.
+
+That is the disconcerting thing about a whole lot of this country-it
+is so much like home. Of course, there are many wide districts exotic
+enough in all conscience-the jungle beds of the rivers, the bamboo
+forests, the great tangled forests themselves, the banana groves down
+the aisles of which dance savages with shields-but so very much of it is
+familiar. One needs only church spires and a red-roofed village or so
+to imagine one's self in Surrey. There is any amount of country
+like Arizona, and more like the uplands of Wyoming, and a lot of it
+resembling the smaller landscapes of New England. The prospects of the
+whole world are there, so that somewhere every wanderer can find the
+countryside of his own home repeated. And, by the same token, that is
+exactly what makes a good deal of it so startling. When a man sees a
+file of spear-armed savages, or a pair of snorty old rhinos, step out
+into what has seemed practically his own back yard home, he is even more
+startled than if he had encountered them in quite strange surroundings.
+
+We rode into the grass meadow and picked camp site. The men trailed in
+and dumped down their loads in a row.
+
+At a signal they set to work. A dozen to each tent got them up in a
+jiffy. A long file brought firewood from the stream bed. Others carried
+water, stones for the cook, a dozen other matters. The tent boys rescued
+our boxes; they put together the cots and made the beds, even before the
+tents were raised from the ground. Within an incredibly short space of
+time the three green tents were up and arranged, each with its bed made,
+its mosquito bar hung, its personal box open, its folding washstand
+ready with towels and soap, the table and chairs unlimbered. At a
+discreet distance flickered the cook campfire, and at a still discreeter
+distance the little tents of the men gleamed pure white against the
+green of the high grass.
+
+
+
+
+
+V. MEMBA SASA
+
+I wish I could plunge you at once into the excitements of big game in
+Africa, but I cannot truthfully do so. To be sure, we went hunting that
+afternoon, up over the low cliffs, and we saw several of a very lively
+little animal known as the Chandler's reedbuck. This was not supposed to
+be a game country, and that was all we did see. At these we shot several
+times-disgracefully. In fact, for several days we could not shoot
+at all, at any range, nor at anything. It was very sad, and very
+aggravating. Afterward we found that this is an invariable experience to
+the newcomer. The light is new, the air is different, the sizes of the
+game are deceiving. Nobody can at first hit anything. At the end of five
+days we suddenly began to shoot our normal gait. Why, I do not know.
+
+But in this afternoon tramp around the low cliffs after the elusive
+reedbuck, I for the first time became acquainted with a man who
+developed into a real friend.
+
+His name is Memba Sasa. Memba Sasa are two Swahili words meaning "now a
+crocodile." Subsequently, after I had learned to talk Swahili, I tried
+to find out what he was formerly, before he was a crocodile, but did not
+succeed.
+
+He was of the tribe of the Monumwezi, of medium height, compactly
+and sturdily built, carried himself very erect, and moved with a
+concentrated and vigorous purposefulness. His countenance might be
+described as pleasing but not handsome, of a dark chocolate brown, with
+the broad nose of the negro, but with a firm mouth, high cheekbones, and
+a frowning intentness of brow that was very fine. When you talked to
+him he looked you straight in the eye. His own eyes were shaded by
+long, soft, curling lashes behind which they looked steadily and
+gravely-sometimes fiercely-on the world. He rarely smiled-never merely
+in understanding or for politeness' sake-and never laughed unless there
+was something really amusing. Then he chuckled from deep in his chest,
+the most contagious laughter you can imagine. Often we, at the other end
+of the camp, have laughed in sympathy, just at the sound of that deep
+and hearty ho! ho! ho! of Memba Sasa. Even at something genuinely
+amusing he never laughed much, nor without a very definite restraint. In
+fact, about him was no slackness, no sprawling abandon of the native
+in relaxation; but always a taut efficiency and a never-failing
+self-respect.
+
+Naturally, behind such a fixed moral fibre must always be some moral
+idea. When a man lives up to a real, not a pompous, dignity some ideal
+must inform it. Memba Sasa's ideal was that of the Hunter.
+
+He was a gunbearer; and he considered that a good gunbearer stood quite
+a few notches above any other human being, save always the white man,
+of course. And even among the latter Memba Sasa made great differences.
+These differences he kept to himself, and treated all with equal
+respect. Nevertheless, they existed, and Memba Sasa very well knew that
+fact. In the white world were two classes of masters: those who hunted
+well, and those who were considered by them as their friends and equals.
+Why they should be so considered Memba Sasa did not know, but he trusted
+the Hunter's judgment. These were the bwanas, or masters. All the rest
+were merely mazungos, or, "white men." To their faces he called them
+bwana, but in his heart he considered them not.
+
+Observe, I say those who hunted well. Memba Sasa, in his profession as
+gunbearer, had to accompany those who hunted badly. In them he took
+no pride; from them he held aloof in spirit; but for them he did his
+conscientious best, upheld by the dignity of his profession.
+
+For to Mamba Sasa that profession was the proudest to which a black
+man could aspire. He prided himself on mastering its every detail, in
+accomplishing its every duty minutely and exactly. The major virtues of
+a gunbearer are not to be despised by anybody; for they comprise great
+physical courage, endurance, and loyalty: the accomplishments of a
+gunbearer are worthy of a man's best faculties, for they include the
+ability to see and track game, to take and prepare properly any sort of
+a trophy, field taxidermy, butchering game meat, wood and plainscraft,
+the knowledge of how properly to care for firearms in all sorts of
+circumstances, and a half hundred other like minutiae. Memba Sasa knew
+these things, and he performed them with the artist's love for details;
+and his keen eyes were always spying for new ways.
+
+At a certain time I shot an egret, and prepared to take the skin. Memba
+Sasa asked if he might watch me do it. Two months later, having killed
+a really gaudy peacocklike member of the guinea fowl tribe, I handed
+it over to him with instructions to take off the breast feathers before
+giving it to the cook. In a half hour he brought me the complete skin,
+I examined it carefully, and found it to be well done in every respect.
+Now in skinning a bird there are a number of delicate and unusual
+operations, such as stripping the primary quills from the bone, cutting
+the ear cover, and the like. I had explained none of them; and yet Memba
+Sasa, unassisted, had grasped their method from a single demonstration
+and had remembered them all two months later! C. had a trick in making
+the second skin incision of a trophy head that had the effect of giving
+a better purchase to the knife. Its exact description would be out of
+place here, but it actually consisted merely in inserting the point of
+the knife two inches away from the place it is ordinarily inserted. One
+day we noticed that Memba Sasa was making his incisions in that manner.
+I went to Africa fully determined to care for my own rifle. The modern
+high-velocity gun needs rather especial treatment; mere wiping out will
+not do. I found that Memba Sasa already knew all about boiling water,
+and the necessity for having it really boiling, about subsequent metal
+sweating, and all the rest. After watching him at work I concluded,
+rightly, that he would do a lot better job than I.
+
+To the new employer Memba Sasa maintained an attitude of strict
+professional loyalty. His personal respect was upheld by the necessity
+of every man to do his job in the world. Memba Sasa did his. He cleaned
+the rifles; he saw that everything was in order for the day's march; he
+was at my elbow all ways with more cartridges and the spare rifle; he
+trailed and looked conscientiously. In his attitude was the stolidity
+of the wooden Indian. No action of mine, no joke on the part of his
+companions, no circumstance in the varying fortunes of the field gained
+from him the faintest flicker of either approval, disapproval, or
+interest. When we returned to camp he deposited my water bottle
+and camera, seized the cleaning implements, and departed to his own
+campfire. In the field he pointed out game that I did not see, and
+waited imperturbably the result of my shot.
+
+As I before stated, the result of that shot for the first five days was
+very apt to be nil. This, at the time, puzzled and grieved me a lot.
+Occasionally I looked at Memba Sasa to catch some sign of sympathy,
+disgust, contempt, or-rarely-triumph at a lucky shot. Nothing. He gently
+but firmly took away my rifle, reloaded it, and handed it back; then
+waited respectfully for my next move. He knew no English, and I no
+Swahili.
+
+But as time went on this attitude changed. I was armed with the new
+Springfield rifle, a weapon with 2,700 feet velocity, and with a
+marvellously flat trajectory. This commanding advantage, combined with
+a very long familiarity with firearms, enabled me to do some fairish
+shooting, after the strangeness of these new conditions had been
+mastered. Memba Sasa began to take a dawning interest in me as a
+possible source of pride. We began to develop between us a means of
+communication. I set myself deliberately to learn his language, and
+after he had cautiously determined that I really meant it, he took the
+greatest pains-always gravely-to teach me. A more human feeling sprang
+up between us.
+
+But we had still the final test to undergo-that of danger and the tight
+corner.
+
+In close quarters the gunbearer has the hardest job in the world. I have
+the most profound respect for his absolute courage. Even to a man
+armed and privileged to shoot and defend himself, a charging lion is an
+awesome thing, requiring a certain amount of coolness and resolution to
+face effectively. Think of the gunbearer at his elbow, depending not
+on himself but on the courage and coolness of another. He cannot do one
+solitary thing to defend himself. To bolt for the safety of a tree is
+to beg the question completely, to brand himself as a shenzi forever;
+to fire a gun in any circumstances is to beg the question also, for
+the white man must be able to depend absolutely on his second gun in
+an emergency. Those things are outside consideration, even, of any
+respectable gunbearer. In addition, he must keep cool. He must see
+clearly in the thickest excitement; must be ready unobtrusively to pass
+up the second gun in the position most convenient for immediate use, to
+seize the other and to perform the finicky task of reloading correctly
+while some rampageous beast is raising particular thunder a few yards
+away. All this in absolute dependence on the ability of his bwana to
+deal with the situation. I can confess very truly that once or twice
+that little unobtrusive touch of Memba Sasa crouched close to my elbow
+steadied me with the thought of how little right I-with a rifle in
+my hand-had to be scared. And the best compliment I ever received I
+overheard by chance. I had wounded a lion when out by myself, and
+had returned to camp for a heavier rifle and for Memba Sasa to do the
+trailing. From my tent I overheard the following conversation between
+Memba Sasa and the cook:
+
+"The grass is high," said the cook. "Are you not afraid to go after a
+wounded lion with only one white man?"
+
+"My one white man is enough," replied Memba Sasa.
+
+It is a quality of courage that I must confess would be quite beyond
+me-to depend entirely on the other fellow, and not at all on myself.
+This courage is always remarkable to me, even in the case of the
+gunbearer who knows all about the man whose heels he follows. But
+consider that of the gunbearer's first experience with a stranger. The
+former has no idea of how the white man will act; whether he will get
+nervous, get actually panicky, lose his shooting ability, and generally
+mess things up. Nevertheless, he follows his master in, and he stands
+by. If the hunter fails, the gunbearer will probably die. To me it is
+rather fine: for he does it, not from the personal affection and loyalty
+which will carry men far, but from a sheer sense of duty and pride of
+caste. The quiet pride of the really good men, like Memba Sasa, is easy
+to understand.
+
+And the records are full of stories of the white man who has not made
+good: of the coward who bolts, leaving his black man to take the brunt
+of it, or who sticks but loses his head. Each new employer must be
+very closely and interestedly scrutinized. In the light of subsequent
+experience, I can no longer wonder at Memba Sasa's first detached and
+impersonal attitude.
+
+As time went on, however, and we grew to know each other better, this
+attitude entirely changed. At first the change consisted merely in
+dropping the disinterested pose as respects game. For it was a pose.
+Memba Sasa was most keenly interested in game whenever it was an object
+of pursuit. It did not matter how common the particular species might
+be: if we wanted it, Memba Sasa would look upon it with eager ferocity;
+and if we did not want it, he paid no attention to it at all. When we
+started in the morning, or in the relaxation of our return at night, I
+would mention casually a few of the things that might prove acceptable.
+
+"To-morrow we want kongoni for boys' meat, or zebra; and some meat for
+masters-Tommy, impala, oribi," and Memba Sasa knew as well as I did what
+we needed to fill out our trophy collection. When he caught sight of one
+of these animals his whole countenance changed. The lines of his face
+set, his lips drew back from his teeth, his eyes fairly darted fire in
+the fixity of their gaze. He was like a fine pointer dog on birds, or
+like the splendid savage he was at heart.
+
+"M'palla!" he hissed; and then after a second, in a restrained fierce
+voice, "Na-ona? Do you see?"
+
+If I did not see he pointed cautiously. His own eyes never left the
+beast. Rarely he stayed put while I made the stalk. More often he glided
+like a snake at my heels. If the bullet hit, Memba Sasa always exhaled
+a grunt of satisfaction-"hah!"-in which triumph and satisfaction mingled
+with a faint derision at the unfortunate beast. In case of a trophy he
+squatted anxiously at the animal's head while I took my measurements,
+assisting very intelligently with the tape line. When I had finished, he
+always looked up at me with wrinkled brow.
+
+"Footie n'gapi?" he inquired. This means literally, "How many feet?",
+footie being his euphemistic invention of a word for the tape. I would
+tell him how many "footie" and how many "inchie" the measurement proved
+to be. From the depths of his wonderful memory he would dig up the
+measurements of another beast of the same sort I had killed months back,
+but which he had remembered accurately from a single hearing.
+
+The shooting of a beast he always detailed to his few cronies in camp:
+the other gunbearers, and one or two from his own tribe. He always used
+the first person plural, "we" did so and so; and took an inordinate
+pride in making out his bwana as being an altogether superior person to
+any of the other gunbearer's bwanas. Over a miss he always looked
+sad; but with a dignified sadness as though we had met with undeserved
+misfortune sent by malignant gods. If there were any possible
+alleviating explanation, Memba Sasa made the most of it, provided our
+fiasco was witnessed. If we were alone in our disgrace, he buried the
+incident fathoms deep. He took an inordinate pride in our using the
+minimum number of cartridges, and would explain to me in a loud tone
+of voice that we had cartridges enough in the belt. When we had not
+cartridges enough, he would sneak around after dark to get some more. At
+times he would even surreptitiously "lift" a few from B.'s gunbearer!
+
+When in camp, with his "cazi" finished, Memba Sasa did fancy work! The
+picture of this powerful half-savage, his fierce brows bent over a tiny
+piece of linen, his strong fingers fussing with little stitches, will
+always appeal to my sense of the incongruous. Through a piece of linen
+he punched holes with a porcupine quill. Then he "buttonhole" stitched
+the holes, and embroidered patterns between them with fine white thread.
+The result was an openwork pattern heavily encrusted with beautiful fine
+embroidery. It was most astounding stuff, such as you would expect from
+a French convent, perhaps, but never from an African savage. He did a
+circular piece and a long narrow piece. They took him three months to
+finish, and then he sewed them together to form a skull cap. Billy,
+entranced with the lacelike delicacy of the work, promptly captured it;
+whereupon Memba Sasa philosophically started another.
+
+By this time he had identified himself with my fortunes. We had become
+a firm whose business it was to carry out the affairs of a single
+personality-me. Memba Sasa, among other things, undertook the dignity.
+When I walked through a crowd, Memba Sasa zealously kicked everybody out
+of my royal path. When I started to issue a command, Memba Sasa finished
+it and amplified it and put a snapper on it. When I came into camp,
+Memba Sasa saw to it personally that my tent went up promptly and
+properly, although that was really not part of his "cazi" at all. And
+when somewhere beyond my ken some miserable boy had committed a crime, I
+never remained long in ignorance of that fact.
+
+Perhaps I happened to be sitting in my folding chair idly smoking a
+pipe and reading a book. Across the open places of the camp would stride
+Memba Sasa, very erect, very rigid, moving in short indignant jerks,
+his eye flashing fire. Behind him would sneak a very hang-dog boy. Memba
+Sasa marched straight up to me, faced right, and drew one side, his
+silence sparkling with honest indignation.
+
+"Just look at THAT!" his attitude seemed to say, "Could you believe such
+human depravity possible? And against OUR authority?"
+
+He always stood, quite rigid, waiting for me to speak.
+
+"Well, Memba Sasa?" I would inquire, after I had enjoyed the show a
+little.
+
+In a few restrained words he put the case before me, always briefly,
+always with a scornful dignity. This shenzi has done so-and-so.
+
+We will suppose the case fairly serious. I listened to the man's story,
+if necessary called a few witnesses, delivered judgment. All the while
+Memba Sasa stood at rigid attention, fairly bristling virtue, like
+the good dog standing by at the punishment of the bad dogs. And in his
+attitude was a subtle triumph, as one would say: "You see! Fool with my
+bwana, will you! Just let anybody try to get funny with US!" Judgment
+pronounced-we have supposed the case serious, you remember-Memba Sasa
+himself applied the lash. I think he really enjoyed that; but it was a
+restrained joy. The whip descended deliberately, without excitement.
+
+The man's devotion in unusual circumstances was beyond praise. Danger
+or excitement incite a sort of loyalty in any good man; but humdrum,
+disagreeable difficulty is a different matter.
+
+One day we marched over a country of thorn-scrub desert. Since two days
+we had been cut loose from water, and had been depending on a small
+amount carried in zinc drums. Now our only reasons for faring were a
+conical hill, over the horizon, and the knowledge of a river somewhere
+beyond. How far beyond, or in what direction, we did not know. We had
+thirty men with us, a more or less ragtag lot, picked up anyhow in the
+bazaars. They were soft, ill-disciplined and uncertain. For five or six
+hours they marched well enough. Then the sun began to get very hot, and
+some of them began to straggle. They had, of course, no intention of
+deserting, for their only hope of surviving lay in staying with us; but
+their loads had become heavy, and they took too many rests. We put a
+good man behind, but without much avail. In open country a safari can
+be permitted to straggle over miles, for always it can keep in touch by
+sight; but in this thorn-scrub desert, that looks all alike, a man fifty
+yards out of sight is fifty yards lost. We would march fifteen or twenty
+minutes, then sit down to wait until the rearmost men had straggled in,
+perhaps a half hour later. And we did not dare move on until the tale of
+our thirty was complete. At this rate progress was very slow, and as the
+fierce equatorial sun increased in strength, became always slower still.
+The situation became alarming. We were quite out of water, and we had no
+idea where water was to be found. To complicate matters, the thornbrush
+thickened to a jungle.
+
+My single companion and I consulted. It was agreed that I was to push on
+as rapidly as possible to locate the water, while he was to try to hold
+the caravan together. Accordingly, Memba Sasa and I marched ahead. We
+tried to leave a trail to follow; and we hoped fervently that our guess
+as to the stream's course would prove to be a good one. At the end
+of two hours and a half we found the water-a beautiful jungle-shaded
+stream-and filled ourselves up therewith. Our duty was accomplished, for
+we had left a trail to be followed. Nevertheless, I felt I should like
+to take back our full canteens to relieve the worst cases. Memba Sasa
+would not hear of it, and even while I was talking to him seized the
+canteens and disappeared.
+
+At the end of two hours more camp was made, after a fashion; but still
+four men had failed to come in. We built a smudge in the hope of guiding
+them; and gave them up. If they had followed our trail, they should have
+been in long ago; if they had missed that trail, heaven knows where they
+were, or where we should go to find them. Dusk was falling, and, to tell
+the truth, we were both very much done up by a long day at 115 degrees
+in the shade under an equatorial sun. The missing men would climb trees
+away from the beasts, and we would organize a search next day. As we
+debated these things, to us came Memba Sasa.
+
+"I want to take 'Winchi,'" said he. "Winchi" is his name for my
+Winchester 405.
+
+"Why?" we asked.
+
+"If I can take Winchi, I will find the men," said he.
+
+This was entirely voluntary on his part. He, as well as we, had had a
+hard day, and he had made a double journey for part of it. We gave him
+Winchi and he departed. Sometime after midnight he returned with the
+missing men.
+
+Perhaps a dozen times all told he volunteered for these special
+services; once in particular, after a fourteen-hour day, he set off
+at nine o'clock at night in a soaking rainstorm, wandered until two
+o'clock, and returned unsuccessful, to rouse me and report gravely
+that he could not find them. For these services he neither received nor
+expected special reward. And catch him doing anything outside his strict
+"cazi" except for US.
+
+We were always very ceremonious and dignified in our relations on such
+occasions. Memba Sasa would suddenly appear, deposit the rifle in its
+place, and stand at attention.
+
+"Well, Memba Sasa?" I would inquire.
+
+"I have found the men; they are in camp."
+
+Then I would give him his reward. It was either the word "assanti," or
+the two words "assanti sana," according to the difficulty and importance
+of the task accomplished. They mean simply "thank you" and "thank you
+very much."
+
+Once or twice, after a particularly long and difficult month or so, when
+Memba Sasa has been almost literally my alter ego, I have called him up
+for special praise. "I am very pleased with you, Memba Sasa," said I.
+"You have done your cazi well. You are a good man."
+
+He accepted this with dignity, without deprecation, and without the
+idiocy of spoken gratitude. He agreed perfectly with everything I
+said! "Yes" was his only comment. I liked it.
+
+On our ultimate success in a difficult enterprise Memba Sasa set great
+store; and his delight in ultimate success was apparently quite apart
+from personal considerations. We had been hunting greater kudu for five
+weeks before we finally landed one. The greater kudu is, with the bongo,
+easily the prize beast in East Africa, and very few are shot. By a piece
+of bad luck, for him, I had sent Memba Sasa out in a different direction
+to look for signs the afternoon we finally got one. The kill was made
+just at dusk. C. and I, with Mavrouki, built a fire and stayed, while
+Kongoni went to camp after men. There he broke the news to Memba Sasa
+that the great prize had been captured, and he absent. Memba Sasa was
+hugely delighted, nor did he in any way show what must have been a great
+disappointment to him. After repeating the news triumphantly to every
+one in camp, he came out to where we were waiting, arrived quite out of
+breath, and grabbed me by the hand in heartiest congratulation.
+
+Memba Sasa went in not at all for personal ornamentation, any more than
+he allowed his dignity to be broken by anything resembling emotionalism.
+No tattoo marks, no ear ornaments, no rings nor bracelets. He never even
+picked up an ostrich feather for his head. On the latter he sometimes
+wore an old felt hat; sometimes, more picturesquely, an orange-coloured
+fillet. Khaki shirt, khaki "shorts," blue puttees, besides his knife
+and my own accoutrements: that was all. In town he was all white clad, a
+long fine linen robe reaching to his feet; and one of the lacelike skull
+caps he was so very skilful at making.
+
+That will do for a preliminary sketch. If you follow these pages, you
+will hear more of him; he is worth it.
+
+
+
+
+
+VI. THE FIRST GAME CAMP
+
+In the review of "first" impressions with which we are concerned, we
+must now skip a week or ten days to stop at what is known in our diaries
+as the First Ford of the Guaso Nyero River.
+
+These ten days were not uneventful. We had crossed the wide and
+undulating plains, had paused at some tall beautiful falls plunging
+several hundred feet into the mysteriousness of a dense forest on
+which we looked down. There we had enjoyed some duck, goose and snipe
+shooting; had made the acquaintance of a few of the Masai, and had
+looked with awe on our first hippo tracks in the mud beside a tiny
+ditchlike stream. Here and there were small game herds. In the light of
+later experience we now realize that these were nothing at all; but at
+the time the sight of full-grown wild animals out in plain sight was
+quite wonderful. At the close of the day's march we always wandered out
+with our rifles to see what we could find. Everything was new to us,
+and we had our men to feed. Our shooting gradually improved until we had
+overcome the difficulties peculiar to this new country and were doing as
+well as we could do anywhere.
+
+Now, at the end of a hard day through scrub, over rolling bold hills,
+and down a scrub brush slope, we had reached the banks of the Guaso
+Nyero.
+
+At this point, above the junction of its principal tributary rivers,
+it was a stream about sixty or seventy feet wide, flowing swift between
+high banks. A few trees marked its course, but nothing like a jungle.
+The ford was in swift water just above a deep still pool suspected
+of crocodiles. We found the water about waist deep, stretched a rope
+across, and forcibly persuaded our eager boys that one at a time was
+about what the situation required. On the other side we made camp on
+an open flat. Having marched so far continuously, we resolved to settle
+down for a while. The men had been without sufficient meat; and we
+desired very much to look over the country closely, and to collect a few
+heads as trophies.
+
+Perhaps a word might not come amiss as to the killing of game. The case
+is here quite different from the condition of affairs at home. Here
+animal life is most extraordinarily abundant; it furnishes the main food
+supply to the traveller; and at present is probably increasing slightly,
+certainly holding its own. Whatever toll the sportsman or traveller take
+is as nothing compared to what he might take if he were an unscrupulous
+game hog. If his cartridges and his shoulder held out, he could easily
+kill a hundred animals a day instead of the few he requires. In that
+sense, then, no man slaughters indiscriminately. During the course of
+a year he probably shoots from two hundred to two hundred and fifty
+beasts, provided he is travelling with an ordinary sized caravan. This,
+the experts say, is about the annual toll of one lion. If the traveller
+gets his lion, he plays even with the fauna of the country; if he
+gets two or more lions, he has something to his credit. This probably
+explains why the game is still so remarkably abundant near the road and
+on the very outskirts of the town.
+
+We were now much in need of a fair quantity of meat, both for immediate
+consumption of our safari, and to make biltong or jerky. Later, in like
+circumstances, we should have sallied forth in a businesslike fashion,
+dropped the requisite number of zebra and hartebeeste as near camp as
+possible, and called it a job. Now, however, being new to the game, we
+much desired good trophies in variety. Therefore, we scoured the
+country far and wide for desirable heads; and the meat waited upon the
+acquisition of the trophy.
+
+This, then, might be called our first Shooting Camp. Heretofore we had
+travelled every day. Now the boys settled down to what the native porter
+considers the height of bliss: a permanent camp with plenty to eat. Each
+morning we were off before daylight, riding our horses, and followed by
+the gunbearers, the syces, and fifteen or twenty porters. The country
+rose from the river in a long gentle slope grown with low brush and
+scattered candlestick euphorbias. This slope ended in a scattered range
+of low rocky buttes. Through any one of the various openings between
+them, we rode to find ourselves on the borders of an undulating grass
+country of low rounded hills with wide valleys winding between them. In
+these valleys and on these hills was the game.
+
+Daylight of the day I would tell about found us just at the edge of the
+little buttes. Down one of the slopes the growing half light revealed
+two oryx feeding, magnificent big creatures, with straight rapier horns
+three feet in length. These were most exciting and desirable, so off
+my horse I got and began to sneak up on them through the low tufts
+of grass. They fed quite calmly. I congratulated myself, and slipped
+nearer. Without even looking in my direction, they trotted away.
+Somewhat chagrined, I returned to my companions, and we rode on.
+
+Then across a mile-wide valley we saw two dark objects in the tall
+grass; and almost immediately identified these as rhinoceroses, the
+first we had seen. They stood there side by side, gazing off into space,
+doing nothing in a busy morning world. After staring at them through our
+glasses for some time, we organized a raid. At the bottom of the valley
+we left the horses and porters; lined up, each with his gunbearer at his
+elbow; and advanced on the enemy. B. was to have the shot According to
+all the books we should have been able, provided we were downwind
+and made no noise, to have approached within fifty or sixty yards
+undiscovered. However, at a little over a hundred yards they both turned
+tail and departed at a swift trot, their heads held well up and their
+tails sticking up straight and stiff in the most ridiculous fashion.
+No good shooting at them in such circumstances, so we watched them go,
+still keeping up their slashing trot, growing smaller and smaller in the
+distance until finally they disappeared over the top of a swell.
+
+We set ourselves methodically to following them. It took us over an hour
+of steady plodding before we again came in sight of them. They were this
+time nearer the top of a hill, and we saw instantly that the curve of
+the slope was such that we could approach within fifty yards before
+coming in sight at all. Therefore, once more we dismounted, lined up in
+battle array, and advanced.
+
+Sensations? Distinctly nervous, decidedly alert, and somewhat
+self-congratulatory that I was not more scared. No man can predicate how
+efficient he is going to be in the presence of really dangerous game.
+Only the actual trial will show. This is not a question of courage at
+all, but of purely involuntary reaction of the nerves. Very few men are
+physical cowards. They will and do face anything. But a great many men
+are rendered inefficient by the way their nervous systems act under
+stress. It is not a matter for control by will power in the slightest
+degree. So the big game hunter must determine by actual trial whether it
+so happens that the great excitement of danger renders his hand shaky or
+steady. The excitement in either case is the same. No man is ever "cool"
+in the sense that personal danger is of the same kind of indifference
+to him as clambering aboard a street car. He must always be lifted
+above himself, must enter an extra normal condition to meet extra normal
+circumstances. He can always control his conduct; but he can by no
+means always determine the way the inevitable excitement will affect his
+coordinations. And unfortunately, in the final result it does not matter
+how brave a man is, but how closely he can hold. If he finds that his
+nervous excitement renders him unsteady, he has no business ever to
+tackle dangerous game alone. If, on the other hand, he discovers that
+IDENTICALLY THE SAME nervous excitement happens to steady his front
+sight to rocklike rigidity-a rigidity he could not possibly attain in
+normal conditions-then he will probably keep out of trouble.
+
+To amplify this further by a specific instance: I hunted for a short
+time in Africa with a man who was always eager for exciting encounters,
+whose pluck was admirable in every way, but whose nervous reaction so
+manifested itself that he was utterly unable to do even decent shooting
+at any range. Furthermore, his very judgment and power of observation
+were so obscured that he could not remember afterward with any accuracy
+what had happened-which way the beast was pointing, how many there were
+of them, in which direction they went, how many shots were fired, in
+short all the smaller details of the affair. He thought he remembered.
+After the show was over it was quite amusing to get his version of
+the incident. It was almost always so wide of the fact as to be little
+recognizable. And, mind you, he was perfectly sincere in his belief, and
+absolutely courageous. Only he was quite unfitted by physical make-up
+for a big game hunter; and I was relieved when, after a short time, his
+route and mine separated.
+
+Well, we clambered up that slope with a fine compound of tension,
+expectation, and latent uneasiness as to just what was going to happen,
+anyway. Finally, we raised the backs of the beasts, stooped, sneaked a
+little nearer, and finally at a signal stood upright perhaps forty yards
+from the brutes.
+
+For the first time I experienced a sensation I was destined many times
+to repeat-that of the sheer size of the animals. Menagerie rhinoceroses
+had been of the smaller Indian variety; and in any case most menagerie
+beasts are more or less stunted. These two, facing us, their little eyes
+blinking, looked like full-grown ironclads on dry land. The moment we
+stood erect B. fired at the larger of the two. Instantly they turned and
+were off at a tearing run. I opened fire, and B. let loose his second
+barrel. At about two hundred and fifty yards the big rhinoceros suddenly
+fell on his side, while the other continued his flight. It was all
+over-very exciting because we got excited, but not in the least
+dangerous.
+
+The boys were delighted, for here was meat in plenty for everybody. We
+measured the beast, photographed him, marvelled at his immense size, and
+turned him over to the gunbearers for treatment. In half an hour or so a
+long string of porters headed across the hills in the direction of
+camp, many miles distant, each carrying his load either of meat, or the
+trophies. Rhinoceros hide, properly treated, becomes as transparent as
+amber, and so from it can be made many very beautiful souvenirs, such as
+bowls, trays, paper knives, table tops, whips, canes, and the like.
+And, of course, the feet of one's first rhino are always saved for cigar
+boxes or inkstands.
+
+Already we had an admiring and impatient audience. From all directions
+came the carrion birds. They circled far up in the heavens; they shot
+downward like plummets from a great height with an inspiring roar of
+wings; they stood thick in a solemn circle all around the scene of the
+kill; they rose with a heavy flapping when we moved in their direction.
+Skulking forms flashed in the grass, and occasionally the pointed ears
+of a jackal would rise inquiringly.
+
+It was by now nearly noon. The sun shone clear and hot; the heat shimmer
+rose in clouds from the brown surface of the hills. In all directions
+we could make out small gameherds resting motionless in the heat of the
+day, the mirage throwing them into fantastic shapes. While the final
+disposition was being made of the defunct rhinoceros I wandered over the
+edge of the hill to see what I could see, and fairly blundered on a herd
+of oryx at about a hundred and fifty yards range. They looked at me a
+startled instant, then leaped away to the left at a tremendous speed.
+By a lucky shot, I bowled one over. He was a beautiful beast, with his
+black and white face and his straight rapierlike horns nearly three feet
+long, and I was most pleased to get him. Memba Sasa came running at the
+sound of the shot. We set about preparing the head.
+
+Then through a gap in the hills far to the left we saw a little black
+speck moving rapidly in our direction. At the end of a minute we could
+make it out as the second rhinoceros. He had run heaven knows how
+many miles away, and now he was returning; whether with some idea of
+rejoining his companion or from sheer chance, I do not know. At any
+rate, here he was, still ploughing along at his swinging trot. His
+course led him along a side hill about four hundred yards from where
+the oryx lay. When he was directly opposite I took the Springfield and
+fired, not at him, but at a spot five or six feet in front of his
+nose. The bullet threw up a column of dust. Rhino brought up short with
+astonishment, wheeled to the left, and made off at a gallop. I dropped
+another bullet in front of him. Again he stopped, changed direction, and
+made off. For the third time I hit the ground in front of him. Then he
+got angry, put his head down and charged the spot.
+
+Five more shots I expended on the amusement of that rhinoceros; and
+at the last had run furiously charging back and forth in a twenty-yard
+space, very angry at the little puffing, screeching bullets, but quite
+unable to catch one. Then he made up his mind and departed the way he
+had come, finally disappearing as a little rapidly moving black speck
+through the gap in the hills where we had first caught sight of him.
+
+We finished caring for the oryx, and returned to camp. To our surprise
+we found we were at least seven or eight miles out.
+
+In this fashion days passed very quickly. The early dewy start in the
+cool of the morning, the gradual grateful warming up of sunrise, and
+immediately after, the rest during the midday heats under a shady tree,
+the long trek back to camp at sunset, the hot bath after the toilsome
+day-all these were very pleasant. Then the swift falling night, and the
+gleam of many tiny fires springing up out of the darkness; with each its
+sticks full of meat roasting, and its little circle of men, their skins
+gleaming in the light. As we sat smoking, we would become aware that
+M'ganga, the headman, was standing silent awaiting orders. Some one
+would happen to see the white of his eyes, or perhaps he might smile so
+that his teeth would become visible. Otherwise he might stand there an
+hour, and no one the wiser, for he was respectfully silent, and exactly
+the colour of the night.
+
+We would indicate to him our plans for the morrow, and he would
+disappear. Then at a distance of twenty or thirty feet from the front
+of our tents a tiny tongue of flame would lick up. Dark figures could be
+seen manipulating wood. A blazing fire sprang up, against which we could
+see the motionless and picturesque figure of Saa-sita (Six o'Clock), the
+askari of the first night watch, leaning on his musket. He was a most
+picturesque figure, for his fancy ran to original headdresses, and at
+the moment he affected a wonderful upstanding structure made of marabout
+wings.
+
+At this sign that the night had begun, we turned in. A few hyenas
+moaned, a few jackals barked: otherwise the first part of the night was
+silent, for the hunters were at their silent business, and the hunted
+were "layin' low and sayin' nuffin'."
+
+Day after day we rode out, exploring the country in different
+directions. The great uncertainty as to what of interest we would find
+filled the hours with charm. Sometimes we clambered about the cliffs of
+the buttes trying to find klipspringers; again we ran miles pursuing the
+gigantic eland. I in turn got my first rhinoceros, with no more danger
+than had attended the killing of B.'s. On this occasion, however, I had
+my first experience of the lightning skill of the first-class gunbearer.
+Having fired both barrels, and staggered the beast, I threw open the
+breech and withdrew the empty cartridges, intending, of course, as my
+next move to fish two more out of my belt. The empty shells were hardly
+away from the chambers, however, when a long brown arm shot over
+my right shoulder and popped two fresh cartridges in the breech. So
+astonished was I at this unexpected apparition, that for a second or so
+I actually forgot to close the gun.
+
+
+
+
+
+VII. ON THE MARCH
+
+After leaving the First Game Camp, we travelled many hours and miles
+over rolling hills piling ever higher and higher until they broke
+through a pass to illimitable plains. These plains were mantled with the
+dense scrub, looking from a distance and from above like the nap of soft
+green velvet. Here and there this scrub broke in round or oval patches
+of grass plain. Great mountain ranges peered over the edge of a horizon.
+Lesser mountain peaks of fantastic shapes-sheer Yosemite cliffs, single
+buttes, castles-had ventured singly from behind that same horizon
+barricade. The course of a river was marked by a meandering line of
+green jungle.
+
+It took us two days to get to that river. Our intermediate camp was
+halfway down the pass. We ousted a hundred indignant straw-coloured
+monkeys and twice as many baboons from the tiny flat above the water
+hole. They bobbed away cursing over their shoulders at us. Next day we
+debouched on the plains. They were rolling, densely grown, covered with
+volcanic stones, swarming with game of various sorts. The men marched
+well. They were happy, for they had had a week of meat; and each carried
+a light lunch of sun-dried biltong or jerky. Some mistaken individuals
+had attempted to bring along some "fresh" meat. We found it advisable to
+pass to windward of these; but they themselves did not seem to mind.
+
+It became very hot; for we were now descending to the lower elevations.
+The marching through long grass and over volcanic stones was not easy.
+Shortly we came out on stumbly hills, mostly rock, very dry, grown with
+cactus and discouraged desiccated thorn scrub. Here the sun reflected
+powerfully and the bearers began to flag.
+
+Then suddenly, without warning, we pitched over a little rise to the
+river.
+
+No more marvellous contrast could have been devised. From the blasted
+barren scrub country we plunged into the lush jungle. It was not a very
+wide jungle, but it was sufficient. The trees were large and variegated,
+reaching to a high and spacious upper story above the ground tangle.
+From the massive limbs hung vines, festooned and looped like great
+serpents. Through this upper corridor flitted birds of bright hue or
+striking variegation. We did not know many of them by name, nor did
+we desire to; but were content with the impression of vivid flashing
+movement and colour. Various monkeys swung, leaped and galloped slowly
+away before our advance; pausing to look back at us curiously, the ruffs
+of fur standing out all around their little black faces. The lower half
+of the forest jungle, however, had no spaciousness at all, but a certain
+breathless intimacy. Great leaved plants as tall as little trees, and
+trees as small as big plants, bound together by vines, made up the "deep
+impenetrable jungle" of our childhood imagining. Here were rustlings,
+sudden scurryings, half-caught glimpses, once or twice a crash as some
+greater animal made off. Here and there through the thicket wandered
+well beaten trails, wide, but low, so that to follow them one would have
+to bend double. These were the paths of rhinoceroses. The air smelt warm
+and moist and earthy, like the odour of a greenhouse.
+
+We skirted this jungle until it gave way to let the plain down to the
+river. Then, in an open grove of acacias, and fairly on the river's
+bank, we pitched our tents.
+
+These acacia trees were very noble big chaps, with many branches and a
+thick shade. In their season they are wonderfully blossomed with white,
+with yellow, sometimes even with vivid red flowers. Beneath them was
+only a small matter of ferns to clear away.
+
+Before us the sodded bank rounded off ten feet the river itself. At this
+point far up in its youth it was a friendly river. Its noble width ran
+over shallows of yellow sand or of small pebbles. Save for unexpected
+deep holes one could wade across it anywhere. Yet it was very wide, with
+still reaches of water, with islands of gigantic papyrus, with sand bars
+dividing the current, and with always the vista for a greater or lesser
+distance down through the jungle along its banks. From our canvas chairs
+we could look through on one side to the arid country, and on the other
+to this tropical wonderland.
+
+Yes, at this point in its youth it was indeed a friendly river in every
+sense of the word. There are three reasons, ordinarily, why one cannot
+bathe in the African rivers. In the first place, they are nearly all
+disagreeably muddy; in the second place, cold water in a tropical
+climate causes horrible congestions; in the third place they swarm
+with crocodiles and hippos. But this river was as yet unpolluted by the
+alluvial soil of the lower countries; the sun on its shallows had warmed
+its waters almost to blood heat; and the beasts found no congenial
+haunts in these clear shoals. Almost before our tents were up the men
+were splashing. And always my mental image of that river's beautiful
+expanse must include round black heads floating like gourds where the
+water ran smoothest.
+
+Our tents stood all in a row facing the stream, the great trees at
+their backs. Down in the grove the men had pitched their little white
+shelters. Happily they settled down to ease. Settling down to ease, in
+the case of the African porter, consists in discarding as many clothes
+as possible. While on the march he wears everything he owns; whether
+from pride or a desire to simplify transportation I am unable to say. He
+is supplied by his employer with a blanket and jersey. As supplementals
+he can generally produce a half dozen white man's ill-assorted garments:
+an old shooting coat, a ragged pair of khaki breeches, a kitchen
+tablecloth for a skirt, or something of the sort. If he can raise an
+overcoat he is happy, especially if it happen to be a long, thick WINTER
+overcoat. The possessor of such a garment will wear it conscientiously
+throughout the longest journey and during the hottest noons. But when he
+relaxes in camp, he puts away all these prideful possessions and turns
+out in the savage simplicity of his red blanket. Draped negligently,
+sometimes very negligently, in what may be termed semi-toga fashion,
+he stalks about or squats before his little fire in all the glory of a
+regained savagery. The contrast of the red with his red bronze or black
+skin, the freedom and grace of his movements, the upright carriage of
+his fine figure, and the flickering savagery playing in his eyes are
+very effective.
+
+Our men occupied their leisure variously and happily. A great deal of
+time they spent before their tiny fires roasting meat and talking. This
+talk was almost invariably of specific personal experiences. They bathed
+frequently and with pleasure. They slept. Between times they fashioned
+ingenious affairs of ornament or use: bows and arrows, throwing clubs,
+snuff-boxes of the tips of antelope horns, bound prettily with bright
+wire, wooden swords beautifully carved in exact imitation of the
+white man's service weapon, and a hundred other such affairs. At this
+particular time also they were much occupied in making sandals against
+the thorns. These were flat soles of rawhide, the edges pounded to make
+them curl up a trifle over the foot, fastened by thongs; very ingenious,
+and very useful. To their task they brought song. The labour of Africa
+is done to song; weird minor chanting starting high in the falsetto to
+trickle unevenly down to the lower registers, or where the matter is one
+of serious effort, an antiphony of solo and chorus. From all parts
+of the camp come these softly modulated chantings, low and sweet,
+occasionally breaking into full voice as the inner occasion swells,
+then almost immediately falling again to the murmuring undertone of more
+concentrated attention.
+
+The red blanket was generally worn knotted from one shoulder or bound
+around the waist Malay fashion. When it turned into a cowl, with a
+miserable and humpbacked expression, it became the Official Badge of
+Illness. No matter what was the matter that was the proper thing to
+do-to throw the blanket over the head and to assume as miserable a
+demeanour as possible. A sore toe demanded just as much concentrated
+woe as a case of pneumonia. Sick call was cried after the day's work was
+finished. Then M'ganga or one of the askaris lifted up his voice.
+
+"N'gonjwa! n'gonjwa!" he shouted; and at the shout the red cowls
+gathered in front of the tent. Three things were likely to be the
+matter: too much meat, fever, or pus infection from slight wounds. To
+these in the rainy season would be added the various sorts of colds.
+That meant either Epsom salts, quinine, or a little excursion with
+the lancet and permanganate. The African traveller gets to be heap big
+medicine man within these narrow limits.
+
+All the red cowls squatted miserably, oh, very miserably, in a row.
+The headman stood over them rather fiercely. We surveyed the lot
+contemplatively, hoping to heaven that nothing complicated was going to
+turn up. One of the tent boys hovered in the background as dispensing
+chemist.
+
+"Well," said F. at last, "what's the matter with you?"
+
+The man indicated pointed to his head and the back of his neck and
+groaned. If he had a slight headache he groaned just as much as
+though his head were splitting. F. asked a few questions, and took
+his temperature. The clinical thermometer is in itself considered big
+medicine, and often does much good.
+
+"Too much meat, my friend," remarked F. in English, and to his boy in
+Swahili, "bring the cup."
+
+He put in this cup a triple dose of Epsom salts. The African requires
+three times a white man's dose. This, pathologically, was all that was
+required: but psychologically the job was just begun. Your African can
+do wonderful things with his imagination. If he thinks he is going to
+die, die he will, and very promptly, even though he is ailing of the
+most trivial complaint. If he thinks he is going to get well, he is
+very apt to do so in face of extraordinary odds. Therefore the white
+man desires not only to start his patient's internal economy with Epsom
+salts, but also to stir his faith. To this end F. added to that triple
+dose of medicine a spoonful of Chutney, one of Worcestershire sauce,
+a few grains of quinine, Sparklets water and a crystal or so of
+permanganate to turn the mixture a beautiful pink. This assortment the
+patient drank with gratitude-and the tears running down his cheeks.
+
+"He will carry a load to-morrow," F. told the attentive M'ganga.
+
+The next patient had fever. This one got twenty grains of quinine in
+water.
+
+"This man carries no load to-morrow," was the direction, "but he must
+not drop behind."
+
+Two or three surgical cases followed. Then a big Kavirondo rose to his
+feet.
+
+"Nini?" demanded F.
+
+"Homa-fever," whined the man.
+
+F. clapped his hand on the back of the other's neck.
+
+"I think," he remarked contemplatively in English, "that you're a liar,
+and want to get out of carrying your load."
+
+The clinical thermometer showed no evidence of temperature.
+
+"I'm pretty near sure you're a liar," observed F. in the pleasantest
+conversational tone and still in English, "but you may be merely a poor
+diagnostician. Perhaps your poor insides couldn't get away with that
+rotten meat I saw you lugging around. We'll see."
+
+So he mixed a pint of medicine.
+
+"There's Epsom salts for the real part of trouble," observed F., still
+talking to himself, "and here's a few things for the fake."
+
+He then proceeded to concoct a mixture whose recoil was the exact
+measure of his imagination. The imagination was only limited by the
+necessity of keeping the mixture harmless. Every hot, biting, nauseous
+horror in camp went into that pint measure.
+
+"There," concluded F., "if you drink that and come back again to-morrow
+for treatment, I'll believe you ARE sick."
+
+Without undue pride I would like to record that I was the first to think
+of putting in a peculiarly nauseous gun oil, and thereby acquired a
+reputation of making tremendous medicine.
+
+So implicit is this faith in white man's medicine that at one of the
+Government posts we were approached by one of the secondary chiefs of
+the district. He was a very nifty savage, dressed for calling, with his
+hair done in ropes like a French poodle's, his skin carefully oiled and
+reddened, his armlets and necklets polished, and with the ceremonial
+ball of black feathers on the end of his long spear. His gait was the
+peculiar mincing teeter of savage conventional society. According to
+custom, he approached unsmiling, spat carefully in his palm, and shook
+hands. Then he squatted and waited.
+
+"What is it?" we asked after it became evident he really wanted
+something besides the pleasure of our company.
+
+"N'dowa-medicine," said he.
+
+"Why do you not go the Government dispensary?" we demanded.
+
+"The doctor there is an Indian; I want REAL medicine, white man's
+medicine," he explained.
+
+Immensely flattered, of course, we wanted further to know what ailed
+him.
+
+"Nothing," said he blandly, "nothing at all; but it seemed an excellent
+chance to get good medicine."
+
+After the clinic was all attended to, we retired to our tents and the
+screeching-hot bath so grateful in the tropics. When we emerged, in
+our mosquito boots and pajamas, the daylight was gone. Scores of little
+blazes licked and leaped in the velvet blackness round about, casting
+the undergrowth and the lower branches of the trees into flat planes
+like the cardboard of a stage setting. Cheerful, squatted figures sat in
+silhouette or in the relief of chance high light. Long switches of
+meat roasted before the fires. A hum of talk, bursts of laughter, the
+crooning of minor chants mingled with the crackling of thorns. Before
+our tents stood the table set for supper. Beyond it lay the pile of
+firewood, later to be burned on the altar of our safety against beasts.
+The moonlight was casting milky shadows over the river and under the
+trees opposite. In those shadows gleamed many fireflies. Overhead were
+millions of stars, and a little breeze that wandered through upper
+branches.
+
+But in Equatorial Africa the simple bands of velvet black, against the
+spangled brightnesses that make up the visual night world, must give way
+in interest to the other world of sound. The air hums with an undertone
+of insects; the plain and hill and jungle are populous with voices
+furtive or bold. In daytime one sees animals enough, in all conscience,
+but only at night does he sense the almost oppressive feeling of the
+teeming life about him. The darkness is peopled. Zebra bark, bucks blow
+or snort or make the weird noises of their respective species; hyenas
+howl; out of an immense simian silence a group of monkeys suddenly break
+into chatterings; ostriches utter their deep hollow boom; small things
+scurry and squeak; a certain weird bird of the curlew or plover sort
+wails like a lonesome soul. Especially by the river, as here, are the
+boomings of the weirdest of weird bullfrogs, and the splashings and
+swishings of crocodile and hippopotamus. One is impressed with the
+busyness of the world surrounding him; every bird or beast, the hunter
+and the hunted, is the centre of many important affairs. The world
+swarms.
+
+And then, some miles away a lion roars, the earth and air vibrating to
+the sheer power of the sound. The world falls to a blank dead silence.
+For a full minute every living creature of the jungle or of the veldt
+holds its breath. Their lord has spoken.
+
+After dinner we sat in our canvas chairs, smoking. The guard fire in
+front of our tent had been lit. On the other side of it stood one of our
+askaris leaning on his musket. He and his three companions, turn about,
+keep the flames bright against the fiercer creatures.
+
+After a time we grew sleepy. I called Saa-sita and entrusted to him my
+watch. On the crystal of this I had pasted a small piece of surgeon's
+plaster. When the hour hand reached the surgeon's plaster, he must wake
+us up. Saa-sita was a very conscientious and careful man. One day I took
+some time hitching my pedometer properly to his belt: I could not wear
+it effectively myself because I was on horseback. At the end of the
+ten-hour march it registered a mile and a fraction. Saa-sita explained
+that he wished to take especial care of it, so he had wrapped it in a
+cloth and carried it all day in his hand!
+
+We turned in. As I reached over to extinguish the lantern I issued my
+last command for the day.
+
+"Watcha kalele, Saa-sita," I told the askari; at once he lifted up
+his voice to repeat my words. "Watcha kalele!" Immediately from the
+Responsible all over camp the word came back-from gunbearers, from
+M'ganga, from tent boys-"kalele! kalele! kalele!"
+
+Thus commanded, the boisterous fun, the croon of intimate talk, the
+gently rising and falling tide of melody fell to complete silence. Only
+remained the crackling of the fire and the innumerable voices of the
+tropical night.
+
+
+
+
+
+VIII. THE RIVER JUNGLE
+
+We camped along this river for several weeks, poking indefinitely and
+happily around the country in all directions to see what we could see.
+Generally we went together, for neither B. nor myself had been tried out
+as yet on dangerous game-those easy rhinos hardly counted-and I think we
+both preferred to feel that we had backing until we knew what our nerves
+were going to do with us. Nevertheless, occasionally, I would take Memba
+Sasa and go out for a little purposeless stroll a few miles up or down
+river. Sometimes we skirted the jungle, sometimes we held as near as
+possible to the river's bank, sometimes we cut loose and rambled through
+the dry, crackling scrub over the low volcanic hills of the arid country
+outside.
+
+Nothing can equal the intense interest of the most ordinary walk in
+Africa. It is the only country I know of where a man is thoroughly and
+continuously alive. Often when riding horseback with the dogs in my
+California home I have watched them in envy of the keen, alert interest
+they took in every stone, stick, and bush, in every sight, sound, and
+smell. With equal frequency I have expressed that envy, but as something
+unattainable to a human being's more phlegmatic make-up. In Africa one
+actually rises to continuous alertness. There are dozy moments-except
+you curl up in a safe place for the PURPOSE of dozing; again just like
+the dog! Every bush, every hollow, every high tuft of grass, every deep
+shadow must be scrutinized for danger. It will not do to pass carelessly
+any possible lurking place. At the same time the sense of hearing
+must be on guard; so that no break of twig or crash of bough can go
+unremarked. Rhinoceroses conceal themselves most cannily, and have a
+deceitful habit of leaping from a nap into their swiftest stride. Cobras
+and puff adders are scarce, to be sure, but very deadly. Lions will
+generally give way, if not shot at or too closely pressed; nevertheless
+there is always the chance of cubs or too close a surprise. Buffalo lurk
+daytimes in the deep thickets, but occasionally a rogue bull lives where
+your trail will lead. These things do not happen often, but in the long
+run they surely do happen, and once is quite enough provided the beast
+gets in.
+
+At first this continual alertness and tension is rather exhausting; but
+after a very short time it becomes second nature. A sudden rustle the
+other side a bush no longer brings you up all standing with your heart
+in your throat; but you are aware of it, and you are facing the possible
+danger almost before your slower brain has issued any orders to that
+effect.
+
+In rereading the above, I am afraid that I am conveying the idea that
+one here walks under the shadow of continual uneasiness. This is not in
+the least so. One enjoys the sun, and the birds and the little things.
+He cultivates the great leisure of mind that shall fill the breadth of
+his outlook abroad over a newly wonderful world. But underneath it all
+is the alertness, the responsiveness to quick reflexes of judgment and
+action, the intimate correlations to immediate environment which must
+characterize the instincts of the higher animals. And it is good to live
+these things.
+
+Along the edge of that river jungle were many strange and beautiful
+affairs. I could slip along among the high clumps of the thicker bushes
+in such a manner as to be continually coming around unexpected bends. Of
+such maneouvres are surprises made. The graceful red impalla were here
+very abundant. I would come on them, their heads up, their great ears
+flung forward, their noses twitching in inquiry of something they
+suspected but could not fully sense. When slightly alarmed or suspicious
+the does always stood compactly in a herd, while the bucks remained
+discreetly in the background, their beautiful, branching, widespread
+horns showing over the backs of their harems. The impalla is, in my
+opinion, one of the most beautiful and graceful of the African bucks, a
+perpetual delight to watch either standing or running. These beasts are
+extraordinarily agile, and have a habit of breaking their ordinary fast
+run by unexpectedly leaping high in the air. At a distance they give
+somewhat the effect of dolphins at sea, only their leaps are higher and
+more nearly perpendicular. Once or twice I have even seen one jump over
+the back of another. On another occasion we saw a herd of twenty-five or
+thirty cross a road of which, evidently, they were a little suspicious.
+We could not find a single hoof mark in the dust! Generally these beasts
+frequent thin brush country; but I have three or four times seen them
+quite out in the open flat plains, feeding with the hartebeeste and
+zebra. They are about the size of our ordinary deer, are delicately
+fashioned, and can utter the most incongruously grotesque of noises by
+way of calls or ordinary conversation.
+
+The lack of curiosity, or the lack of gallantry, of the impalla bucks
+was, in my experience, quite characteristic. They were almost always the
+farthest in the background and the first away when danger threatened.
+The ladies could look out for themselves. They had no horns to save;
+and what do the fool women mean by showing so little sense, anyway! They
+deserve what they get! It used to amuse me a lot to observe the utter
+abandonment of all responsibility by these handsome gentlemen. When it
+came time to depart, they departed. Hang the girls! They trailed along
+after as fast as they could.
+
+The waterbuck-a fine large beast about the size of our caribou, a
+well-conditioned buck resembling in form and attitude the finest
+of Landseer's stags-on the other hand, had a little more sense of
+responsibility, when he had anything to do with the sex at all. He was
+hardly what you might call a strictly domestic character. I have hunted
+through a country for several days at a time without seeing a single
+mature buck of this species, although there were plenty of does, in
+herds of ten to fifty, with a few infants among them just sprouting
+horns. Then finally, in some small grassy valley, I would come on the
+Men's Club. There they were, ten, twenty, three dozen of them, having
+the finest kind of an untramelled masculine time all by themselves.
+Generally, however, I will say for them, they took care of their own
+peoples. There would quite likely be one big old fellow, his harem of
+varying numbers, and the younger subordinate bucks all together in a
+happy family. When some one of the lot announced that something was
+about, and they had all lined up to stare in the suspected direction,
+the big buck was there in the foreground of inquiry. When finally they
+made me out, it was generally the big buck who gave the signal. He
+went first, to be sure, but his going first was evidently an act of
+leadership, and not merely a disgraceful desire to get away before the
+rest did.
+
+But the waterbuck had to yield in turn to the plains
+gazelles; especially to the Thompson's gazelle, familiarly-and
+affectionately-known as the "Tommy." He is a quaint little chap,
+standing only a foot and a half tall at the shoulder, fawn colour on
+top, white beneath, with a black, horizontal stripe on his side, like
+a chipmunk, most lightly and gracefully built. When he was first made,
+somebody told him that unless he did something characteristic,
+like waggling his little tail, he was likely to be mistaken by the
+undiscriminating for his bigger cousin, the Grant's gazelle. He has
+waggled his tail ever since, and so is almost never mistaken for a
+Grant's gazelle, even by the undiscriminating. Evidently his religion is
+Mohammedan, for he always has a great many wives. He takes good care of
+them, however. When danger appears, even when danger threatens, he
+is the last to leave the field. Here and there he dashes frantically,
+seeing that the women and children get off. And when the herd tops the
+hill, Tommy's little horns bring up the rear of the procession. I like
+Tommy. He is a cheerful, gallant, quaint little person, with the air of
+being quite satisfied with his own solution of this complicated world.
+
+Among the low brush at the edge of the river jungle dwelt also the
+dik-dik, the tiniest miniature of a deer you could possibly imagine.
+His legs are lead pencil size, he stands only about nine inches tall, he
+weighs from five to ten pounds; and yet he is a perfect little antelope,
+horns and all. I used to see him singly or in pairs standing quite
+motionless and all but invisible in the shade of bushes; or leaping
+suddenly to his feet and scurrying away like mad through the dry grass.
+His personal opinion of me was generally expressed in a loud clear
+whistle. But then nobody in this strange country talks the language you
+would naturally expect him to talk! Zebra bark, hyenas laugh, impallas
+grunt, ostriches boom like drums, leopards utter a plaintive sigh,
+hornbills cry like a stage child, bushbucks sound like a cross between
+a dog and a squawky toy-and so on. There is only one safe rule of the
+novice in Africa: NEVER BELIEVE A WORD THE JUNGLE AND VELDT PEOPLE TELL
+YOU.
+
+These two-the impalla and the waterbuck-were the principal buck we would
+see close to the river. Occasionally, however, we came on a few oryx,
+down for a drink, beautiful big antelope, with white and black faces,
+roached manes, and straight, nearly parallel, rapier horns upward of
+three feet long. A herd of these creatures, the light gleaming on their
+weapons, held all at the same slant, was like a regiment of bayonets in
+the sun. And there were also the rhinoceroses to be carefully espied
+and avoided. They lay obliterated beneath the shade of bushes, and arose
+with a mighty blow-off of steam. Whereupon we withdrew silently, for we
+wanted to shoot no more rhinos, unless we had to.
+
+Beneath all these obvious and startling things, a thousand other
+interesting matters were afoot. In the mass and texture of the jungle
+grew many strange trees and shrubs. One most scrubby, fat and leafless
+tree, looking as though it were just about to give up a discouraged
+existence, surprised us by putting forth, apparently directly from
+its bloated wood, the most wonderful red blossoms. Another otherwise
+self-respecting tree hung itself all over with plump bologna sausages
+about two feet long and five inches thick. A curious vine hung like a
+rope, with Turk's-head knots about a foot apart on its whole length,
+like the hand-over-hand ropes of gymnasiums. Other ropes were studded
+all over with thick blunt bosses, resembling much the outbreak on one
+sort of Arts-and-Crafts door: the sort intended to repel Mail-clad
+Hosts.
+
+The monkeys undoubtedly used such obvious highways through the trees.
+These little people were very common. As we walked along, they withdrew
+before us. We could make out their figures galloping hastily across the
+open places, mounting bushes and stubs to take a satisfying backward
+look, clambering to treetops, and launching themselves across the
+abysses between limbs. If we went slowly, they retired in silence. If
+we hurried at all, they protested in direct ratio to the speed of
+our advance. And when later the whole safari, loads on heads, marched
+inconsiderately through their jungle! We happened to be hunting on a
+parallel course a half mile away, and we could trace accurately the
+progress of our men by the outraged shrieks, chatterings, appeals to
+high heaven for at least elemental justice to the monkey people.
+
+Often, too, we would come on concourses of the big baboons. They
+certainly carried on weighty affairs of their own according to a fixed
+polity. I never got well enough acquainted with them to master the
+details of their government, but it was indubitably built on patriarchal
+lines. When we succeeded in approaching without being discovered, we
+would frequently find the old men baboons squatting on their heels in a
+perfect circle, evidently discussing matters of weight and portent. Seen
+from a distance, their group so much resembled the council circles
+of native warriors that sometimes, in a native country, we made that
+mistake. Outside this solemn council, the women, young men and children
+went about their daily business, whatever that was. Up convenient low
+trees or bushes roosted sentinels.
+
+We never remained long undiscovered. One of the sentinels barked
+sharply. At once the whole lot loped away, speedily but with a curious
+effect of deliberation. The men folks held their tails in a proud high
+sideways arch; the curious youngsters clambered up bushes to take a
+hasty look; the babies clung desperately with all four feet to the thick
+fur on their mothers' backs; the mothers galloped along imperturbably
+unheeding of infantile troubles aloft. The side hill was bewildering
+with the big bobbing black forms.
+
+In this lower country the weather was hot, and the sun very strong. The
+heated air was full of the sounds of insects; some of them comfortable,
+like the buzzing of bees, some of them strange and unusual to us. One
+cicada had a sustained note, in quality about like that of our own
+August-day's friend, but in quantity and duration as the roar of a train
+to the gentle hum of a good motor car. Like all cicada noises it did not
+usurp the sound world, but constituted itself an underlying basis, so
+to speak. And when it stopped the silence seemed to rush in as into a
+vacuum!
+
+We had likewise the aeroplane beetle. He was so big that he would have
+made good wing-shooting. His manner of flight was the straight-ahead,
+heap-of-buzz, plenty-busy, don't-stop-a-minute-or-you'll-come-down
+method of the aeroplane; and he made the same sort of a hum. His
+first-cousin, mechanically, was what we called the wind-up-the-watch
+insect. This specimen possessed a watch-an old-fashioned Waterbury,
+evidently-that he was continually winding. It must have been hard work
+for the poor chap, for it sounded like a very big watch.
+
+All these things were amusing. So were the birds. The African bird is
+quite inclined to be didactic. He believes you need advice, and he means
+to give it. To this end he repeats the same thing over and over until
+he thinks you surely cannot misunderstand. One chap especially whom we
+called the lawyer bird, and who lived in the treetops, had four phrases
+to impart. He said them very deliberately, with due pause between each;
+then he repeated them rapidly; finally he said them all over again with
+an exasperated bearing-down emphasis. The joke of it is I cannot now
+remember just how they went! Another feathered pedagogue was continually
+warning us to go slow; very good advice near an African jungle.
+"Poley-poley! Poley-poley!" he warned again and again; which is good
+Swahili for "slowly! slowly!" We always minded him. There were many
+others, equally impressed with their own wisdom, but the one I remember
+with most amusement was a dilatory person who apparently never got
+around to his job until near sunset. Evidently he had contracted to
+deliver just so many warnings per diem; and invariably he got so busy
+chasing insects, enjoying the sun, gossiping with a friend and generally
+footling about that the late afternoon caught him unawares with never a
+chirp accomplished. So he sat in a bush and said his say over and over
+just as fast as he could without pause for breath or recreation. It was
+really quite a feat. Just at dusk, after two hours of gabbling, he would
+reach the end of his contracted number. With final relieved chirp he
+ended.
+
+It has been said that African birds are "songless." This is a careless
+statement that can easily be read to mean that African birds are silent.
+The writer evidently must have had in mind as a criterion some of our
+own or the English great feathered soloists. Certainly the African
+jungle seems to produce no individual performers as sustained as our own
+bob-o-link, our hermit thrush, or even our common robin. But the African
+birds are vocal enough, for all that. Some of them have a richness and
+depth of timbre perhaps unequalled elsewhere. Of such is the chime-bird
+with his deep double note; or the bell-bird tolling like a cathedral in
+the blackness of the forest; or the bottle bird that apparently pours
+gurgling liquid gold from a silver jug. As the jungle is exceedingly
+populous of these feathered specialists, it follows that the early
+morning chorus is wonderful. Africa may not possess the soloists, but
+its full orchestrial effects are superb.
+
+Naturally under the equator one expects and demands the "gorgeous
+tropical plumage" of the books. He is not disappointed. The sun-birds
+of fifty odd species, the brilliant blue starlings, the various parrots,
+the variegated hornbills, the widower-birds, and dozens of others whose
+names would mean nothing flash here and there in the shadow and in the
+open. With them are hundreds of quiet little bodies just as interesting
+to one who likes birds. From the trees and bushes hang pear-shaped
+nests plaited beautifully of long grasses, hard and smooth as hand-made
+baskets, the work of the various sorts of weaver-birds. In the tops of
+the trees roosted tall marabout storks like dissipated, hairless old
+club-men in well-groomed, correct evening dress.
+
+And around camp gathered the swift brown kites. They were robbers and
+villains, but we could not hate them. All day long they sailed back
+and forth spying sharply. When they thought they saw their chance, they
+stooped with incredible swiftness to seize a piece of meat. Sometimes
+they would snatch their prize almost from the hands of its rightful
+owner, and would swoop triumphantly upward again pursued by polyglot
+maledictions and a throwing stick. They were very skilful on their
+wings. I have many times seen them, while flying, tear up and devour
+large chunks of meat. It seems to my inexperience as an aviator rather a
+nice feat to keep your balance while tearing with your beak at meat held
+in your talons. Regardless of other landmarks, we always knew when we
+were nearing camp, after one of our strolls, by the gracefully wheeling
+figures of our kites.
+
+
+
+
+
+IX. THE FIRST LION
+
+One day we all set out to make our discoveries: F., B., and I with our
+gunbearers, Memba Sasa, Mavrouki, and Simba, and ten porters to bring
+in the trophies, which we wanted very much, and the meat, which the men
+wanted still more. We rode our horses, and the syces followed. This made
+quite a field force-nineteen men all told. Nineteen white men would be
+exceedingly unlikely to get within a liberal half mile of anything; but
+the native has sneaky ways.
+
+At first we followed between the river and the low hills, but when the
+latter drew back to leave open a broad flat, we followed their line. At
+this point they rose to a clifflike headland a hundred and fifty feet
+high, flat on top. We decided to investigate that mesa, both for the
+possibilities of game, and for the chance of a view abroad.
+
+The footing was exceedingly noisy and treacherous, for it was composed
+of flat, tinkling little stones. Dried-up, skimpy bushes just higher
+than our heads made a thin but regular cover. There seemed not to be a
+spear of anything edible, yet we caught the flash of red as a herd of
+impalla melted away at our rather noisy approach. Near the foot of the
+hill we dismounted, with orders to all the men but the gunbearers to
+sit down and make themselves comfortable. Should we need them we could
+easily either signal or send word. Then we set ourselves toilsomely to
+clamber up that volcanic hill.
+
+It was not particularly easy going, especially as we were trying to walk
+quietly. You see, we were about to surmount a skyline. Surmounting a
+skyline is always most exciting anywhere, for what lies beyond is at
+once revealed as a whole and contains the very essence of the unknown;
+but most decidedly is this true in Africa. That mesa looked flat, and
+almost anything might be grazing or browsing there. So we proceeded
+gingerly, with due regard to the rolling of the loose rocks or the
+tinkling of the little pebbles.
+
+But long before we had reached that alluring skyline we were halted by
+the gentle snapping of Mavrouki's fingers. That, strangely enough, is a
+sound to which wild animals seem to pay no attention, and is therefore
+most useful as a signal. We looked back. The three gunbearers were
+staring to the right of our course. About a hundred yards away, on
+the steep side hill, and partly concealed by the brush, stood two
+rhinoceroses.
+
+They were side by side, apparently dozing. We squatted on our heels for
+a consultation.
+
+The obvious thing, as the wind was from them, was to sneak quietly by,
+saying nuffin' to nobody. But although we wanted no more rhino, we very
+much wanted rhino pictures. A discussion developed no really good reason
+why we should not kodak these especial rhinos-except that there were two
+of them. So we began to worm our way quietly through the bushes in their
+direction.
+
+F. and B. deployed on the flanks, their double-barrelled rifles ready
+for instant action. I occupied the middle with that dangerous weapon the
+3A kodak. Memba Sasa followed at my elbow, holding my big gun.
+
+Now the trouble with modern photography is that it is altogether too
+lavish in its depiction of distances. If you do not believe it, take a
+picture of a horse at as short a range as twenty-five yards. That equine
+will, in the development, have receded to a respectable middle distance.
+Therefore it had been agreed that the advance of the battle line was
+to cease only when those rhinoceroses loomed up reasonably large in
+the finder. I kept looking into the finder, you may be sure. Nearer and
+nearer we crept. The great beasts were evidently basking in the sun.
+Their little pig eyes alone gave any sign of life. Otherwise they
+exhibited the complete immobility of something done in granite. Probably
+no other beast impresses one with quite this quality. I suppose it is
+because even the little motions peculiar to other animals are with
+the rhinoceros entirely lacking. He is not in the least of a nervous
+disposition, so he does not stamp his feet nor change his position. It
+is useless for him to wag his tail; for, in the first place, the tail is
+absurdly inadequate; and, in the second place, flies are not among his
+troubles. Flies wouldn't bother you either, if you had a skin two inches
+thick. So there they stood, inert and solid as two huge brown rocks,
+save for the deep, wicked twinkle of their little eyes.
+
+Yes, we were close enough to "see the whites of their eyes," if they
+had had any: and also to be within the range of their limited vision. Of
+course we were now stalking, and taking advantage of all the cover.
+
+Those rhinoceroses looked to me like two Dreadnaughts. The African
+two-horned rhinoceros is a bigger animal anyway than our circus friend,
+who generally comes from India. One of these brutes I measured went five
+feet nine inches at the shoulder, and was thirteen feet six inches from
+bow to stern. Compare these dimensions with your own height and with the
+length of your motor car. It is one thing to take on such beasts in the
+hurry of surprise, the excitement of a charge, or to stalk up to within
+a respectable range of them with a gun at ready. But this deliberate
+sneaking up with the hope of being able to sneak away again was a little
+too slow and cold-blooded. It made me nervous. I liked it, but I knew
+at the time I was going to like it a whole lot better when it was
+triumphantly over.
+
+We were now within twenty yards (they were standing starboard side on),
+and I prepared to get my picture. To do so I would either have to step
+quietly out into sight, trusting to the shadow and the slowness of my
+movements to escape observation, or hold the camera above the bush,
+directing it by guess work. It was a little difficult to decide. I knew
+what I OUGHT to do--
+
+Without the slightest premonitory warning those two brutes snorted and
+whirled in their tracks to stand facing in our direction. After the dead
+stillness they made a tremendous row, what with the jerky suddenness of
+their movements, their loud snorts, and the avalanche of echoing stones
+and boulders they started down the hill.
+
+This was the magnificent opportunity. At this point I should boldly
+have stepped out from behind my bush, levelled my trusty 3A, and coolly
+snapped the beasts, "charging at fifteen yards." Then, if B.'s and F.'s
+shots went absolutely true, or if the brutes didn't happen to smash the
+camera as well as me, I, or my executors as the case might be, would
+have had a fine picture.
+
+But I didn't. I dropped that expensive 3A Special on some hard rocks,
+and grabbed my rifle from Memba Sasa. If you want really to know why, go
+confront your motor car at fifteen or twenty paces, multiply him by two,
+and endow him with an eagerly malicious disposition.
+
+They advanced several yards, halted, faced us for perhaps five or
+six seconds, uttered snort, whirled with the agility of polo ponies,
+departed at a swinging trot and with surprising agility along the steep
+side hill.
+
+I recovered the camera, undamaged, and we continued our climb.
+
+The top of the mesa was disappointing as far as game was concerned. It
+was covered all over with red stones, round, and as large as a man's
+head. Thornbushes found some sort of sustenance in the interstices.
+
+But we had gained to a magnificent view. Below us lay the narrow flat,
+then the winding jungle of our river, then long rolling desert country,
+gray with thorn scrub, sweeping upward to the base of castellated buttes
+and one tremendous riven cliff mountain, dropping over the horizon to a
+very distant blue range. Behind us eight or ten miles away was the low
+ridge through which our journey had come. The mesa on which we stood
+broke back at right angles to admit another stream flowing into our own.
+Beyond this stream were rolling hills, and scrub country, the hint of
+blue peaks and illimitable distances falling away to the unknown Tara
+Desert and the sea.
+
+There seemed to be nothing much to be gained here, so we made up our
+minds to cut across the mesa, and from the other edge of it to overlook
+the valley of the tributary river. This we would descend until we came
+to our horses.
+
+Accordingly we stumbled across a mile or so of those round and rolling
+stones. Then we found ourselves overlooking a wide flat or pocket where
+the stream valley widened. It extended even as far as the upward fling
+of the barrier ranges. Thick scrub covered it, but erratically, so that
+here and there were little openings or thin places. We sat down, manned
+our trusty prism glasses, and gave ourselves to the pleasing occupation
+of looking the country over inch by inch.
+
+This is great fun. It is a game a good deal like puzzle pictures.
+Re-examination generally develops new and unexpected beasts. We repeated
+to each other aloud the results of our scrutiny, always without removing
+the glasses from our eyes.
+
+"Oryx, one," said F.; "oryx, two."
+
+"Giraffe," reported B., "and a herd of impalla."
+
+I saw another giraffe, and another oryx, then two rhinoceroses.
+
+The three bearers squatted on their heels behind us, their fierce eyes
+staring straight ahead, seeing with the naked eye what we were finding
+with six-power glasses.
+
+We turned to descend the hill. In the very centre of the deep shade of
+a clump of trees, I saw the gleam of a waterbuck's horns. While I was
+telling of this, the beast stepped from his concealment, trotted a short
+distance upstream and turned to climb a little ridge parallel to that
+by which we were descending. About halfway up he stopped, staring in
+our direction, his head erect, the slight ruff under his neck standing
+forward. He was a good four hundred yards away. B., who wanted him,
+decided the shot too chancy. He and F. slipped backward until they had
+gained the cover of the little ridge, then hastened down the bed of
+the ravine. Their purpose was to follow the course already taken by the
+waterbuck until they should have sneaked within better range. In the
+meantime I and the gunbearers sat down in full view of the buck. This
+was to keep his attention distracted.
+
+We sat there a long time. The buck never moved but continued to stare
+at what evidently puzzled him. Time passes very slowly in such
+circumstances, and it seemed incredible that the beast should continue
+much longer to hold his fixed attitude. Nevertheless B. and F. were
+working hard. We caught glimpses of them occasionally slipping from bush
+to bush. Finally B. knelt and levelled his rifle. At once I turned my
+glasses on the buck. Before the sound of the rifle had reached me, I saw
+him start convulsively, then make off at the tearing run that indicates
+a heart hit. A moment later the crack of the rifle and the dull plunk of
+the hitting bullet struck my ear.
+
+We tracked him fifty yards to where he lay dead. He was a fine trophy,
+and we at once set the boys to preparing it and taking the meat. In the
+meantime we sauntered down to look at the stream. It was a small
+rapid affair, but in heavy papyrus, with sparse trees, and occasional
+thickets, and dry hard banks. The papyrus should make a good lurking
+place for almost anything; but the few points of access to the water
+failed to show many interesting tracks. Nevertheless we decided to
+explore a short distance.
+
+For an hour we walked among high thornbushes, over baking hot earth. We
+saw two or three dik-dik and one of the giraffes. At that time it had
+become very hot, and the sun was bearing down on us as with the weight
+of a heavy hand. The air had the scorching, blasting quality of an
+opened furnace door. Our mouths were getting dry and sticky in that
+peculiar stage of thirst on which no luke-warm canteen water in
+necessarily limited quantity has any effect. So we turned back, picked
+up the men with the waterbuck, and plodded on down the little stream,
+or, rather, on the red-hot dry valley bottom outside the stream's
+course, to where the syces were waiting with our horses. We mounted with
+great thankfulness. It was now eleven o'clock, and we considered our day
+as finished.
+
+The best way for a distance seemed to follow the course of the tributary
+stream to its point of junction with our river. We rode along, rather
+relaxed in the suffocating heat. F. was nearest the stream. At one point
+it freed itself of trees and brush and ran clear, save for low papyrus,
+ten feet down below a steep eroded bank. F. looked over and uttered a
+startled exclamation. I spurred my horse forward to see.
+
+Below us, about fifteen yards away, was the carcass of a waterbuck half
+hidden in the foot-high grass. A lion and two lionesses stood upon it,
+staring up at us with great yellow eyes. That picture is a very vivid
+one in my memory, for those were the first wild lions I had ever seen.
+My most lively impression was of their unexpected size. They seemed to
+bulk fully a third larger than my expectation.
+
+The magnificent beasts stood only long enough to see clearly what had
+disturbed them, then turned, and in two bounds had gained the shelter of
+the thicket.
+
+Now the habit in Africa is to let your gunbearers carry all your guns.
+You yourself stride along hand free. It is an English idea, and
+is pretty generally adopted out there by every one, of whatever
+nationality. They will explain it to you by saying that in such a
+climate a man should do only necessary physical work, and that a
+good gunbearer will get a weapon into your hand so quickly and in so
+convenient a position that you will lose no time. I acknowledge the
+gunbearers are sometimes very skilful at this, but I do deny that there
+is no loss of time. The instant of distracted attention while receiving
+a weapon, the necessity of recollecting the nervous correlations
+after the transfer, very often mark just the difference between a sure
+instinctive snapshot and a lost opportunity. It reasons that the man
+with the rifle in his hand reacts instinctively, in one motion, to get
+his weapon into play. If the gunbearer has the gun, HE must first react
+to pass it up, the master must receive it properly, and THEN, and not
+until then, may go on from where the other man began. As for physical
+labour in the tropics: if a grown man cannot without discomfort or evil
+effects carry an eight-pound rifle, he is too feeble to go out at all.
+In a long Western experience I have learned never to be separated from
+my weapon; and I believe the continuance of this habit in Africa saved
+me a good number of chances.
+
+At any rate, we all flung ourselves off our horses. I, having my
+rifle in my hand, managed to throw a shot after the biggest lion as he
+vanished. It was a snap at nothing, and missed. Then in an opening on
+the edge a hundred yards away appeared one of the lionesses. She was
+trotting slowly, and on her I had time to draw a hasty aim. At the shot
+she bounded high in the air, fell, rolled over, and was up and into the
+thicket before I had much more than time to pump up another shell from
+the magazine. Memba Sasa in his eagerness got in the way-the first and
+last time he ever made a mistake in the field.
+
+By this time the others had got hold of their weapons. We fronted the
+blank face of the thicket.
+
+The wounded animal would stand a little waiting. We made a wide circle
+to the other side of the stream. There we quickly picked up the trail of
+the two uninjured beasts. They had headed directly over the hill, where
+we speedily lost all trace of them on the flint-like surface of the
+ground. We saw a big pack of baboons in the only likely direction for
+a lion to go. Being thus thrown back on a choice of a hundred other
+unlikely directions, we gave up that slim chance and returned to the
+thicket.
+
+This proved to be a very dense piece of cover. Above the height of the
+waist the interlocking branches would absolutely prevent any progress,
+but by stooping low we could see dimly among the simpler main stems to
+a distance of perhaps fifteen or twenty feet. This combination at once
+afforded the wounded lioness plenty of cover in which to hide, plenty of
+room in which to charge home, and placed us under the disadvantage of a
+crouched or crawling attitude with limited vision. We talked the matter
+over very thoroughly. There was only one way to get that lioness out;
+and that was to go after her. The job of going after her needed some
+planning. The lion is cunning and exceeding fierce. A flank attack, once
+we were in the thicket, was as much to be expected as a frontal charge.
+
+We advanced to the thicket's edge with many precautions. To our relief
+we found she had left us a definite trail. B. and I kneeling took up
+positions on either side, our rifles ready. F. and Simba crawled by
+inches eight or ten feet inside the thicket. Then, having executed this
+manoeuvre safely, B. moved up to protect our rear while I, with Memba
+Sasa, slid down to join F.
+
+From this point we moved forward alternately. I would crouch, all
+alert, my rifle ready, while F. slipped by me and a few feet ahead. Then
+he get organized for battle while I passed him. Memba Sasa and Simba,
+game as badgers, their fine eyes gleaming with excitement, their
+faces shining, crept along at the rear. B. knelt outside the thicket,
+straining his eyes for the slightest movement either side of the line of
+our advance. Often these wily animals will sneak back in a half circle
+to attack their pursuers from behind. Two or three of the bolder porters
+crouched alongside B., peering eagerly. The rest had quite properly
+retired to the safe distance where the horses stood.
+
+We progressed very, very slowly. Every splash of light or mottled
+shadow, every clump of bush stems, every fallen log had to be examined,
+and then examined again. And how we did strain our eyes in a vain
+attempt to penetrate the half lights, the duskinesses of the closed-in
+thicket not over fifteen feet away! And then the movement forward of two
+feet would bring into our field of vision an entirely new set of tiny
+vistas and possible lurking places.
+
+Speaking for myself, I was keyed up to a tremendous tension. I stared
+until my eyes ached; every muscle and nerve was taut. Everything
+depended on seeing the beast promptly, and firing quickly. With the
+manifest advantage of being able to see us, she would spring to battle
+fully prepared. A yellow flash and a quick shot seemed about to size up
+that situation. Every few moments, I remember, I surreptitiously
+held out my hand to see if the constantly growing excitement and the
+long-continued strain had affected its steadiness.
+
+The combination of heat and nervous strain was very exhausting. The
+sweat poured from me; and as F. passed me I saw the great drops standing
+out on his face. My tongue got dry, my breath came laboriously. Finally
+I began to wonder whether physically I should be able to hold out. We
+had been crawling, it seemed, for hours. I dared not look back, but we
+must have come a good quarter mile. Finally F. stopped.
+
+"I'm all in for water," he gasped in a whisper.
+
+Somehow that confession made me feel a lot better. I had thought that
+I was the only one. Cautiously we settled back on our heels. Memba Sasa
+and Simba wiped the sweat from their faces. It seemed that they too had
+found the work severe. That cheered me up still more.
+
+Simba grinned at us, and, worming his way backward with the sinuousity
+of a snake, he disappeared in the direction from which we had come.
+F. cursed after him in a whisper both for departing and for taking the
+risk. But in a moment he had returned carrying two canteens of blessed
+water. We took a drink most gratefully.
+
+I glanced at my watch. It was just under two hours since I had fired
+my shot. I looked back. My supposed quarter mile had shrunk to not over
+fifty feet!
+
+After resting a few moments longer, we again took up our systematic
+advance. We made perhaps another fifty feet. We were ascending a very
+gentle slope. F. was for the moment ahead. Right before us the lion
+growled; a deep rumbling like the end of a great thunder roll, fathoms
+and fathoms deep, with the inner subterranean vibrations of a heavy
+train of cars passing a man inside a sealed building. At the same moment
+over F.'s shoulder I saw a huge yellow head rise up, the round eyes
+flashing anger, the small black-tipped ears laid back, the great fangs
+snarling. The beast was not over twelve feet distant. F. immediately
+fired. His shot, hitting an intervening twig, went wild. With the utmost
+coolness he immediately pulled the other trigger of his double barrel.
+The cartridge snapped.
+
+"If you will kindly stoop down-" said I, in what I now remember to be
+rather an exaggeratedly polite tone. As F.'s head disappeared, I placed
+the little gold bead of my 405 Winchester where I thought it would do
+the most good, and pulled trigger. She rolled over dead.
+
+The whole affair had begun and finished with unbelievable swiftness.
+From the growl to the fatal shot I don't suppose four seconds elapsed,
+for our various actions had followed one another with the speed of the
+instinctive. The lioness had growled at our approach, had raised her
+head to charge, and had received her deathblow before she had released
+her muscles in the spring. There had been no time to get frightened.
+
+We sat back for a second. A brown hand reached over my shoulder.
+
+"Mizouri-mizouri sana!" cried Memba Sasa joyously. I shook the hand.
+
+"Good business!" said F. "Congratulate you on your first lion."
+
+We then remembered B., and shouted to him that all was over. He and the
+other men wriggled in to where we were lying. He made this distance in
+about fifteen seconds. It had taken us nearly an hour.
+
+We had the lioness dragged out into the open. She was not an especially
+large beast, as compared to most of the others I killed later, but at
+that time she looked to me about as big as they made them. As a matter
+of fact she was quite big enough, for she stood three feet two inches
+at the shoulder-measure that against the wall-and was seven feet and
+six inches in length. My first bullet had hit her leg, and the last had
+reached her heart.
+
+Every one shook me by the hand. The gunbearers squatted about the
+carcass, skilfully removing the skin to an undertone of curious crooning
+that every few moments broke out into one or two bars of a chant. As the
+body was uncovered, the men crouched about to cut off little pieces of
+fat. These they rubbed on their foreheads and over their chests, to make
+them brave, they said, and cunning, like the lion.
+
+We remounted and took up our interrupted journey to camp. It was
+a little after two, and the heat was at its worst. We rode rather
+sleepily, for the reaction from the high tension of excitement had set
+in. Behind us marched the three gunbearers, all abreast, very military
+and proud. Then came the porters in single file, the one carrying the
+folded lion skin leading the way; those bearing the waterbuck trophy
+and meat bringing up the rear. They kept up an undertone of humming in
+a minor key; occasionally breaking into a short musical phrase in full
+voice.
+
+We rode an hour. The camp looked very cool and inviting under its wide
+high trees, with the river slipping by around the islands of papyrus. A
+number of black heads bobbed about in the shallows. The small fires sent
+up little wisps of smoke. Around them our boys sprawled, playing simple
+games, mending, talking, roasting meat. Their tiny white tents gleamed
+pleasantly among the cool shadows.
+
+I had thought of riding nonchalantly up to our own tents, of dismounting
+with a careless word of greeting--
+
+"Oh, yes," I would say, "we did have a good enough day. Pretty hot. Roy
+got a fine waterbuck. Yes, I got a lion." (Tableau on part of Billy.)
+
+But Memba Sasa used up all the nonchalance there was. As we entered camp
+he remarked casually to the nearest man.
+
+"Bwana na piga simba-the master has killed a lion."
+
+The man leaped to his feet.
+
+"Simba! simba! simba!" he yelled. "Na piga simba!"
+
+Every one in camp also leaped to his feet, taking up the cry. From the
+water it was echoed as the bathers scrambled ashore. The camp broke into
+pandemonium. We were surrounded by a dense struggling mass of men. They
+reached up scores of black hands to grasp my own; they seized from me
+everything portable and bore it in triumph before me-my water bottle,
+my rifle, my camera, my whip, my field glasses, even my hat, everything
+that was detachable. Those on the outside danced and lifted up their
+voices in song, improvised for the most part, and in honor of the day's
+work. In a vast swirling, laughing, shouting, triumphant mob we swept
+through the camp to where Billy-by now not very much surprised-was
+waiting to get the official news. By the measure of this extravagant joy
+could we gauge what the killing of a lion means to these people who have
+always lived under the dread of his rule.
+
+
+
+
+
+X. LIONS
+
+A very large lion I killed stood three feet and nine inches at the
+withers, and of course carried his head higher than that. The top of
+the table at which I sit is only two feet three inches from the floor.
+Coming through the door at my back that lion's head would stand over
+a foot higher than halfway up. Look at your own writing desk; your own
+door. Furthermore, he was nine feet and eleven inches in a straight line
+from nose to end of tail, or over eleven feet along the contour of the
+back. If he were to rise on his hind feet to strike a man down, he would
+stand somewhere between seven and eight feet tall, depending on how
+nearly he straightened up. He weighed just under six hundred pounds, or
+as much as four well-grown specimens of our own "mountain lion." I tell
+you this that you may realize, as I did not, the size to which a wild
+lion grows. Either menagerie specimens are stunted in growth, or their
+position and surroundings tend to belittle them, for certainly until a
+man sees old Leo in the wilderness he has not understood what a fine old
+chap he is.
+
+This tremendous weight is sheer strength. A lion's carcass when the skin
+is removed is a really beautiful sight. The great muscles lie in ropes
+and bands; the forearm thicker than a man's leg, the lithe barrel banded
+with brawn; the flanks overlaid by the long thick muscles. And this
+power is instinct with the nervous force of a highly organized being.
+The lion is quick and intelligent and purposeful; so that he brings to
+his intenser activities the concentration of vivid passion, whether of
+anger, of hunger or of desire.
+
+So far the opinions of varied experience will jog along together. At
+this point they diverge.
+
+Just as the lion is one of the most interesting and fascinating of
+beasts, so concerning him one may hear the most diverse opinions. This
+man will tell you that any lion is always dangerous. Another will hold
+the king of beasts in the most utter contempt as a coward and a skulker.
+
+In the first place, generalization about any species of animal is an
+exceedingly dangerous thing. I believe that, in the case of the higher
+animals at least, the differences in individual temperament are quite
+likely to be more numerous than the specific likenesses. Just as
+individual men are bright or dull, nervous or phlegmatic, cowardly or
+brave, so individual animals vary in like respect. Our own hunters will
+recall from their personal experiences how the big bear may have sat
+down and bawled harmlessly for mercy, while the little unconsidered
+fellow did his best until finished off: how one buck dropped instantly
+to a wound that another would carry five miles: how of two equally
+matched warriors of the herd one will give way in the fight, while
+still uninjured, before his perhaps badly wounded antagonist. The casual
+observer might-and often does-say that all bears are cowardly, all bucks
+are easily killed, or the reverse, according as the god of chance has
+treated him to one spectacle or the other. As well try to generalize
+on the human race-as is a certain ecclesiastical habit-that all men are
+vile or noble, dishonest or upright, wise or foolish.
+
+The higher we go in the scale the truer this individualism holds. We
+are forced to reason not from the bulk of observations, but from their
+averages. If we find ten bucks who will go a mile wounded to two who
+succumb in their tracks from similar hurts, we are justified in saying
+tentatively that the species is tenacious of life. But as experience
+broadens we may modify that statement; for strange indeed are runs of
+luck.
+
+For this reason a good deal of the wise conclusion we read in
+sportsmen's narratives is worth very little. Few men have experience
+enough with lions to rise to averages through the possibilities of luck.
+ESPECIALLY is this true of lions. No beast that roams seems to go more
+by luck than felis leo. Good hunters may search for years without seeing
+hide nor hair of one of the beasts. Selous, one of the greatest, went to
+East Africa for the express purpose of getting some of the fine beasts
+there, hunted six weeks and saw none. Holmes of the Escarpment has lived
+in the country six years, has hunted a great deal and has yet to kill
+his first. One of the railroad officials has for years gone up and down
+the Uganda Railway on his handcar, his rifle ready in hopes of the lion
+that never appeared; though many are there seen by those with better
+fortune. Bronson hunted desperately for this great prize, but failed.
+Rainsford shot no lions his first trip, and ran into them only three
+years later. Read Abel Chapman's description of his continued bad luck
+at even seeing the beasts. MacMillan, after five years' unbroken good
+fortune, has in the last two years failed to kill a lion, although he
+has made many trips for the purpose. F. told me he followed every rumour
+of a lion for two years before he got one. Again, one may hear the most
+marvellous of yarns the other way about-of the German who shot one from
+the train on the way up from Mombasa; of the young English tenderfoot
+who, the first day out, came on three asleep, across a river, and potted
+the lot; and so on. The point is, that in the case of lions the element
+of sheer chance seems to begin earlier and last longer than is the case
+with any other beast. And, you must remember, experience must thrust
+through the luck element to the solid ground of averages before it can
+have much value in the way of generalization. Before he has reached that
+solid ground, a man's opinions depend entirely on what kind of lions
+he chances to meet, in what circumstances, and on how matters happen to
+shape in the crowded moments.
+
+But though lack of sufficiently extended experience has much to do with
+these decided differences of opinion, I believe that misapprehension
+has also its part. The sportsman sees lions on the plains. Likewise the
+lions see him, and promptly depart to thick cover or rocky butte. He
+comes on them in the scrub; they bound hastily out of sight. He may even
+meet them face to face, but instead of attacking him, they turn to right
+and left and make off in the long grass. When he follows them, they
+sneak cunningly away. If, added to this, he has the good luck to kill
+one or two stone dead at a single shot each, he begins to think there is
+not much in lion shooting after all, and goes home proclaiming the king
+of beasts a skulking coward.
+
+After all, on what grounds does he base this conclusion? In what way
+have circumstances been a test of courage at all? The lion did not
+stand and fight, to be sure; but why should he? What was there in it
+for lions? Behind any action must a motive exist. Where is the possible
+motive for any lion to attack on sight? He does not-except in unusual
+cases-eat men; nothing has occurred to make him angry. The obvious thing
+is to avoid trouble, unless there is a good reason to seek it. In that
+one evidences the lion's good sense, but not his lack of courage. That
+quality has not been called upon at all.
+
+But if the sportsman had done one of two or three things, I am quite
+sure he would have had a taste of our friend's mettle. If he had shot at
+and even grazed the beast; if he had happened upon him where an exit was
+not obvious; or IF HE HAD EVEN FOLLOWED THE LION UNTIL THE LATTER HAD
+BECOME TIRED OF THE ANNOYANCE, he would very soon have discovered that
+Leo is not all good nature, and that once on his courage will take him
+in against any odds. Furthermore, he may be astonished and dismayed
+to discover that of a group of several lions, two or three besides the
+wounded animal are quite likely to take up the quarrel and charge too.
+In other words, in my opinion, the lion avoids trouble when he can, not
+from cowardice but from essential indolence or good nature; but does not
+need to be cornered* to fight to the death when in his mind his dignity
+is sufficiently assailed.
+
+     * This is an important distinction in estimating the inherent
+     courage of man or beast. Even a mouse will fight when
+     cornered.
+
+For of all dangerous beasts the lion, when once aroused, will alone face
+odds to the end. The rhinoceros, the elephant, and even the buffalo can
+often be turned aside by a shot. A lion almost always charges home.*
+Slower and slower he comes, as the bullets strike; but he comes, until
+at last he may be just hitching himself along, his face to the enemy,
+his fierce spirit undaunted. When finally he rolls over, he bites the
+earth in great mouthfuls; and so passes fighting to the last. The death
+of a lion is a fine sight.
+
+     * I seem to be generalizing here, but all these conclusions
+     must be understood to take into consideration the liability
+     of individual variation.
+
+No, I must confess, to me the lion is an object of great respect; and
+so, I gather, he is to all who have had really extensive experience.
+Those like Leslie Tarleton, Lord Delamere, W. N. MacMillan, Baron von
+Bronsart, the Hills, Sir Alfred Pease, who are great lion men, all
+concede to the lion a courage and tenacity unequalled by any other
+living beast. My own experience is of course nothing as compared to that
+of these men. Yet I saw in my nine months afield seventy-one lions. None
+of these offered to attack when unwounded or not annoyed. On the other
+hand, only one turned tail once the battle was on, and she proved to be
+a three quarters grown lioness, sick and out of condition.
+
+It is of course indubitable that where lions have been much shot they
+become warier in the matter of keeping out of trouble. They retire to
+cover earlier in the morning, and they keep more than a perfunctory
+outlook for the casual human being. When hunters first began to go into
+the Sotik the lions there would stand imperturbable, staring at the
+intruder with curiosity or indifference. Now they have learned that
+such performances are not healthy-and they have probably satisfied
+their curiosity. But neither in the Sotik, nor even in the plains around
+Nairobi itself, does the lion refuse the challenge once it has been put
+up to him squarely. Nor does he need to be cornered. He charges in quite
+blithely from the open plain, once convinced that you are really an
+annoyance.
+
+As to habits! The only sure thing about a lion is his originality. He
+has more exceptions to his rules than the German language. Men who have
+been mighty lion hunters for many years, and who have brought to their
+hunting close observation, can only tell you what a lion MAY do in
+certain circumstances. Following very broad principles, they may even
+predict what he is APT to do, but never what he certainly WILL do. That
+is one thing that makes lion hunting interesting.
+
+In general, then, the lion frequents that part of the country where feed
+the great game herds. From them he takes his toll by night, retiring
+during the day into the shallow ravines, the brush patches, or the rocky
+little buttes. I have, however, seen lions miles from game, slumbering
+peacefully atop an ant hill. Indeed, occasionally, a pack of lions likes
+to live high in the tall-grass ridges where every hunt will mean for
+them a four- or five-mile jaunt out and back again. He needs water,
+after feeding, and so rarely gets farther than eight or ten miles from
+that necessity.
+
+He hunts at night. This is as nearly invariable a rule as can be
+formulated in regard to lions. Yet once, and perhaps twice, I saw
+lionesses stalking through tall grass as early as three o'clock in
+the afternoon. This eagerness may, or may not, have had to do with the
+possession of hungry cubs. The lion's customary harmlessness in the
+daytime is best evidenced, however, by the comparative indifference of
+the game to his presence then. From a hill we watched three of these
+beasts wandering leisurely across the plains below. A herd of kongonis
+feeding directly in their path, merely moved aside right and left, quite
+deliberately, to leave a passage fifty yards or so wide, but otherwise
+paid not the slightest attention. I have several times seen this
+incident, or a modification of it. And yet, conversely, on a number of
+occasions we have received our first intimation of the presence of lions
+by the wild stampeding of the game away from a certain spot.
+
+However, the most of his hunting is done by dark. Between the hours of
+sundown and nine o'clock he and his comrades may be heard uttering the
+deep coughing grunt typical of this time of night. These curious, short,
+far-sounding calls may be mere evidences of intention, or they may be
+a sort of signal by means of which the various hunters keep in touch.
+After a little they cease. Then one is quite likely to hear the
+petulant, alarmed barking of zebra, or to feel the vibrations of many
+hoofs. There is a sense of hurried, flurried uneasiness abroad on the
+veldt.
+
+The lion generally springs on his prey from behind or a little off the
+quarter. By the impetus his own weight he hurls his victim forward,
+doubling its head under, and very neatly breaking its neck. I have never
+seen this done, but the process has been well observed and attested; and
+certainly, of the many hundreds of lion kills I have taken the pains
+to inspect, the majority had had their necks broken. Sometimes, but
+apparently more rarely, the lion kills its prey by a bite in the back of
+the neck. I have seen zebra killed in this fashion, but never any of the
+buck. It may be possible that the lack of horns makes it more difficult
+to break a zebra's neck because of the corresponding lack of leverage
+when its head hits the ground sidewise; the instances I have noted may
+have been those in which the lion's spring landed too far back to throw
+the victim properly; or perhaps they were merely examples of the great
+variability in the habits of felis leo.
+
+Once the kill is made, the lion disembowels the beast very neatly
+indeed, and drags the entrails a few feet out of the way. He then eats
+what he wants, and, curiously enough, seems often to be very fond of the
+skin. In fact, lacking other evidence, it is occasionally possible
+to identify a kill as being that of a lion by noticing whether any
+considerable portion of the hide has been devoured. After eating he
+drinks. Then he is likely to do one of two things: either he returns
+to cover near the carcass and lies down, or he wanders slowly and with
+satisfaction toward his happy home. In the latter case the hyenas,
+jackals, and carrion birds seize their chance. The astute hunter can
+often diagnose the case by the general actions and demeanour of these
+camp followers. A half dozen sour and disgusted looking hyenas seated
+on their haunches at scattered intervals, and treefuls of mournfully
+humpbacked vultures sunk in sadness, indicate that the lion has decided
+to save the rest of his zebra until to-morrow and is not far away.
+On the other hand, a grand flapping, snarling Kilkenny-fair of an
+aggregation swirling about one spot in the grass means that the
+principal actor has gone home.
+
+It is ordinarily useless to expect to see the lion actually on his prey.
+The feeding is done before dawn, after which the lion enjoys stretching
+out in the open until the sun is well up, and then retiring to the
+nearest available cover. Still, at the risk of seeming to be perpetually
+qualifying, I must instance finding three lions actually on the stale
+carcass of a waterbuck at eleven o'clock in the morning of a piping
+hot day! In an undisturbed country, or one not much hunted, the early
+morning hours up to say nine o'clock are quite likely to show you lions
+sauntering leisurely across the open plains toward their lairs. They
+go a little, stop a little, yawn, sit down a while, and gradually work
+their way home. At those times you come upon them unexpectedly face to
+face, or, seeing them from afar, ride them down in a glorious gallop.
+Where the country has been much hunted, however, the lion learns to
+abandon his kill and seek shelter before daylight, and is almost never
+seen abroad. Then one must depend on happening upon him in his cover.
+
+In the actual hunting of his game the lion is apparently very clever.
+He understands the value of cooperation. Two or more will manoeuvre
+very skilfully to give a third the chance to make an effective spring;
+whereupon the three will share the kill. In a rough country, or
+one otherwise favourable to the method, a pack of lions will often
+deliberately drive game into narrow ravines or cul de sacs where the
+killers are waiting.
+
+At such times the man favoured by the chance of an encampment within
+five miles or so can hear a lion's roar.
+
+Otherwise I doubt if he is apt often to get the full-voiced, genuine
+article. The peculiar questioning cough of early evening is resonant and
+deep in vibration, but it is a call rather than a roar. No lion is fool
+enough to make a noise when he is stalking. Then afterward, when full
+fed, individuals may open up a few times, but only a few times, in
+sheer satisfaction, apparently, at being well fed. The menagerie row at
+feeding time, formidable as it sounds within the echoing walls, is only
+a mild and gentle hint. But when seven or eight lions roar merely to
+see how much noise they can make, as when driving game, or trying to
+stampede your oxen on a wagon trip, the effect is something tremendous.
+The very substance of the ground vibrates; the air shakes. I can only
+compare it to the effect of a very large deep organ in a very small
+church. There is something genuinely awe-inspiring about it; and when
+the repeated volleys rumble into silence, one can imagine the veldt
+crouched in a rigid terror that shall endure.
+
+
+
+
+
+XI. LIONS AGAIN
+
+As to the dangers of lion hunting it is also difficult to write. There
+is no question that a cool man, using good judgment as to just what
+he can or cannot do, should be able to cope with lion situations. The
+modern rifle is capable of stopping the beast, provided the bullet goes
+to the right spot. The right spot is large enough to be easy to hit, if
+the shooter keeps cool. Our definition of a cool man must comprise the
+elements of steady nerves under super-excitement, the ability to think
+quickly and clearly, and the mildly strategic quality of being able to
+make the best use of awkward circumstances. Such a man, barring sheer
+accidents, should be able to hunt lions with absolute certainty for
+just as long as he does not get careless, slipshod or over-confident.
+Accidents-real accidents, not merely unexpected happenings-are hardly to
+be counted. They can occur in your own house.
+
+But to the man not temperamentally qualified, lion shooting is dangerous
+enough. The lion, when he takes the offensive, intends to get his
+antagonist. Having made up his mind to that, he charges home, generally
+at great speed. The realization that it is the man's life or the beast's
+is disconcerting. Also the charging lion is a spectacle much more
+awe-inspiring in reality than the most vivid imagination can predict.
+He looks very large, very determined, and has uttered certain rumbling,
+blood-curdling threats as to what he is going to do about it. It
+suddenly seems most undesirable to allow that lion to come any closer,
+not even an inch! A hasty, nervous shot misses--
+
+An unwounded lion charging from a distance is said to start rather
+slowly, and to increase his pace only as he closes. Personally I have
+never been charged by an unwounded beast, but I can testify that the
+wounded animal comes very fast. Cuninghame puts the rate at about seven
+seconds to the hundred yards. Certainly I should say that a man charged
+from fifty yards or so would have little chance for a second shot,
+provided he missed the first. A hit seemed, in my experience, to the
+animal, by sheer force of impact, long enough to permit me to throw in
+another cartridge. A lioness thus took four frontal bullets starting at
+about sixty yards. An initial miss would probably have permitted her to
+close.
+
+Here, as can be seen, is a great source of danger to a flurried or
+nervous beginner. He does not want that lion to get an inch nearer; he
+fires at too long a range, misses, and is killed or mauled before he can
+reload. This happened precisely so to two young friends of MacMillan.
+They were armed with double-rifles, let them off hastily as the beast
+started at them from two hundred yards, and never got another chance. If
+they had possessed the experience to have waited until the lion had
+come within fifty yards they would have had the almost certainty of
+four barrels at close range. Though I have seen a lion missed clean well
+inside those limits.
+
+From such performances are so-called lion accidents built. During my
+stay in Africa I heard of six white men being killed by lions, and a
+number of others mauled. As far as possible I tried to determine the
+facts of each case. In every instance the trouble followed either
+foolishness or loss of nerve. I believe I should be quite safe in
+saying that from identically the same circumstances any of the good lion
+men-Tarleton, Lord Delamere, the Hills, and others-would have extricated
+themselves unharmed.
+
+This does not mean that accidents may not happen. Rifles jam, but
+generally because of flurried manipulation! One may unexpectedly meet
+the lion at too close quarters; a foot may slip, or a cartridge prove
+defective. So may one fall downstairs or bump one's head in the dark.
+Sufficient forethought and alertness and readiness would go far in
+either case to prevent bad results.
+
+The wounded beast, of course, offers the most interesting problem to the
+lion hunter. If it sees the hunter, it is likely to charge him at once.
+If hit while making off, however, it is more apt to take cover. Then one
+must summon all his good sense and nerve to get it out. No rules can be
+given for this; nor am I trying to write a text book for lion hunters.
+Any good lion hunter knows a lot more about it than I do. But always
+a man must keep in mind three things: that a lion can hide in cover so
+short that it seems to the novice as though a jack-rabbit would find
+scant concealment there; that he charges like lightning, and that he
+can spring about fifteen feet. This spring, coming unexpectedly from an
+unseen beast, is about impossible to avoid. Sheer luck may land a fatal
+shot; but even then the lion will probably do his damage before he dies.
+The rush from a short distance a good quick shot ought to be able to
+cope with.
+
+Therefore the wise hunter assures himself of at least twenty
+feet-preferably more-of neutral zone all about him. No matter how long
+it takes, he determines absolutely that the lion is not within that
+distance. The rest is alertness and quickness.
+
+As I have said, the amount of cover necessary to conceal a lion is
+astonishingly small. He can flatten himself out surprisingly; and
+his tawny colour blends so well with the brown grasses that he is
+practically invisible. A practised man does not, of course, look for
+lions at all. He is after unusual small patches, especially the black
+ear tips or the black of the mane. Once guessed at, it is interesting to
+see how quickly the hitherto unsuspected animal sketches itself out in
+the cover.
+
+I should, before passing on to another aspect of the matter, mention the
+dangerous poisons carried by the lion's claws. Often men have died
+from the most trivial surface wounds. The grooves of the claws carry
+putrefying meat from the kills. Every sensible man in a lion country
+carries a small syringe, and either permanganate or carbolic. And those
+mild little remedies he uses full strength!
+
+The great and overwhelming advantage is of course with the hunter. He
+possesses as deadly a weapon: and that weapon will kill at a distance.
+This is proper, I think. There are more lions than hunters; and, from
+our point of view, the man is more important than the beast. The game is
+not too hazardous. By that I mean that, barring sheer accident, a man is
+sure to come out all right provided he does accurately the right thing.
+In other words, it is a dangerous game of skill, but it does not possess
+the blind danger of a forest in a hurricane, say. Furthermore, it is a
+game that no man need play unless he wants to. In the lion country he
+may go about his business-daytime business-as though he were home at the
+farm.
+
+Such being the case, may I be pardoned for intruding one of my own small
+ethical ideas at this point, with the full realization that it depends
+upon an entirely personal point of view. As far as my own case goes,
+I consider it poor sportsmanship ever to refuse a lion-chance merely
+because the advantages are not all in my favour. After all, lion hunting
+is on a different plane from ordinary shooting: it is a challenge to
+war, a deliberate seeking for mortal combat. Is it not just a little
+shameful to pot old felis leo at long range, in the open, near his kill,
+and wherever we have him at an advantage-nine times, and then to back
+out because that advantage is for once not so marked? I have so often
+heard the phrase, "I let him (or them) alone. It was not good enough,"
+meaning that the game looked a little risky.
+
+Do not misunderstand. I am not advising that you bull ahead into the
+long grass, or that alone you open fire on a half dozen lions in easy
+range. Kind providence endowed you with strategy, and certainly you
+should never go in where there is no show for you to use your weapon
+effectively. But occasionally the odds will be against you and you will
+be called upon to take more or less of a chance. I do not think it is
+quite square to quit playing merely because for once your opponent has
+been dealt the better cards. If here are too many of them see if you
+cannot manoeuvre them; if the grass is long, try every means in your
+power to get them out. Stay with them. If finally you fail, you will
+at least have the satisfaction of knowing that circumstances alone have
+defeated you. If you do not like that sort of a game, stay out of it
+entirely.
+
+
+
+
+
+XII. MORE LIONS
+
+Nor do the last remarks of the preceding chapter mean that you shall not
+have your trophy in peace. Perhaps excitement and a slight doubt as
+to whether or not you are going to survive do not appeal to you; but
+nevertheless you would like a lion skin or so. By all means shoot one
+lion, or two, or three in the safest fashion you can. But after that you
+ought to play the game.
+
+The surest way to get a lion is to kill a zebra, cut holes in him, fill
+the holes with strychnine, and come back next morning. This method is
+absolutely safe.
+
+The next safest way is to follow the quarry with a pack of especially
+trained dogs. The lion is so busy and nervous over those dogs that you
+can walk up and shoot him in the ear. This method has the excitement of
+riding and following, the joy of a grand and noisy row, and the fun of
+seeing a good dog-fight. The same effect can be got chasing wart-hogs,
+hyenas, jackals-or jack-rabbits. The objection is that it wastes a
+noble beast in an inferior game. My personal opinion is that no man is
+justified in following with dogs any large animal that can be captured
+with reasonable certainty without them. The sport of coursing is another
+matter; but that is quite the same in essence whatever the size of the
+quarry. If you want to kill a lion or so quite safely, and at the same
+time enjoy a glorious and exciting gallop with lots of accompanying row,
+by all means follow the sport with hounds. But having killed one or two
+by that method, quit. Do not go on and clean up the country. You can do
+it. Poison and hounds are the SURE methods of finding any lion there may
+be about; and AFTER THE FIRST FEW, one is about as justifiable as the
+other. If you want the undoubtedly great joy of cross country pursuit,
+send your hounds in after less noble game.
+
+The third safe method of killing a lion is nocturnal. You lay out a kill
+beneath a tree, and climb the tree. Or better, you hitch out a pig or
+donkey as live bait. When the lion comes to this free lunch, you try to
+see him; and, if you succeed in that, you try to shoot him. It is not
+easy to shoot at night; nor is it easy to see in the dark. Furthermore,
+lions only occasionally bother to come to bait. You may roost up that
+tree many nights before you get a chance. Once up, you have to stay up;
+for it is most decidedly not safe to go home after dark. The tropical
+night in the highlands is quite chilly. Branches seem to be quite as
+cramping and abrasive under the equator as in the temperate zones.
+Still, it is one method.
+
+Another is to lay out a kill and visit it in the early morning. There is
+more to this, for you are afoot, must generally search out your beast
+in nearby cover, and can easily find any amount of excitement in the
+process.
+
+The fourth way is to ride the lion. The hunter sees his quarry returning
+home across the plains, perhaps; or jumps it from some small bushy
+ravine. At once he spurs his horse in pursuit. The lion will run but a
+short distance before coming to a stop, for he is not particularly long
+either of wind or of patience. From this stand he almost invariably
+charges. The astute hunter, still mounted, turns and flees. When the
+lion gets tired of chasing, which he does in a very short time, the
+hunter faces about. At last the lion sits down in the grass, waiting for
+the game to develop. This is the time for the hunter to dismount and to
+take his shot. Quite likely he must now stand a charge afoot, and drop
+his beast before it gets to him.
+
+This is real fun. It has many elements of safety, and many of danger.
+
+To begin with, the hunter at this game generally has companions to back
+him: often he employs mounted Somalis to round the lion up and get it
+to stand. The charging lion is quite apt to make for the conspicuous
+mounted men-who can easily escape-ignoring the hunter afoot. As the game
+is largely played in the open, the movements of the beast are easily
+followed.
+
+On the other hand, there is room for mistake. The hunter, for example,
+should never follow directly in the rear of his lion, but rather at a
+parallel course off the beast's flank. Then, if the lion stops suddenly,
+the man does not overrun before he can check his mount. He should never
+dismount nearer than a hundred and fifty yards from the embayed
+animal; and should never try to get off while the lion is moving in
+his direction. Then, too, a hard gallop is not conducive to the best of
+shooting. It is difficult to hold the front bead steady; and it is still
+more difficult to remember to wait, once the lion charges, until he has
+come near enough for a sure shot. A neglect in the inevitable excitement
+of the moment to remember these and a dozen other small matters may
+quite possibly cause trouble.
+
+Two or three men together can make this one of the most exciting mounted
+games on earth; with enough of the give and take of real danger and
+battle to make it worth while. The hunter, however, who employs a dozen
+Somalis to ride the beast to a standstill, after which he goes to
+the front, has eliminated much of the thrill. Nor need that man's
+stay-at-home family feel any excessive uneasiness over Father Killing
+Lions in Africa.
+
+The method that interested me more than any other is one exceedingly
+difficult to follow except under favourable circumstances. I refer to
+tracking them down afoot. This requires that your gunbearer should be
+an expert trailer, for, outside the fact that following a soft-padded
+animal over all sorts of ground is a very difficult thing to do, the
+hunter should be free to spy ahead. It is necessary also to possess much
+patience and to endure under many disappointments. But on the other
+hand there is in this sport a continuous keen thrill to be enjoyed in no
+other; and he who single handed tracks down and kills his lion thus, has
+well earned the title of shikari-the Hunter.
+
+And the last method of all is to trust to the God of Chance. The secret
+of success is to be always ready to take instant advantage of what the
+moment offers.
+
+An occasional hunting story is good in itself: and the following will
+also serve to illustrate what I have just been saying.
+
+We were after that prize, the greater kudu, and in his pursuit had
+penetrated into some very rough country. Our hunting for the time being
+was over broad bench, perhaps four or five miles wide, below a range
+of mountains. The bench itself broke down in sheer cliffs some fifteen
+hundred feet, but one did not appreciate that fact unless he stood
+fairly on the edge of the precipice. To all intents and purposes we
+were on a rolling grassy plain, with low hills and cliffs, and a most
+beautiful little stream running down it beneath fine trees.
+
+Up to now our hunting had gained us little beside information: that kudu
+had occasionally visited the region, that they had not been there for a
+month, and that the direction of their departure had been obscure. So we
+worked our way down the stream, trying out the possibilities. Of other
+game there seemed to be a fair supply: impalla, hartebeeste, zebra,
+eland, buffalo, wart-hog, sing-sing, and giraffe we had seen. I had
+secured a wonderful eland and a very fine impalla, and we had had a
+gorgeous close-quarters fight with a cheetah.* Now C. had gone out, a
+three weeks' journey, carrying to medical attendance a porter injured in
+the cheetah fracas. Billy and I were continuing the hunt alone.
+
+     * This animal quite disproved the assertion that cheetahs
+     never assume the aggressive. He charged repeatedly.
+
+We had marched two hours, and were pitching camp under a single tree
+near the edge of the bench. After seeing everything well under way, I
+took the Springfield and crossed the stream, which here ran in a deep
+canyon. My object was to see if I could get a sing-sing that had bounded
+away at our approach. I did not bother to take a gunbearer, because I
+did not expect to be gone five minutes.
+
+The canyon proved unexpectedly deep and rough, and the stream up to my
+waist. When I had gained the top, I found grass growing patchily from
+six inches to two feet high; and small, scrubby trees from four to ten
+feet tall, spaced regularly, but very scattered. These little trees
+hardly formed cover, but their aggregation at sufficient distance
+limited the view.
+
+The sing-sing had evidently found his way over the edge of the bench. I
+turned to go back to camp. A duiker-a small grass antelope-broke from a
+little patch of the taller grass, rushed, head down headlong after their
+fashion, suddenly changed his mind, and dashed back again. I stepped
+forward to see why he had changed his mind-and ran into two lions!
+
+They were about thirty yards away, and sat there on their haunches, side
+by side, staring at me with expressionless yellow eyes. I stared back.
+The Springfield is a good little gun, and three times before I had been
+forced to shoot lions with it, but my real "lion gun" with which I had
+done best work was the 405 Winchester. The Springfield is too light
+for such game. Also there were two lions, very close. Also I was quite
+alone.
+
+As the game stood, it hardly looked like my move; so I held still and
+waited. Presently one yawned, they looked at each other, turned quite
+leisurely, and began to move away at a walk.
+
+This was a different matter. If I had fired while the two were facing
+me, I should probably have had them both to deal with. But now that
+their tails were turned toward me, I should very likely have to do with
+only the one: at the crack of the rifle the other would run the way he
+was headed. So I took a careful bead at the lioness and let drive.
+
+My aim was to cripple the pelvic bone, but, unfortunately, just as I
+fired, the beast wriggled lithely sidewise to pass around a tuft of
+grass, so that the bullet inflicted merely a slight flesh wound on
+the rump. She whirled like a flash, and as she raised her head high to
+locate me, I had time to wish that the Springfield hit a trifle harder
+blow. Also I had time to throw another cartridge in the barrel.
+
+The moment she saw me she dropped her head and charged. She was
+thoroughly angry and came very fast. I had just enough time to steady
+the gold bead on her chest and to pull trigger.
+
+At the shot, to my great relief, she turned bottom up, and I saw her
+tail for an instant above the grass-an almost sure indication of a bad
+hit. She thrashed around, and made a tremendous hullabaloo of snarls and
+growls. I backed out slowly, my rifle ready. It was no place for me, for
+the grass was over knee high.
+
+Once at a safe distance I blazed a tree with my hunting knife and
+departed for camp, well pleased to be out of it. At camp I ate lunch and
+had a smoke; then with Memba Sasa and Mavrouki returned to the scene
+of trouble. I had now the 405 Winchester, a light and handy weapon
+delivering a tremendous blow.
+
+We found the place readily enough. My lioness had recovered from the
+first shock and had gone. I was very glad I had gone first.
+
+The trail was not very plain, but it could be followed a foot or so at a
+time, with many faults and casts back. I walked a yard to one side while
+the men followed the spoor. Owing to the abundance of cover it was
+very nervous work, for the beast might be almost anywhere, and would
+certainly charge. We tried to keep a neutral zone around ourselves by
+tossing stones ahead of and on both sides of our line of advance. My own
+position was not bad, for I had the rifle ready in my hand, but the men
+were in danger. Of course I was protecting them as well as I could, but
+there was always a chance that the lioness might spring on them in such
+a manner that I would be unable to use my weapon. Once I suggested that
+as the work was dangerous, they could quit if they wanted to.
+
+"Hapana!" they both refused indignantly.
+
+We had proceeded thus for half a mile when to our relief, right ahead of
+us, sounded the commanding, rumbling half-roar, half-growl of the lion
+at bay.
+
+Instantly Memba Sasa and Mavrouki dropped back to me. We all peered
+ahead. One of the boys made her out first, crouched under a bush
+thirty-two yards away. Even as I raised the rifle she saw us and
+charged. I caught her in the chest before she had come ten feet. The
+heavy bullet stopped her dead. Then she recovered and started forward
+slowly, very weak, but game to the last. Another shot finished her.
+
+The remarkable point of this incident was the action of the little
+Springfield bullet. Evidently the very high velocity of this bullet
+from its shock to the nervous system had delivered a paralyzing blow
+sufficient to knock out the lioness for the time being. Its damage to
+tissue, however, was slight. Inasmuch as the initial shock did not cause
+immediate death, the lioness recovered sufficiently to be able, two
+hours later, to take the offensive. This point is of the greatest
+interest to the student of ballistics; but it is curious to even the
+ordinary reader.
+
+That is a very typical example of finding lions by sheer chance.
+Generally a man is out looking for the smallest kind of game when he
+runs up against them. Now happened to follow an equally typical example
+of tracking.
+
+The next day after the killing of the lioness Memba Sasa, Kongoni and I
+dropped off the bench, and hunted greater kudu on a series of terraces
+fifteen hundred feet below. All we found were two rhino, some sing-sing,
+a heard of impalla, and a tremendous thirst. In the meantime, Mavrouki
+had, under orders, scouted the foothills of the mountain range at the
+back. He reported none but old tracks of kudu, but said he had seen
+eight lions not far from our encounter of the day before.
+
+Therefore, as soon next morning as we could see plainly, we again
+crossed the canyon and the waist-deep stream. I had with me all three of
+the gun men, and in addition two of the most courageous porters to help
+with the tracking and the looking.
+
+About eight o'clock we found the first fresh pad mark plainly outlined
+in an isolated piece of soft earth. Immediately we began that most
+fascinating of games-trailing over difficult ground. In this we could
+all take part, for the tracks were some hours old, and the cover scanty.
+Very rarely could we make out more than three successive marks. Then we
+had to spy carefully for the slightest indication of direction. Kongoni
+in especial was wonderful at this, and time and again picked up a broken
+grass blade or the minutest inch-fraction of disturbed earth. We moved
+slowly, in long hesitations and castings about, and in swift little
+dashes forward of a few feet; and often we went astray on false scents,
+only to return finally to the last certain spot. In this manner we
+crossed the little plain with the scattered shrub trees and arrived at
+the edge of the low bluff above the stream bottom.
+
+This bottom was well wooded along the immediate bank of the stream
+itself, fringed with low thick brush, and in the open spaces grown to
+the edges with high, green, coarse grass.
+
+As soon as we had managed to follow without fault to this grass, our
+difficulties of trailing were at an end. The lions' heavy bodies
+had made distinct paths through the tangle. These paths went forward
+sinuously, sometimes separating one from the other, sometimes
+intertwining, sometimes combining into one for a short distance. We
+could not determine accurately the number of beasts that had made them.
+
+"They have gone to drink water," said Memba Sasa.
+
+We slipped along the twisting paths, alert for indications; came to the
+edge of the thicket, stooped through the fringe, and descended to the
+stream under the tall trees. The soft earth at the water's edge was
+covered with tracks, thickly overlaid one over the other. The boys felt
+of the earth, examined, even smelled, and came to the conclusion that
+the beasts must have watered about five o'clock. If so, they might be
+ten miles away, or as many rods.
+
+We had difficulty in determining just where the party left this place,
+until finally Kongoni caught sight of suspicious indications over the
+way. The lions had crossed the stream. We did likewise, followed the
+trail out of the thicket, into the grass, below the little cliffs
+parallel to the stream, back into the thicket, across the river once
+more, up the other side, in the thicket for a quarter mile, then out
+into the grass on that side, and so on. They were evidently wandering,
+rather idly, up the general course of the stream. Certainly, unlike most
+cats, they did not mind getting their feet wet, for they crossed the
+stream four times.
+
+At last the twining paths in the shoulder-high grass fanned out
+separately. We counted.
+
+"You were right, Mavrouki," said I, "there were eight."
+
+At the end of each path was a beaten-down little space where evidently
+the beasts had been lying down. With an exclamation the three gunbearers
+darted forward to investigate. The lairs were still warm! Their
+occupants had evidently made off only at our approach!
+
+Not five minutes later we were halted by a low warning growl right
+ahead. We stopped. The boys squatted on their heels close to me, and we
+consulted in whispers.
+
+Of course it would be sheer madness to attack eight lions in grass
+so high we could not see five feet in front of us. That went without
+saying. On the other hand, Mavrouki swore that he had yesterday seen no
+small cubs with the band, and our examination of the tracks made in soft
+earth seemed to bear him out. The chances were therefore that, unless
+themselves attacked or too close pressed, the lions would not attack us.
+By keeping just in their rear we might be able to urge them gently along
+until they should enter more open cover. Then we could see.
+
+Therefore we gave the owner of that growl about five minutes to forget
+it, and then advanced very cautiously. We soon found where the objector
+had halted, and plainly read by the indications where he had stood for a
+moment or so, and then moved on. We slipped along after.
+
+For five hours we hung at the heels of that band of lions, moving very
+slowly, perfectly willing to halt whenever they told us to, and going
+forward again only when we became convinced that they too had gone on.
+Except for the first half hour, we were never more than twenty or thirty
+yards from the nearest lion, and often much closer. Three or four
+times I saw slowly gliding yellow bodies just ahead of me, but in the
+circumstances it would have been sheer stark lunacy to have fired.
+Probably six or eight times-I did not count-we were commanded to stop,
+and we did stop.
+
+It was very exciting work, but the men never faltered. Of course I went
+first, in case one of the beasts had the toothache or otherwise did
+not play up to our calculations on good nature. One or the other of the
+gunbearers was always just behind me. Only once was any comment made.
+Kongoni looked very closely into my face.
+
+"There are very many lions," he remarked doubtfully.
+
+"Very many lions," I agreed, as though assenting to a mere statement of
+fact.
+
+Although I am convinced there was no real danger, as long as we stuck to
+our plan of campaign, nevertheless it was quite interesting to be for so
+long a period so near these great brutes. They led us for a mile or so
+along the course of the stream, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the
+other. Several times they emerged into better cover, and even into the
+open, but always ducked back into the thick again before we ourselves
+had followed their trail to the clear.
+
+At noon we were halted by the usual growl just as we had reached the
+edge of the river. So we sat down on the banks and had lunch.
+
+Finally our chance came. The trail led us, for the dozenth time, from
+the high grass into the thicket along the river. We ducked our heads
+to enter. Memba Sasa, next my shoulder, snapped his fingers violently.
+Following the direction of the brown arm that shot over my shoulder, I
+strained my eyes into the dimness of the thicket. At first I could see
+nothing at all, but at length a slight motion drew my eye. Then I made
+out the silhouette of a lion's head, facing us steadily. One of the
+rear guard had again turned to halt us, but this time where he and his
+surroundings could be seen.
+
+Luckily I always use a Sheard gold bead sight, and even in the dimness
+of the tree-shaded thicket it showed up well. The beast was only forty
+yards away, so I fired at his head. He rolled over without a sound.
+
+We took the usual great precautions in determining the genuineness of
+his demise, then carried him into the open. Strangely enough the bullet
+had gone so cleanly into his left eye that it had not even broken the
+edge of the eyelid; so that when skinned he did not show a mark. He was
+a very decent maned lion, three feet four inches at the shoulder, and
+nine feet long as he lay. We found that he had indeed been the rear
+guard, and that the rest, on the other side of the thicket, had made off
+at the shot. So in spite of the APPARENT danger of the situation, our
+calculations had worked out perfectly. Also we had enjoyed a half day's
+sport of an intensity quite impossible to be extracted from any other
+method of following the lion.
+
+In trying to guess how any particular lions may act, however, you will
+find yourself often at fault. The lion is a very intelligent and crafty
+beast, and addicted to tricks. If you follow a lion to a small hill,
+it is well to go around that hill on the side opposite to that taken by
+your quarry. You are quite likely to meet him for he is clever enough
+thus to try to get in your rear. He will lie until you have actually
+passed him before breaking off. He will circle ahead, then back to
+confuse his trail. And when you catch sight of him in the distance, you
+would never suspect that he knew of your presence at all. He saunters
+slowly, apparently aimlessly, along pausing often, evidently too bored
+to take any interest in life. You wait quite breathlessly for him to
+pass behind cover. Then you are going to make a very rapid advance, and
+catch his leisurely retreat. But the moment old Leo does pass behind the
+cover, his appearance of idle stroller vanishes. In a dozen bounds he is
+gone.
+
+That is what makes lion hunting delightful. There are some regions,
+very near settlements, where it is perhaps justifiable to poison these
+beasts. If you are a true sportsman you will confine your hound-hunting
+to those districts. Elsewhere, as far as playing fair with a noble
+beast is concerned, you may as well toss a coin to see which you shall
+take-your pack or a strychnine bottle.
+
+
+
+
+
+XIII. ON THE MANAGING OF A SAFARI
+
+We made our way slowly down the river. As the elevation dropped, the
+temperature rose. It was very hot indeed during the day, and in the
+evening the air was tepid and caressing, and musical with the hum of
+insects. We sat about quite comfortably in our pajamas, and took our
+fifteen grains of quinine per week against the fever.
+
+The character of the jungle along the river changed imperceptibly, the
+dhum palms crowding out the other trees; until, at our last camp, were
+nothing but palms. The wind in them sounded variously like the patter
+or the gathering onrush of rain. On either side the country remained
+unchanged, however. The volcanic hills rolled away to the distant
+ranges. Everywhere grew sparsely the low thornbrush, opening sometimes
+into clear plains, closing sometimes into dense thickets. One morning
+we awoke to find that many supposedly sober-minded trees had burst into
+blossom fairly over night. They were red, and yellow and white that
+before were green, a truly gorgeous sight.
+
+Then we turned sharp to the right and began to ascend a little tributary
+brook coming down the wide flats from a cleft in the hills. This was
+prettily named the Isiola, and, after the first mile or so, was not
+big enough to afford the luxury of a jungle of its own. Its banks were
+generally grassy and steep, its thickets few, and its little trees
+isolated in parklike spaces. To either side of it, and almost at its
+level, stretched plains, but plains grown with scattered brush and
+shrubs so that at a mile or two one's vista was closed. But for all its
+scant ten feet of width the Isiola stood upon its dignity as a stream.
+We discovered that when we tried to cross. The men floundered waist-deep
+on uncertain bottom; the syces received much unsympathetic comment
+for their handling of the animals, and we had to get Billy over by a
+melodramatic "bridge of life" with B., F., myself, and Memba Sasa in the
+title roles.
+
+Then we pitched camp in the open on the other side, sent the horses back
+from the stream until after dark, in fear of the deadly tsetse fly, and
+prepared to enjoy a good exploration of the neighbourhood. Whereupon
+M'ganga rose up to his gaunt and terrific height of authority, stretched
+forth his bony arm at right angles, and uttered between eight and nine
+thousand commands in a high dynamic monotone without a single pause for
+breath. These, supplemented by about as many more, resulted in (a) a
+bridge across the stream, and (b) a banda.
+
+A banda is a delightful African institution. It springs from nothing in
+about two hours, but it takes twenty boys with a vitriolic M'ganga back
+of them to bring it about. Some of them carry huge backloads of grass,
+or papyrus, or cat-tail rushes, as the case may be; others lug in poles
+of various lengths from where their comrades are cutting them by means
+of their panga. A panga, parenthetically, is the safari man's substitute
+for axe, shovel, pick, knife, sickle, lawn-mower, hammer, gatling
+gun, world's library of classics, higher mathematics, grand opera, and
+toothpicks. It looks rather like a machete with a very broad end and
+a slight curved back. A good man can do extraordinary things with
+it. Indeed, at this moment, two boys are with this apparently clumsy
+implement delicately peeling some of the small thorn trees, from the
+bared trunks of which they are stripping long bands of tough inner bark.
+
+With these three raw materials-poles, withes, and grass-M'ganga and
+his men set to work. They planted their corner and end poles, they laid
+their rafters, they completed their framework, binding all with the
+tough withes; then deftly they thatched it with the grass. Almost before
+we had settled our own affairs, M'ganga was standing before us smiling.
+Gone now was his mien of high indignation and swirling energy.
+
+"Banda naquisha," he informed us.
+
+And we moved in our table and our canvas chairs; hung up our water
+bottles; Billy got out her fancy work. Nothing could be pleasanter
+nor more appropriate to the climate than this wide low arbour, open at
+either end to the breezes, thatched so thickly that the fierce sun could
+nowhere strike through.
+
+The men had now settled down to a knowledge of what we were like; and
+things were going smoothly. At first the African porter will try it on
+to see just how easy you are likely to prove. If he makes up his mind
+that you really are easy, then you are in for infinite petty annoyance,
+and possibly open mutiny. Therefore, for a little while, it is necessary
+to be extremely vigilant, to insist on minute performance in all
+circumstances where later you might condone an omission. For the same
+reason punishment must be more frequent and more severe at the outset.
+It is all a matter of watching the temper of the men. 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! For days at a time we have kept our
+men travelling at good speed by commenting, as though by the way, after
+we had arrived in camp, on which tribe happened to come in at the head.
+
+"Ah! Kavirondos came in first to-night," we would remark. "Last night
+the Monumwezis were ahead."
+
+And once, actually, by this method we succeeded in working up such a
+feeling of rivalry that the Kikuyus, the unambitious, weak and despised
+Kikuyus, led the van!
+
+But the first hint of insubordination, of intended insolence, of willful
+shirking must be met by instant authority. Occasionally, when the
+situation is of the quick and sharp variety, the white man may have to
+mix in the row himself. He must never hesitate an instant; for the only
+reason he alone can control so many is that he has always controlled
+them. F. had a very effective blow, or shove, which I found well worth
+adopting. It is delivered with the heel of the palm to the man's chin,
+and is more of a lifting, heaving shove than an actual blow. Its effect
+is immediately upsetting. Impertinence is best dealt with in this manner
+on the spot. Evidently intended slowness in coming when called is also
+best treated by a flick of the whip-and forgetfulness. And so with a
+half dozen others. But any more serious matter should be decided from
+the throne of the canvas chair, witness should be heard, judgment
+formally pronounced, and execution intrusted to the askaris or
+gunbearers.
+
+It is, as I have said, a most interesting game. It demands three sorts
+of knowledge: first what a safari man is capable of doing; second, what
+he customarily should or should not do; third, an ability to read the
+actual intention or motive back of his actions. When you are able to
+punish or hold your hand on these principles, and not merely because
+things have or have not gone smoothly or right, then you are a good
+safari manager. There are mighty few of them.
+
+As for punishment, that is quite simply the whip. The average writer
+on the country speaks of this with hushed voice and averted face as a
+necessity but as something to be deprecated and passed over as quickly
+as possible. He does this because he thinks he ought to. As a matter of
+fact, such an attitude is all poppycock. In the flogging of a white man,
+or a black who suffers from such a punishment in his soul as well as his
+body, this is all very well. But the safari man expects it, it
+doesn't hurt his feelings in the least, it is ancient custom. As well
+sentimentalize over necessary schoolboy punishment, or over father
+paddy-whacking little Willie when little Willie has been a bad boy. The
+chances are your porter will leap to his feet, crack his heels together
+and depart with a whoop of joy, grinning from ear to ear. Or he may draw
+himself up and salute you, military fashion, again with a grin. In any
+case his "soul" is not "scared" a little bit, and there is no sense in
+yourself feeling about it as though it were.
+
+At another slant the justice you will dispense to your men differs from
+our own. Again this is because of the teaching long tradition has made
+part of their mental make-up. Our own belief is that it is better to let
+two guilty men go than to punish one innocent. With natives it is the
+other way about. If a crime is committed the guilty MUST be punished.
+Preferably he alone is to be dealt with; but in case it is impossible to
+identify him, then all the members of the first inclusive unit must be
+brought to account. This is the native way of doing things; is the only
+way the native understands; and is the only way that in his mind true
+justice is answered. Thus if a sheep is stolen, the thief must be caught
+and punished. Suppose, however it is known to what family the thief
+belongs, but the family refuses to disclose which of its members
+committed the theft: then each member must be punished for sheep
+stealing; or, if not the family, then the tribe must make restitution.
+But punishment MUST be inflicted.
+
+There is an essential justice to recommend this, outside the fact that
+it has with the native all the solidity of accepted ethics, and
+it certainly helps to run the real criminal to earth. The innocent
+sometimes suffers innocently, but not very often; and our own records
+show that in that respect with us it is the same. This is not the place
+to argue the right or wrong of the matter from our own standpoint but to
+recognize the fact that it is right from theirs, and to act accordingly.
+Thus in cast of theft of meat, or something that cannot be traced, it
+is well to call up the witnesses, to prove the alibis, and then to place
+the issue squarely up to those that remain. There may be but two, or
+there may be a dozen.
+
+"I know you did not all steal the meat," you must say, "but I know that
+one of you did. Unless I know which one that is by to-morrow morning, I
+will kiboko all of you. Bass!"
+
+Perhaps occasionally you may have to kiboko the lot, in the full
+knowledge that most are innocent. That seems hard; and your heart will
+misgive you. Harden it. The "innocent" probably know perfectly well who
+the guilty man is. And the incident builds for the future.
+
+I had intended nowhere to comment on the politics or policies of the
+country. Nothing is more silly than the casual visitor's snap judgments
+on how a country is run. Nevertheless, I may perhaps be pardoned for
+suggesting that the Government would strengthen its hand, and aid its
+few straggling settlers by adopting this native view of retributions.
+For instance, at present it is absolutely impossible to identify
+individual sheep and cattle stealers. They operate stealthily and at
+night. If the Government cannot identify the actual thief, it gives the
+matter up. As a consequence a great hardship is inflicted on the settler
+and an evil increases. If, however, the Government would hold the
+village, the district, or the tribe responsible, and exact just
+compensation from such units in every case, the evil would very suddenly
+come to an end. And the native's respect for the white man would climb
+in the scale.
+
+Once the safari man gets confidence in his master, that confidence is
+complete. The white man's duties are in his mind clearly defined. His
+job is to see that the black man is fed, is watered, is taken care of
+in every way. The ordinary porter considers himself quite devoid of
+responsibility. He is also an improvident creature, for he drinks all
+his water when he gets thirsty, no matter how long and hot the journey
+before him; he eats his rations all up when he happens to get hungry,
+two days before next distribution time; he straggles outrageously at
+times and has to be rounded up; he works three months and, on a whim,
+deserts two days before the end of his journey, thus forfeiting all his
+wages. Once two porters came to us for money.
+
+"What for?" asked C.
+
+"To buy a sheep," said they.
+
+For two months we had been shooting them all the game meat they could
+eat, but on this occasion two days had intervened since the last kill.
+If they had been on trading safari they would have had no meat at all.
+A sheep cost six rupees in that country, and they were getting but ten
+rupees a month as wages. In view of the circumstances, and for their
+own good, we refused. Another man once insisted on purchasing a cake
+of violet-scented soap for a rupee. Their chief idea of a wild time in
+Nairobi, after return from a long safari, is to SIT IN A CHAIR and drink
+tea. For this they pay exorbitantly at the Somali so-called "hotels."
+It is a strange sight. But then, I have seen cowboys off the range or
+lumberjacks from the river do equally extravagant and foolish things.
+
+On the other hand they carry their loads well, they march tremendously,
+they know their camp duties and they do them. Under adverse
+circumstances they are good-natured. I remember C. and I, being belated
+and lost in a driving rain. We wandered until nearly midnight. The four
+or five men with us were loaded heavily with the meat and trophy of a
+roan. Certainly they must have been very tired; for only occasionally
+could we permit them to lay down their loads. Most of the time we were
+actually groping, over boulders, volcanic rocks, fallen trees and all
+sorts of tribulation. The men took it as a huge joke, and at every pause
+laughed consumedly.
+
+In making up a safari one tries to mix in four or five tribes. This
+prevents concerted action in case of trouble, for no one tribe will help
+another. They vary both in tribal and individual characteristics, of
+course. For example, the Kikuyus are docile but mediocre porters; the
+Kavirondos strong carriers but turbulent and difficult to handle. You
+are very lucky if you happen on a camp jester, one of the sort that
+sings, shouts, or jokes while on the march. He is probably not much as a
+porter, but he is worth his wages nevertheless. He may or may not aspire
+to his giddy eminence. We had one droll-faced little Kavirondo whose
+very expression made one laugh, and whose rueful remarks on the
+harshness of his lot finally ended by being funny. His name got to be a
+catchword in camp.
+
+"Mualo! Mualo!" the men would cry, as they heaved their burdens to their
+heads; and all day long their war cry would ring out, "Mualo!" followed
+by shrieks of laughter.
+
+Of the other type was Sulimani, a big, one-eyed Monumwezi, who had a
+really keen wit coupled with an earnest, solemn manner. This man was no
+buffoon, however; and he was a good porter, always at or near the head
+of the procession. In the great jungle south of Kenia we came upon
+Cuninghame. When the head of our safari reached the spot Sulimani
+left the ranks and, his load still aloft danced solemnly in front of
+Cuninghame, chanting something in a loud tone of voice. Then with a
+final deep "Jambo!" to his old master he rejoined the safari. When
+the day had stretched to weariness and the men had fallen to a sullen
+plodding, Sulimani's vigorous song could always set the safari sticks
+tapping the sides of the chop boxes.
+
+He carried part of the tent, and the next best men were entrusted with
+the cook outfit and our personal effects. It was a point of honour
+with these men to be the first in camp. The rear, the very extreme
+and straggling rear, was brought up by worthless porters with loads of
+cornmeal-and the weary askaris whose duty it was to keep astern and herd
+the lot in.
+
+
+
+
+
+XIV. A DAY ON THE ISIOLA
+
+Early one morning-we were still on the Isiola-we set forth on our horses
+to ride across the rolling, brush-grown plain. Our intention was to
+proceed at right angles to our own little stream until we had reached
+the forest growth of another, which we could dimly make out eight or
+ten miles distant. Billy went with us, so there were four a-horseback.
+Behind us trudged the gunbearers, and the syces, and after them
+straggled a dozen or fifteen porters.
+
+The sun was just up, and the air was only tepid as yet. From patches of
+high grass whirred and rocketed grouse of two sorts. They were so much
+like our own ruffed grouse and prairie chicken that I could with no
+effort imagine myself once more a boy in the coverts of the Middle West.
+Only before us we could see the stripes of trotting zebra disappearing;
+and catch the glint of light on the bayonets of the oryx. Two giraffes
+galumphed away to the right. Little grass antelope darted from clump
+to clump of grass. Once we saw gerenuk-oh, far away in an impossible
+distance. Of course we tried to stalk them; and as usual we failed. The
+gerenuk we had come to look upon as our Lesser Hoodoo.
+
+The beast is a gazelle about as big as a black-tailed deer. His
+peculiarity is his excessively long neck, a good deal on the giraffe
+order. With it he crops browse above high tide mark of other animals,
+especially when as often happens he balances cleverly on his hind legs.
+By means of it also he can, with his body completely concealed, look
+over the top of ordinary cover and see you long before you have made
+out his inconspicuous little head. Then he departs. He seems to have
+a lamentable lack of healthy curiosity about you. In that respect he
+should take lessons from the kongoni. After that you can follow him as
+far as you please; you will get only glimpses at three or four hundred
+yards.
+
+We remounted sadly and rode on. The surface of the ground was rather
+soft, scattered with round rocks the size of a man's head, and full of
+pig holes.
+
+"Cheerful country to ride over at speed," remarked Billy. Later in the
+day we had occasion to remember that statement.
+
+The plains led us ever on. First would be a band of scattered brush
+growing singly and in small clumps: then a little open prairie; then
+a narrow, long grass swale; then perhaps a low, long hill with small
+single trees and rough, volcanic footing. Ten thousand things kept us
+interested. Game was everywhere, feeding singly, in groups, in herds,
+game of all sizes and descriptions. The rounded ears of jackals pointed
+at us from the grass. Hundreds of birds balanced or fluttered about us,
+birds of all sizes from the big ground hornbill to the littlest hummers
+and sun birds. Overhead, across the wonderful variegated sky of Africa
+the broad-winged carrion hunters and birds of prey wheeled. In all our
+stay on the Isiola we had not seen a single rhino track, so we rode
+quite care free and happy.
+
+Finally, across a glade, not over a hundred and fifty yards away, we
+saw a solitary bull oryx standing under a bush. B. wanted an oryx. We
+discussed this one idly. He looked to be a decent oryx, but nothing
+especial. However, he offered a very good shot; so B., after some
+hesitation, decided to take it. It proved to be by far the best specimen
+we shot, the horns measuring thirty-six and three fourths inches! Almost
+immediately after, two of the rather rare striped hyenas leaped from the
+grass and departed rapidly over the top of a hill. We opened fire, and
+F. dropped one of them. By the time these trophies were prepared, the
+sun had mounted high in the heavens, and it was getting hot.
+
+Accordingly we abandoned that still distant river and swung away in a
+wide circle to return to camp.
+
+Several minor adventures brought us to high noon and the heat of the
+day. B. had succeeded in drawing a prize, one of the Grevy's or mountain
+zebra. He and the gunbearers engaged themselves with that, while we sat
+under the rather scanty shade of a small thorn tree and had lunch.
+Here we had a favourable chance to observe that very common, but always
+wonderful phenomenon, the gathering of the carrion birds. Within five
+minutes after the stoop of the first vulture above the carcass, the sky
+immediately over that one spot was fairly darkened with them. They were
+as thick as midges-or as ducks used to be in California. All sizes were
+there from the little carrion crows to the great dignified vultures and
+marabouts and eagles. The small fry flopped and scolded, and rose and
+fell in a dense mass; the marabouts walked with dignified pace to and
+fro through the grass all about. As far as the eye could penetrate the
+blue, it could make out more and yet more of the great soarers stooping
+with half bent wings. Below we could see uncertainly through the shimmer
+of the mirage the bent forms of the men.
+
+We ate and waited; and after a little we dozed. I was awakened suddenly
+by a tremendous rushing roar, like the sound of a not too distant
+waterfall. The group of men were plodding toward us carrying burdens.
+And like plummets the birds were dropping straight down from the
+heavens, spreading wide their wings at the last moment to check their
+speed. This made the roaring sound that had awakened me.
+
+A wide spot in the shimmer showed black and struggling against the
+ground. I arose and walked over, meeting halfway B. and the men carrying
+the meat. It took me probably about two minutes to reach the place where
+the zebra had been killed. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the great
+birds were standing idly about; a dozen or so were flapping and
+scrambling in the centre. I stepped into view. With a mighty commotion
+they all took wing clumsily, awkwardly, reluctantly. A trampled, bloody
+space and the larger bones, picked absolutely clean, was all that
+remained! In less than two minutes the job had been done!
+
+"You're certainly good workmen!" I exclaimed, "but I wonder how you all
+make a living!"
+
+We started the men on to camp with the meat, and ourselves rested
+under the shade. The day had been a full and interesting one; but we
+considered it as finished. Remained only the hot journey back to camp.
+
+After a half hour we mounted again and rode on slowly. The sun was very
+strong and a heavy shimmer clothed the plain. Through this shimmer we
+caught sight of something large and black and flapping. It looked like a
+crow-or, better, a scare-crow-crippled, half flying, half running, with
+waving wings or arms, now dwindling, now gigantic as the mirage caught
+it up or let it drop. As we watched, it developed, and we made it out
+to be a porter, clad in a long, ragged black overcoat, running zigzag
+through the bushes in our direction.
+
+The moment we identified it we spurred our horses forward. As my horse
+leaped, Memba Sasa snatched the Springfield from my left hand and forced
+the 405 Winchester upon me. Clever Memba Sasa! He no more than we knew
+what was up, but shrewdly concluded that whatever it was it needed a
+heavy gun.
+
+As we galloped to meet him, the porter stopped. We saw him to be a very
+long-legged, raggedy youth whom we had nicknamed the Marabout because of
+his exceedingly long, lean legs, the fact that his breeches were white,
+short and baggy, and because he kept his entire head shaved close. He
+called himself Fundi, which means The Expert, a sufficient indication of
+his confidence in himself.
+
+He awaited us leaning on his safari stick, panting heavily, the sweat
+running off his face in splashes. "Simba!"* said he, and immediately
+set off on a long, easy lope ahead of us. We pulled down to a trot and
+followed him.
+
+     * Lion
+
+At the end of a half mile we made out a man up a tree. Fundi, out of
+breath, stopped short and pointed to this man. The latter, as soon as he
+had seen us, commenced to scramble down. We spurred forward to find out
+where the lions had been last seen.
+
+Then Billy covered herself with glory by seeing them first. She apprised
+us of that fact with some excitement. We saw the long, yellow bodies of
+two of them disappearing in the edge of the brush about three hundred
+yards away. With a wild whoop we tore after them at a dead run.
+
+Then began a wild ride. Do you remember Billy's remark about the nature
+of the footing? Before long we closed in near enough to catch occasional
+glimpses of the beasts, bounding easily along. At that moment B.'s horse
+went down in a heap. None of us thought for a moment of pulling up. I
+looked back to see B. getting up again, and thought I caught fragments
+of encouraging-sounding language. Then my horse went down. I managed to
+hold my rifle clear, and to cling to the reins. Did you ever try to
+get on a somewhat demoralized horse in a frantic hurry, when all your
+friends were getting farther away every minute, and so lessening your
+chances of being in the fun? I began to understand perfectly B.'s
+remarks of a moment before. However, on I scrambled, and soon overtook
+the hunt.
+
+We dodged in and out of bushes, and around and over holes. Every few
+moments we would catch a glimpse of one of those silently bounding
+lions, and then we would let out a yell. Also every few moments one
+or the other of us would go down in a heap, and would scramble up and
+curse, and remount hastily. Billy had better luck. She had no gun, and
+belonged a little in the rear anyway, but was coming along game as a
+badger for all that.
+
+My own horse had the legs of the others quite easily, and for that
+reason I was ahead far enough to see the magnificent sight of five lions
+sideways on, all in a row, standing in the grass gazing at me with a
+sort of calm and impersonal dignity. I wheeled my horse immediately so
+as to be ready in case of a charge, and yelled to the others to hurry
+up. While I sat there, they moved slowly off one after the other, so
+that by the time the men had come, the lions had gone. We now had
+no difficulty in running into them again. Once more my better animal
+brought me to the lead, so that for the second time I drew up facing the
+lions, and at about one hundred yards range. One by one they began to
+leave as before, very leisurely and haughtily, until a single old maned
+fellow remained. He, however, sat there, his great round head peering
+over the top of the grass.
+
+"Well," he seemed to say, "here I am, what do you intend to do about
+it?"
+
+The others arrived, and we all dismounted. B. had not yet killed his
+lion, so the shot was his. Billy very coolly came up behind and held
+his horse. I should like here to remark that Billy is very terrified of
+spiders. F. and I stood at the ready, and B. sat down.
+
+Riding fast an exciting mile or so, getting chucked on your head two or
+three times, and facing your first lion are none of them conducive to
+steady shooting. The first shot therefore went high, but the second hit
+the lion square in the chest, and he rolled over dead.
+
+We all danced a little war dance, and congratulated B. and turned to get
+the meaning of a queer little gurgling gasp behind us. There was Fundi!
+That long-legged scarecrow, not content with running to get us and then
+back again, had trailed us the whole distance of our mad chase over
+broken ground at terrific speed in order to be in at the death. And he
+was just about all in at the death. He could barely gasp his breath, his
+eyes stuck out; he looked close to apoplexy.
+
+"Bwana! bwana!" was all he could say. "Master! master!"
+
+We shook hands with Fundi.
+
+"My son," said I, "you're a true sport, and you'll surely get yours
+later."
+
+He did not understand me, but he grinned. The gunbearers began to drift
+in, also completely pumped. They set up a feeble shout when they saw
+the dead lion. It was a good maned beast, three feet six inches at the
+shoulder, and nine feet long.
+
+We left Fundi with the lion, instructing him to stay there until some
+of the other men came up. We remounted and pushed on slowly in hopes of
+coming on one of the others.
+
+Here and there we rode, our courses interweaving, looking eagerly. And
+lo! through a tiny opening in the brush we espied one of those elusive
+gerenuk standing not over one hundred yards away. Whereupon I dismounted
+and did some of the worst shooting I perpetrated in Africa, for I let
+loose three times at him before I landed. But land I did, and there was
+one Lesser Hoodoo broken. Truly this was our day.
+
+We measured him and started to prepare the trophy, when to us came
+Mavrouki and a porter, quite out of breath, but able to tell us that
+they had been scouting around and had seen two of the lions. Then,
+instead of leaving one up a tree to watch, both had come pell-mell to
+tell us all about it. We pointed this out to them, and called their
+attention to the fact that the brush was wide, that lions are not
+stationary objects, and that, unlike the leopard, they can change their
+spots quite readily. However, we remounted and went to take a look.
+
+Of course there was nothing. So we rode on, rather aimlessly, weaving
+in and out of the bushes and open spaces. I think we were all a little
+tired from the long day and the excitement, and hence a bit listless.
+Suddenly we were fairly shaken out of our saddles by an angry roar just
+ahead. Usually a lion growls, low and thunderous, when he wants, to
+warn you that you have gone about far enough; but this one was angry all
+through at being followed about so much, and he just plain yelled at us.
+
+He crouched near a bush forty yards away, and was switching his tail. I
+had heard that this was a sure premonition of an instant charge, but I
+had not before realized exactly what "switching the tail" meant. I had
+thought of it as a slow sweeping from side to side, after the manner
+of the domestic cat. This lion's tail was whirling perpendicularly from
+right to left, and from left to right with the speed and energy of a
+flail actuated by a particularly instantaneous kind of machinery. I
+could see only the outline of the head and this vigorous tail; but I
+took instant aim and let drive. The whole affair sank out of sight.
+
+We made a detour around the dead lion without stopping to examine him,
+shouting to one of the men to stay and watch the carcass. Billy alone
+seemed uninfected with the now prevalent idea that we were likely to
+find lions almost anywhere. Her skepticism was justified. We found no
+more lions; but another miracle took place for all that. We ran across
+the second imbecile gerenuk, and B. collected it! These two were
+the only ones we ever got within decent shot of, and they sandwiched
+themselves neatly with lions. Truly, it WAS our day.
+
+After a time we gave it up, and went back to measure and photograph our
+latest prize. It proved to be a male, maneless, two inches shorter than
+that killed by B., and three feet five and one half inches tall at the
+shoulder. My bullet had reached the brain just over the left eye.
+
+Now, toward sunset, we headed definitely toward camp. The long shadows
+and beautiful lights of evening were falling across the hills far the
+other side the Isiola. A little breeze with a touch of coolness breathed
+down from distant unseen Kenia. We plodded on through the grass quite
+happily, noting the different animals coming out to the cool of the
+evening. The line of brush that marked the course of the Isiola came
+imperceptibly nearer until we could make out the white gleam of the
+porters' tents and wisps of smoke curling upward.
+
+Then a small black mass disengaged itself from the camp and came slowly
+across the prairie in our direction. As it approached we made it out
+to be our Monumwezis, twenty strong. The news of the lions had reached
+them, and they were coming to meet us. They were huddled in a close
+knot, their heads inclined toward the centre. Each man carried upright
+a peeled white wand. They moved in absolute unison and rhythm, on a
+slanting zigzag in our direction: first three steps to the right, then
+three to the left, with a strong stamp of the foot between. Their bodies
+swayed together. Sulimani led them, dancing backward, his wand upheld.
+
+"Sheeka!" he enunciated in a piercing half whistle.
+
+And the swaying men responded in chorus, half hushed, rumbling, with
+strong aspiration.
+
+"Goom zoop! goom zoop!"
+
+When fifty yards from us, however, the formation broke and they rushed
+us with a yell. Our horses plunged in astonishment, and we had hard work
+to prevent their bolting, small blame to 'em! The men surrounded us,
+shaking our hands frantically. At once they appropriated everything we
+or our gunbearers carried. One who got left otherwise insisted on having
+Billy's parasol. Then we all broke for camp at full speed, yelling like
+fiends, firing our revolvers in the air. It was a grand entry, and a
+grand reception. The rest of the camp poured out with wild shouts. The
+dark forms thronged about us, teeth flashing, arms waving. And in the
+background, under the shadows of the trees were the Monumwezis, their
+formation regained, close gathered, heads bent, two steps swaying to
+the right-stamp! two steps swaying to the left-stamp!-the white wands
+gleaming, and the rumble of their lion song rolling in an undertone:
+
+"Goom zoop! goom zoop!"
+
+
+
+
+
+XV. THE LION DANCE
+
+We took our hot baths and sat down to supper most gratefully, for we
+were tired. The long string of men, bearing each a log of wood, filed in
+from the darkness to add to our pile of fuel. Saa-sita and Shamba knelt
+and built the night fire. In a moment the little flame licked up through
+the carefully arranged structure. We finished the meal, and the boys
+whisked away the table.
+
+Then out in the blackness beyond our little globe of light we became
+aware of a dull confusion, a rustling to and fro. Through the shadows
+the eye could guess at movement. The confusion steadied to a kind of
+rhythm, and into the circle of the fire came the group of Monumwezis.
+Again they were gathered together in a compact little mass; but now they
+were bent nearly double, and were stripped to the red blankets about
+their waists. Before them writhed Sulimani, close to earth, darting
+irregularly now to right, now to left, wriggling, spreading his arms
+abroad. He was repeating over and over two phrases; or rather the same
+phrase in two such different intonations that they seemed to convey
+quite separate meanings.
+
+"Ka soompeele?" he cried with a strongly appealing interrogation.
+
+"Ka soompeele!" he repeated with the downward inflection of decided
+affirmation.
+
+And the bent men, their dark bodies gleaming in the firelight, stamping
+in rhythm every third step, chorused in a deep rumbling bass:
+
+"Goom zoop! goom zoop!"
+
+Thus they advanced; circled between us and the fire, and withdrew to the
+half darkness, where tirelessly they continued the same reiterations.
+
+Hardly had they withdrawn when another group danced forward in their
+places. These were the Kikuyus. They had discarded completely their
+safari clothes, and now came forth dressed out in skins, in strips of
+white cloth, with feathers, shells and various ornaments. They carried
+white wands to represent spears, and they sang their tribal lion song.
+A soloist delivered the main argument in a high wavering minor and was
+followed by a deep rumbling emphatic chorus of repetition, strongly
+accented so that the sheer rhythm of it was most pronounced:
+
+"An-gee a Ka ga An-gee a Ka ga An-gee a Ka ga Ki ya Ka ga Ka ga an gee
+ya!"
+
+Solemnly and loftily, their eyes fixed straight before them they made
+the circle of the fire, passed before our chairs, and withdrew to the
+half light. There, a few paces from the stamping, crouching Monumwezis,
+they continued their performance.
+
+The next to appear were the Wakambas. These were more histrionic. They
+too were unrecognizable as our porters, for they too had for the lion
+discarded their work-a-day garments in favour of savage. They produced a
+pantomime of the day's doings, very realistic indeed, ending with a half
+dozen of dark swaying bodies swinging and shuddering in the long grass
+as lions, while the "horses" wove in and out among the crouching forms,
+all done to the beat of rhythm. Past us swept the hunt, and in its turn
+melted into the half light.
+
+The Kavirondos next appeared, the most fantastically caparisoned of the
+lot, fine big black men, their eyes rolling with excitement. They had
+captured our flag from its place before the big tent, and were rallied
+close about this, dancing fantastically. Before us they leaped and
+stamped and shook their spears and shouted out their full-voiced song,
+while the other three tribes danced each its specialty dimly in the
+background.
+
+The dance thus begun lasted for fully two hours. Each tribe took a
+turn before us, only to give way to the next. We had leisure to notice
+minutiae, such as the ingenious tail one of the "lions" had constructed
+from a sweater. As time went on, the men worked themselves to a frenzy.
+From the serried ranks every once in a while one would break forth with
+a shriek to rush headlong into the fire, to beat the earth about him
+with his club, to rush over to shake one of us violently by the hand,
+or even to seize one of our feet between his two palms. Then with equal
+abruptness back he darted to regain his place among the dancers. Wilder
+and wilder became the movements, higher rose the voices. The mock lion
+hunt grew more realistic, and the slaughter on both sides something
+tremendous. Lower and lower crouched the Monumwezi, drawing apart with
+their deep "goom"; drawing suddenly to a common centre with the sharp
+"zoop!" Only the Kikuyus held their lofty bearing as they rolled forth
+their chant, but the mounting excitement showed in their tense muscles
+and the rolling of their eyes. The sweat glistened on naked black and
+bronze bodies. Among the Monumwezi to my astonishment I saw Memba Sasa,
+stripped like the rest, and dancing with all abandon. The firelight
+leaped high among the logs that eager hands cast on it; and the shadows
+it threw from the swirling, leaping figures wavered out into a great,
+calm darkness.
+
+The night guard understood a little of the native languages, so he stood
+behind our chairs and told us in Swahili the meaning of some of the
+repeated phrases.
+
+"This has been a glorious day; few safaris have had so glorious a day."
+
+"The masters looked upon the fierce lions and did not run away."
+
+"Brave men without other weapons will nevertheless kill with a knife."
+
+"The masters' mothers must be brave women, the masters are so brave."
+
+"The white woman went hunting, and so were many lions killed."
+
+The last one pleased Billy. She felt that at last she was appreciated.
+
+We sat there spellbound by the weird savagery of the spectacle-the great
+licking fire, the dancing, barbaric figures, the rise and fall of the
+rhythm, the dust and shuffle, the ebb and flow of the dance, the dim,
+half-guessed groups swaying in the darkness-and overhead the calm tropic
+night.
+
+At last, fairly exhausted, they stopped. Some one gave a signal. The men
+all gathered in one group, uttered a final yell, very like a cheer, and
+dispersed.
+
+We called up the heroes of the day-Fundi and his companion-and made a
+little speech, and bestowed appropriate reward. Then we turned in.
+
+
+
+
+
+XVI. FUNDI
+
+Fundi, as I have suggested, was built very much on the lines of the
+marabout stork. He was about twenty years old, carried himself very
+erect, and looked one straight in the eye. His total assets when he came
+to us were a pair of raggedy white breeches, very baggy, and an old mesh
+undershirt, ditto ditto. To this we added a jersey, a red blanket, and a
+water bottle. At the first opportunity he constructed himself a pair of
+rawhide sandals.
+
+Throughout the first part of the trip he had applied himself to business
+and carried his load. He never made trouble. Then he and his companion
+saw five lions; and the chance Fundi had evidently long been awaiting
+came to his hand. He ran himself almost into coma, exhibited himself
+game, and so fell under our especial and distinguished notice. After
+participating whole-heartedly in the lion dance he and his companion
+were singled out for Our Distinguished Favour, to the extent of five
+rupees per. Thus far Fundi's history reads just like the history of any
+ordinary Captain of Industry.
+
+Next morning, after the interesting ceremony of rewarding the worthy, we
+moved on to a new camp. When the line-up was called for, lo! there stood
+Fundi, without a load, but holding firmly my double-barrelled rifle.
+Evidently he had seized the chance of favour-and the rifle-and intended
+to be no longer a porter but a second gunbearer.
+
+This looked interesting, so we said nothing. Fundi marched the day
+through very proudly. At evening he deposited the rifle in the proper
+place, and set to work with a will at raising the big tent.
+
+The day following he tried it again. It worked. The third day he marched
+deliberately up past the syce to take his place near me. And the fourth
+day, as we were going hunting, Fundi calmly fell in with the rest.
+Nothing had been said, but Fundi had definitely grasped his chance to
+rise from the ranks. In this he differed from his companion in glory.
+That worthy citizen pocketed his five rupees and was never heard from
+again; I do not even remember his name nor how he looked.
+
+I killed a buck of some sort, and Memba Sasa, as usual, stepped forward
+to attend to the trophy. But I stopped him.
+
+"Fundi," said I, "if you are a gunbearer, prepare this beast."
+
+He stepped up confidently and set to work. I watched him closely. He
+did it very well, without awkwardness, though he made one or two minor
+mistakes in method.
+
+"Have you done this before?" I inquired.
+
+"No, bwana."
+
+"How did you learn to do it?"
+
+"I have watched the gunbearers when I was a porter bringing in meat."*
+
+     * 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."
+
+When we had reached camp I handed him the Springfield.
+
+"Clean this," I told him.
+
+He departed with it, returning it after a time for my inspection. It
+looked all right. I catechized him on the method he had employed-for
+high velocities require very especial treatment-and found him letter
+perfect.
+
+"You learned this also by watching?"
+
+"Yes, bwana, I watched the gunbearers by the fire, evenings."
+
+Evidently Fundi had been preparing for his chance.
+
+Next day, as he walked alongside, I noticed that he had not removed the
+leather cap, or sight protector, that covers the end of the rifle and is
+fastened on by a leather thong. Immediately I called a halt.
+
+"Fundi," said I, "do you know that the cover should be in your pocket?
+Suppose a rhinoceros jumps up very near at hand: how can you get time to
+unlace the thong and hand me the rifle?"
+
+He thrust the rifle at me suddenly. In some magical fashion the sight
+cover had disappeared!
+
+"I have thought of this," said he, "and I have tied the thong, so, in
+order that it come away with one pull; and I snatch it off, so, with my
+left hand while I am giving you the gun with my right hand. It seemed
+good to keep the cover on, for there are many branches, and the sight is
+very easy to injure."
+
+Of course this was good sense, and most ingenious; Fundi bade fair to be
+quite a boy, but the native African is very easily spoiled. Therefore,
+although my inclination was strongly to praise him, I did nothing of the
+sort.
+
+"A gunbearer carries the gun away from the branches," was my only
+comment.
+
+Shortly after occurred an incident by way of deeper test. We were all
+riding rather idly along the easy slope below the foothills. The grass
+was short, so we thought we could see easily everything there was to
+be seen; but, as we passed some thirty yards from a small tree, an
+unexpected and unnecessary rhinoceros rose from an equally unexpected
+and unnecessary green hollow beneath the tree, and charged us. He made
+straight for Billy. Her mule, panic-stricken, froze with terror in spite
+of Billy's attack with a parasol. I spurred my own animal between her
+and the charging brute, with some vague idea of slipping off the other
+side as the rhino struck. F. and B. leaped from their own animals, and
+F., with a little.28 calibre rifle, took a hasty shot at the big brute.
+Now, of course a.28 calibre rifle would hardly injure a rhino, but the
+bullet happened to catch his right shoulder just as he was about to come
+down on his right foot. The shock tripped him up as neatly as though he
+had been upset by a rope. At the same instant Billy's mule came to its
+senses and bolted, whereupon I too jumped off. The whole thing took
+about two finger snaps of time. At the instant I hit the ground, Fundi
+passed the double rifle across the horse's back to me.
+
+Note two things to the credit of Fundi: in the first place, he had not
+bolted; in the second place, instead of running up to the left side of
+my mount and perhaps colliding with and certainly confusing me, he had
+come up on the right side and passed the rifle to me ACROSS the horse.
+I do not know whether or not he had figured this out beforehand, but it
+was cleverly done.
+
+The rhinoceros rolled over and over, like a shot rabbit, kicked for a
+moment, and came to his feet. We were now all ready for him, in battle
+array, but he had evidently had enough. He turned at right angles and
+trotted off, apparently-and probably-none the worse for the little
+bullet in his shoulder.
+
+Fundi now began acquiring things that he supposed befitting to his
+dignity. The first of these matters was a faded fez, in which he stuck
+a long feather. From that he progressed in worldly wealth. How he got
+it all, on what credit, or with what hypnotic power, I do not know.
+Probably he hypothecated his wages, certainly he had his five rupees.
+
+At any rate he started out with a ragged undershirt and a pair of white,
+baggy breeches. He entered Nairobi at the end of the trip with a cap,
+a neat khaki shirt, two water bottles, a cartridge belt, a sash with a
+tassel, a pair of spiral puttees, an old pair of shoes, and a personal
+private small boy, picked up en route from some of the savage tribes,
+to carry his cooking pot, make his fires, draw his water,
+and generally perform his lordly behests. This was indeed
+"more-than-oriental-splendour!"
+
+From now on Fundi considered himself my second gunbearer. I had no use
+for him, but Fundi's development interested me, and I wanted to give
+him a chance. His main fault at first was eagerness. He had to be rapped
+pretty sharply and a good number of times before he discovered that
+he really must walk in the rear. His habit of calling my attention to
+perfectly obvious things I cured by liberal sarcasm. His intense desire
+to take his own line as perhaps opposed to mine when we were casting
+about on trail, I abated kindly but firmly with the toe of my boot. His
+evident but mistaken tendency to consider himself on an equality with
+Memba Sasa we both squelched by giving him the hard and dirty work to
+do. But his faults were never those of voluntary omission, and he came
+on surprisingly; in fact so surprisingly that he began to get quite
+cocky over it. Not that he was ever in the least aggressive or
+disrespectful or neglectful-it would have been easy to deal with that
+sort of thing-but he carried his head pretty high, and evidently began
+to have mental reservations. Fundi needed a little wholesome discipline.
+He was forgetting his porter days, and was rapidly coming to consider
+himself a full-fledged gunbearer.
+
+The occasion soon arose. We were returning from a buffalo hunt and ran
+across two rhinoceroses, one of which carried a splendid horn. B.
+wanted a well developed specimen very much, so we took this chance. The
+approach was easy enough, and at seventy yards or so B. knocked her flat
+with a bullet from his.465 Holland. The beast was immediately afoot, but
+was as promptly smothered by shots from us all. So far the affair was
+very simple, but now came complication. The second rhinoceros refused to
+leave. We did not want to kill it, so we spent a lot of time and pains
+shooing it away. We showered rocks and clods of earth in his direction;
+we yelled sharply and whistled shrilly. The brute faced here and there,
+his pig eyes blinking, his snout upraised, trying to locate us, and
+declining to budge. At length he gave us up as hopeless, and trotted
+away slowly. We let him go, and when we thought he had quite departed,
+we approached to examine B.'s trophy.
+
+Whereupon the other craftily returned; and charged us, snorting like
+an engine blowing off steam. This was a genuine premeditated charge,
+as opposed to a blind rush, and it is offered as a good example of the
+sort.
+
+The rhinoceros had come fairly close before we got into action. He
+headed straight for F. and myself, with B. a little to one side. Things
+happened very quickly. F. and I each planted a heavy bullet in his head;
+while B. sent a lighter Winchester bullet into the ribs. The rhino went
+down in a heap eleven yards away, and one of us promptly shot him in the
+spine to finish him.
+
+Personally I was entirely concentrated in the matter at hand-as is
+always the way in crises requiring action-and got very few impressions
+from anything outside. Nevertheless I imagined, subconsciously that I
+had heard four shots. F. and B. disclaimed more than one apiece, so I
+concluded myself mistaken, exchanged my heavy rifle with Fundi for the
+lighter Winchester, and we started for camp, leaving all the boys
+to attend to the dead rhinos. At camp I threw down the lever of my
+Winchester-and drew out an exploded shell!
+
+Here was a double crime on Fundi's part. In the first place, he
+had fired the gun, a thing no bearer is supposed ever to do in any
+circumstances short of the disarmament and actual mauling of his master.
+Naturally this is so, for the white man must be able in an emergency to
+depend ABSOLUTELY on his second gun being loaded and ready for his need.
+In the second place, Fundi had given me an empty rifle to carry home.
+Such a weapon is worse than none in case of trouble; at least I could
+have gone up a tree in the latter case. I would have looked sweet
+snapping that old cartridge at anything dangerous!
+
+Therefore after supper we stationed ourselves in a row before the fire,
+seated in our canvas chairs, and with due formality sent word that we
+wanted all the gunbearers. They came and stood before us. Memba Sasa
+erect, military, compact, looking us straight in the eye; Mavrouki
+slightly bent forward, his face alive with the little crafty,
+calculating smile peculiar to him; Simba, tall and suave, standing with
+much social ease; and Fundi, a trifle frightened, but uncertain as to
+whether or not he had been found out.
+
+We stated the matter in a few words.
+
+"Gunbearers, this man Fundi, when the rhinoceros charged, fired Winchi.
+Was this the work of a gunbearer?"
+
+The three seasoned men looked at each other with shocked astonishment
+that such depravity could exist.
+
+"And being frightened, he gave back Winchi with the exploded cartridge
+in her. Was that the work of a gunbearer?"
+
+"No, bwana," said Fundi humbly.
+
+"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. When one blunders, a
+sarcastic scolding is generally sufficient; a more serious fault may
+be punished on the spot by the white man's fist; or a really bad
+dereliction may cause the man's instant degradation from the post. With
+this in mind we had called the council of gunbearers. Memba Sasa spoke.
+
+"Bwana," said he, "this man is not a true gunbearer. He is no longer
+a true porter. He carries a gun in the field, like a gunbearer; and he
+knows much of the duty of gunbearer. Also he does not run away nor climb
+trees. But he carries in the meat; and he is not a real gunbearer. He is
+half porter and half gunbearer."
+
+"What punishment shall he have?"
+
+"Kiboko," said they.
+
+"Thank you. Bass!"
+
+They went, leaving Fundi. We surveyed him, quietly.
+
+"You a gunbearer!" said we at last. "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!"
+
+So with all ceremony he got the kiboko. The incident did him a lot of
+good, and toned down his exuberance somewhat. Nevertheless he still
+required a good deal of training, just as does a promising bird dog in
+its first season. Generally his faults were of over-eagerness. Indeed,
+once he got me thoroughly angry in face of another rhinoceros by dancing
+just out of reach with the heavy rifle, instead of sticking close to me
+where I could get at him. I temporarily forgot the rhino, and advanced
+on Fundi with the full intention of knocking his fool head off.
+Whereupon this six feet something of most superb and insolent pride
+wilted down to a small boy with his elbow before his face.
+
+"Don't hit, bwana! Don't hit!" he begged.
+
+The whole thing was so comical, especially with Memba Sasa standing
+by virtuous and scornful, that I had hard work to keep from laughing.
+Fortunately the rhinoceros behaved himself.
+
+The proud moment of Fundi's life was when safari entered Nairobi at the
+end of the first expedition. He had gone forth with a load on his head,
+rags on his back, and his only glory was the self-assumed one of the
+name he had taken-Fundi, the Expert. He returned carrying a rifle,
+rigged from top to toe in new garments and fancy accoutrements, followed
+by a toro, or small boy, he had bought from some of the savage tribes to
+carry his blanket and cooking pot for him. To the friends who darted out
+to the line of march, he was gracious, but he held his head high, and
+had no time for mere persiflage.
+
+I did not take Fundi on my second expedition, for I had no real use for
+a second gunbearer. Several times subsequently I saw him on the streets
+of Nairobi. Always he came up to greet me, and ask solicitously if I
+would not give him a job. This I was unable to do. When we paid off, I
+had made an addition to his porter's wages, and had written him a chit.
+This said that the boy had the makings of a gunbearer with further
+training. It would have been unfair to possible white employers to have
+said more. Fundi was, when I left the country, precisely in the position
+of any young man who tries to rise in the world. He would not again take
+a load as porter, and he was not yet skilled enough or known enough to
+pick up more than stray jobs as gunbearer. Before him was struggle and
+hard times, with a certainty of a highly considered profession if he won
+through. Behind him was steady work without outlets for ambition. It
+was distinctly up to him to prove whether he had done well to reach for
+ambition, or whether he would have done better in contentment with his
+old lot. And that is in essence a good deal like our own world isn't it?
+
+
+
+
+
+XVII. NATIVES
+
+Up to this time, save for a few Masai at the very beginning of our trip,
+we had seen no natives at all. Only lately, the night of the lion dance,
+one of the Wanderobo-the forest hunters-had drifted in to tell us of
+buffalo and to get some meat. He was a simple soul, small and capable,
+of a beautiful red-brown, with his hair done up in a tight, short queue.
+He wore three skewers about six inches long thrust through each of his
+ears, three strings of blue beads on his neck, a bracelet tight around
+his upper arm, a bangle around his ankle, a pair of rawhide sandals, and
+about a half yard of cotton cloth which he hung from one shoulder.
+As weapons he carried a round-headed, heavy club, or runga, and a
+long-bladed spear. He led us to buffalo, accepted a thirty-three cent
+blanket, and made fire with two sticks in about thirty seconds. The only
+other evidences of human life we had come across were a few beehives
+suspended in the trees. These were logs, bored hollow and stopped at
+either end. Some of them were very quaintly carved. They hung in the
+trees like strange fruits.
+
+Now, however, after leaving the Isiola, we were to quit the game country
+and for days travel among the swarming millions of the jungle.
+
+A few preliminary and entirely random observations may be permitted me
+by way of clearing the ground for a conception of these people. These
+observations do not pretend to be ethnological, nor even common logical.
+
+The first thing for an American to realize is that our own negro
+population came mainly from the West Coast, and differed utterly from
+these peoples of the highlands in the East. Therefore one must first of
+all get rid of the mental image of our own negro "dressed up" in savage
+garb. Many of these tribes are not negro at all-the Somalis, the Nandi,
+and the Masai, for example-while others belong to the negroid and
+Nilotic races. Their colour is general cast more on the red-bronze than
+the black, though the Kavirondos and some others are black enough. The
+texture of their skin is very satiny and wonderful. This perfection is
+probably due to the constant anointing of the body with oils of various
+sorts. As a usual thing they are a fine lot physically. The southern
+Masai will average between six and seven feet in height, and are almost
+invariably well built. Of most tribes the physical development is
+remarkably strong and graceful; and a great many of the women will
+display a rounded, firm, high-breasted physique in marked contrast to
+the blacks of the lowlands. Of the different tribes possibly the Kikuyus
+are apt to count the most weakly and spindly examples: though some of
+these people, perhaps a majority, are well made.
+
+Furthermore, the native differentiates himself still further in
+impression from our negro in his carriage and the mental attitude that
+lies behind it. Our people are trying to pattern themselves on white
+men, and succeed in giving a more or less shambling imitation thereof.
+The native has standards, ideas, and ideals that perfectly satisfy him,
+and that antedated the white man's coming by thousands of years. The
+consciousness of this reflects itself in his outward bearing. He does
+not shuffle; he is not either obsequious or impudent. Even when he
+acknowledges the white man's divinity and pays it appropriate respect,
+he does not lose the poise of his own well-worked-out attitude toward
+life and toward himself.
+
+We are fond of calling these people primitive. In the world's standard
+of measurement they are primitive, very primitive indeed. But ordinarily
+by that term, we mean also undeveloped, embryonic. In that sense we are
+wrong. Instead of being at the very dawn of human development, these
+people are at the end-as far as they themselves are concerned. The
+original racial impulse that started them down the years toward
+development has fulfilled its duty and spent its force. They have worked
+out all their problems, established all their customs, arranged the
+world and its phenomena in a philosophy to their complete satisfaction.
+They have lived, ethnologists tell us, for thousands, perhaps hundreds
+of thousands of years, just as we find them to-day. From our standpoint
+that is in a hopeless intellectual darkness, for they know absolutely
+nothing of the most elementary subjects of knowledge. From their
+standpoint, however, they have reached the highest DESIRABLE pinnacle
+of human development. Nothing remains to be changed. Their customs,
+religions, and duties have been worked out and immutably established
+long ago; and nobody dreams of questioning either their wisdom or their
+imperative necessity. They are the conservatives of the world.
+
+Nor must we conclude-looking at them with the eyes of our own
+civilization-that the savage is, from his standpoint, lazy and idle.
+His life is laid out more rigidly than ours will be for a great many
+thousands of years. From childhood to old age he performs his every act
+in accord with prohibitions and requirements. He must remember them all;
+for ignorance does not divert consequences. He must observe them all; in
+pain of terrible punishments. For example, never may he cultivate on
+the site of a grave; and the plants that spring up from it must never
+be cut.* He must make certain complicated offerings before venturing to
+harvest a crop. On crossing the first stream of a journey he must touch
+his lips with the end of his wetted bow, wade across, drop a stone on
+the far side, and then drink. If he cuts his nails, he must throw the
+parings into a thicket. If he drink from a stream, and also cross it,
+he must eject a mouthful of water back into the stream. He must be
+particularly careful not to look his mother-in-law in the face. Hundreds
+of omens by the manner of their happening may modify actions, as, on
+what side of the road a woodpecker calls, or in which direction a hyena
+or jackal crosses the path, how the ground hornbill flies or alights,
+and the like. He must notice these things, and change his plans
+according to their occurrence. If he does not notice them, they exercise
+their influence just the same. This does not encourage a distrait
+mental attitude. Also it goes far to explain otherwise unexplainable
+visitations. Truly, as Hobley says in his unexcelled work on the
+A-Kamba, "the life of a savage native is a complex matter, and he is
+hedged round by all sorts of rules and prohibitions, the infringement
+of which will probably cause his death, if only by the intense belief he
+has in the rules which guide his life."
+
+     * Customs are not universal among the different tribes. I am
+     merely illustrating.
+
+For these rules and customs he never attempts to give a reason. They
+are; and that is all there is to it. A mere statement: "This is the
+custom" settles the matter finally. There is no necessity, nor passing
+thought even, of finding any logical cause. The matter was worked out
+in the mental evolution of remote ancestors. At that time, perhaps,
+insurgent and Standpatter, Conservative and Radical fought out the
+questions of the day, and the Muckrakers swung by their tails and
+chattered about it. Those days are all long since over. The questions
+of the world are settled forever. The people have passed through the
+struggles of their formative period to the ultimate highest perfection
+of adjustment to material and spiritual environment of which they were
+capable under the influence of their original racial force.
+
+Parenthetically, it is now a question whether or not an added impulse
+can be communicated from without. Such an impulse must (a) unsettle all
+the old beliefs, (b) inspire an era of skepticism, (c) reintroduce the
+old struggle of ideas between the Insurgent and the Standpatter, and
+Radical and the Conservative, (d) in the meantime furnish, from the
+older civilization, materials, both in the thought-world and in the
+object-world, for building slowly a new set of customs more closely
+approximating those we are building for ourselves. This is a longer
+and slower and more complicated affair than teaching the native to wear
+clothes and sing hymns; or to build houses and drink gin; but it is what
+must be accomplished step by step before the African peoples are really
+civilized. I, personally, do not think it can be done.
+
+Now having, a hundred thousand years or so ago, worked out the highest
+good of the human race, according to them, what must they say to
+themselves and what must their attitude be when the white man has come
+and has unrolled his carpet of wonderful tricks? The dilemma is evident.
+Either we, as black men, must admit that our hundred-thousand-year-old
+ideas as to what constitutes the highest type of human relation to
+environment is all wrong, or else we must evolve a new attitude toward
+this new phenomena. It is human nature to do the latter. Therefore the
+native has not abandoned his old gods; nor has he adopted a new. He
+still believes firmly that his way is the best way of doing things, but
+he acknowledges the Superman.
+
+To the Superman, with all races, anything is possible. Only our Superman
+is an idea, and ideal. The native has his Superman before him in the
+actual flesh.
+
+We will suppose that our own Superman has appeared among us,
+accomplishing things that apparently contravene all our established
+tenets of skill, of intellect, of possibility. It will be readily
+acknowledged that such an individual would at first create some
+astonishment. He wanders into a crowded hotel lobby, let us say,
+evidently with the desire of going to the bar. Instead of pushing
+laboriously through the crowd, he floats just above their heads, gets
+his drink, and floats out again! That is levitation, and is probably
+just as simple to him as striking a match is to you and me. After we
+get thoroughly accustomed to him and his life, we are no longer vastly
+astonished, though always interested, at the various manifestations
+of his extraordinary powers. We go right along using the marvellous
+wireless, aeroplanes, motor cars, constructive machinery, and the
+like that make us confident-justly, of course-in that we are about the
+smartest lot of people on earth. And if we see red, white, and blue
+streamers of light crossing the zenith at noon, we do not manifest any
+very profound amazement. "There's that confounded Superman again," we
+mutter, if we happen to be busy. "I wonder what stunt he's going to do
+now!"
+
+A consideration of the above beautiful fable may go a little way toward
+explaining the supposed native stolidity in the face of the white man's
+wonders. A few years ago some misguided person brought a balloon to
+Nairobi. The balloon interested the white people a lot, but everybody
+was chiefly occupied wondering what the natives would do when they saw
+THAT! The natives did not do anything. They gathered in large numbers,
+and most interestedly watched it go up, and then went home again. But
+they were not stricken with wonder to any great extent. So also with
+locomotives, motor cars, telephones, phonographs-any of our modern
+ingenuities. The native is pleased and entertained, but not astonished.
+"Stupid creature, no imagination," say we, because our pride in showing
+off is a wee bit hurt.
+
+Why should he be astonished? His mental revolution took place when he
+saw the first match struck. It is manifestly impossible for any one to
+make fire instantaneously by rubbing one small stick. When for the first
+time he saw it done, he was indeed vastly astounded. The immutable had
+been changed. The law had been transcended. The impossible had been
+accomplished. And then, as logical sequence, his mind completed the
+syllogism. If the white man can do this impossibility, why not all the
+rest? To defy the laws of nature by flying in the air or forcing great
+masses of iron to transport one, is no more wonderful than to defy
+them by striking a light. Since the white man can provedly do one, what
+earthly reason exists why he should not do anything else that hits his
+fancy? There is nothing to get astonished at.
+
+This does not necessarily mean that the native looks on the white man
+as a god. On the contrary, your African is very shrewd in the reading of
+character. But indubitably white men possess great magic, uncertain in
+its extent.
+
+That is as far as I should care to go, without much deeper acquaintance,
+into the attitude of the native mind toward the whites. A superficial
+study of it, beyond the general principals I have enunciated, discloses
+many strange contradictions. The native respects the white man's warlike
+skill, he respects his physical prowess, he certainly acknowledges
+tacitly his moral superiority in the right to command. In case of
+dispute he likes the white man's adjudication; in case of illness the
+man's medicine; in case of trouble the white man's sustaining hand. Yet
+he almost never attempts to copy the white man's appearance or ways of
+doing things. His own savage customs and habits he fulfils with as much
+pride as ever in their eternal fitness. Once I was badgering Memba Sasa,
+asking him whether he thought the white skin or the black skin the more
+ornamental. "You are not white," he retorted at last. "That," pointing
+to a leaf of my notebook, "is white. You are red. I do not like the
+looks of red people."
+
+They call our speech the "snake language," because of its hissing sound.
+Once this is brought to your attention, indeed, you cannot help noticing
+the superabundance of the sibilants.
+
+A queer melange the pigeonholes of an African's brain must contain-fear
+and respect, strongly mingled with clear estimate of intrinsic character
+of individuals and a satisfaction with his own standards.
+
+Nor, I think, do we realize sufficiently the actual fundamental
+differences between the African and our peoples. Physically they must
+be in many ways as different from our selves as though they actually
+belonged to a different species. The Masai are a fine big race,
+enduring, well developed and efficient. They live exclusively on cow's
+milk mixed with blood; no meat, no fruit, no vegetables, no grain;
+just that and nothing more. Obviously they must differ from us most
+radically, or else all our dietetic theories are wrong. It is a
+well-known fact that any native requires a triple dose of white man's
+medicine. Furthermore a native's sensitiveness to pain is very much
+less than the white man's. This is indubitable. For example, the Wakamba
+file-or, rather, chip, by means of a small chisel-all their front
+teeth down to needle points, When these happen to fall out, the warrior
+substitutes an artificial tooth which he drives down into the socket.
+If the savage got the same effects from such a performance that a white
+man's dental system would arouse, even "savage stoicism" would hardly
+do him much good. There is nothing to be gained by multiplying examples.
+Every African traveller can recall a thousand.
+
+Incidentally, and by the way, I want to add to the milk-and-blood joke
+on dietetics another on the physical culturists. We are all familiar
+with the wails over the loss of our toe nails. You know what I mean;
+they run somewhat like this: shoes are the curse of civilization; if
+we wear them much longer we shall not only lose the intended use of our
+feet, but we shall lose our toe nails as well; the savage man, etc.,
+etc., etc. Now I saw a great many of said savage men in Africa, and I
+got much interested in their toe nails, because I soon found that our
+own civilized "imprisoned" toe nails were very much better developed. In
+fact, a large number of the free and untramelled savages have hardly any
+toe nails at all! Whether this upsets a theory, nullifies a sentimental
+protest, or merely stands as an exception, I should not dare guess. But
+the fact is indubitable.
+
+
+
+
+
+XVIII. IN THE JUNGLE (a) THE MARCH TO MERU
+
+Now, one day we left the Isiola River and cut across on a long upward
+slant to the left. In a very short time we had left the plains, and were
+adrift in an ocean of brown grass that concealed all but the bobbing
+loads atop the safari, and over which we could only see when mounted. It
+was glorious feed, apparently, but it contained very few animals for all
+that. An animal could without doubt wax fat and sleek therein: but only
+to furnish light and salutary meals to beasts of prey. Long grass makes
+easy stalking. We saw a few ostriches, some giraffe, and three or
+four singly adventurous oryx. The ripening grasses were softer than a
+rippling field grain; and even more beautiful in their umber and browns.
+Although apparently we travelled a level, nevertheless in the extreme
+distance the plains of our hunting were dropping below, and the far off
+mountains were slowly rising above the horizon. On the other side were
+two very green hills, looking nearly straight up and down, and through a
+cleft the splintered snow-clad summit of Mt. Kenia.
+
+At length this gentle foothill slope broke over into rougher country.
+Then, in the pass, we came upon many parallel beaten paths, wider and
+straighter than the game trails-native tracks. That night we camped in
+a small, round valley under some glorious trees, with green grass around
+us; a refreshing contrast after the desert brown. In the distance ahead
+stood a big hill, and at its base we could make out amid the tree-green,
+the straight slim smoke of many fires and the threads of many roads.
+
+We began our next morning's march early, and we dropped over the hill
+into a wide, cultivated valley. Fields of grain, mostly rape, were
+planted irregularly among big scattered trees. The morning air, warming
+under the sun, was as yet still, and carried sound well. The cooing,
+chattering and calling of thousands of birds mingled with shouts and the
+clapping together of pieces of wood. As we came closer we saw that every
+so often scaffolds had been erected overlooking the grain, and on these
+scaffolds naked boys danced and yelled and worked clappers to scare the
+birds from the crops. They seemed to put a great deal of rigour into the
+job; whether from natural enthusiasm or efficient direful supervision I
+could not say. Certainly they must have worked in watches, however; no
+human being could keep up that row continuously for a single day, let
+alone the whole season of ripening grain. As we passed they fell silent
+and stared their fill.
+
+On the banks of a boggy little stream that we had to flounder across we
+came on a gentleman and lady travelling. They were a tall, well formed
+pair, mahogany in colour, with the open, pleasant expression of most of
+these jungle peoples. The man wore a string around his waist into which
+was thrust a small leafy branch; the woman had on a beautiful skirt made
+by halving a banana leaf, using the stem as belt, and letting the leaf
+part hang down as a skirt. Shortly after meeting these people we turned
+sharp to the right on a well beaten road.
+
+For nearly two weeks we were to follow this road, so it may be as well
+to get an idea of it. Its course was a segment of about a sixth of the
+circle of Kenia's foothills. With Kenia itself as a centre, this road
+swung among the lower elevations about the base of that great mountain.
+Its course was mainly down and up hundreds of the canyons radiating from
+the main peak, and over the ridges between them. No sooner were we down,
+than we had to climb up; and no sooner were we up, than once more down
+we had to plunge. At times, however, we crossed considerable plateaus.
+Most of this country was dense jungle, so dense that we could not see
+on either side more than fifteen or twenty feet. Occasionally, atop the
+ridges, however, we would come upon small open parks. In these jungles
+live millions of human beings.
+
+At once, as soon as we had turned into the main road, we began to meet
+people. In the grain fields of the valley we saw only the elevated boys,
+and a few men engaged in weaving a little house perched on stilts. We
+came across some of these little houses all completed, with conical
+roofs. They were evidently used for granaries. As we mounted the slope
+on the other side, however, the trees closed in, and we found ourselves
+marching down the narrow aisle of the jungle itself.
+
+It was a dense and beautiful jungle, with very tall trees and the
+deepest shade; and the impenetrable tangle to the edge of the track.
+Among the trees were the broad leaves of bananas and palms, the fling
+of leafy vines. Over the track these leaned, so that we rode through
+splashing and mottling shade. Nothing could have seemed wilder than
+this apparently impenetrable and yet we had ridden but a short distance
+before we realized that we were in fact passing through cultivated land.
+It was, again, only a difference in terms. Native cultivation in this
+district rarely consists of clearing land and planting crops in due
+order, but in leaving the forest proper as it is, and in planting
+foodstuffs haphazard wherever a tiny space can be made for even three
+hills of corn or a single banana. Thus they add to rather than subtract
+from the typical density of the jungle. At first, we found, it took some
+practice to tell a farm when we saw it.
+
+From the track narrow little paths wound immediately out of sight.
+Sometimes we saw a wisp of smoke rising above the undergrowth and
+eddying in the tops of the trees. Long vine ropes swung from point to
+point, hung at intervals with such matters as feathers, bones, miniature
+shields, carved sticks, shells and clappers: either as magic or to keep
+off the birds. From either side the track we were conscious always of
+bright black eyes watching us. Sometimes we caught a glimpse of their
+owners crouched in the bush, concealed behind banana leaves, motionless
+and straight against a tree trunk. When they saw themselves observed
+they vanished without a sound.
+
+The upper air was musical with birds, and bright with the flutter of
+their wings. Rarely did we see them long enough to catch a fair idea of
+their size and shape. They flashed from shade to shade, leaving only
+an impression of brilliant colour. There were some exceptions: as the
+widower-bird, dressed all in black, with long trailing wing-plumes of
+which he seemed very proud; and the various sorts of green pigeons and
+parrots. There were many flowering shrubs and trees, and the air was
+laden with perfume. Strange, too, it seemed to see tall trees with
+leaves three or four feet long and half as many wide.
+
+We were riding a mile or so ahead of the safari. At first we were
+accompanied only by our gunbearers and syces. Before long, however, we
+began to accumulate a following.
+
+This consisted at first of a very wonderful young man, probably a
+chief's son. He carried a long bright spear, wore a short sword thrust
+through a girdle, had his hair done in three wrapped queues, one over
+each temple and one behind, and was generally brought to a high state
+of polish by means of red earth and oil. About his knee he wore a little
+bell that jingled pleasingly at every step. From one shoulder hung a
+goat-skin cloak embroidered with steel beads. A small package neatly
+done up in leaves probably contained his lunch. He teetered along with a
+mincing up and down step, every movement, and the expression of his face
+displaying a fatuous self-satisfaction. When we looked back again this
+youth had magically become two. Then appeared two women and a white
+goat. All except the goat were dressed for visiting, with long chains of
+beads, bracelets and anklets, and heavy ornaments in the distended ear
+lobes. The manner people sprang apparently out of the ground was very
+disconcerting. It was a good deal like those fairy-story moving pictures
+where a wave of the wand produces beautiful ladies. By half an hour
+we had acquired a long retinue-young warriors, old men, women and
+innumerable children. After we had passed, the new recruits stepped
+quietly from the shadow of the jungle and fell in. Every one with
+nothing much to do evidently made up his mind he might as well go to
+Meru now as any other time.
+
+Also we met a great number of people going in the other direction. Women
+were bearing loads of yams. Chiefs' sons minced along, their spears
+poised in their left hands at just the proper angle, their bangles
+jingling, their right hands carried raised in a most affected manner.
+Their social ease was remarkable, especially in contrast with the
+awkwardness of the lower poverty-stricken or menial castes. The latter
+drew one side to let us pass, and stared. Our chiefs' sons, on the other
+hand, stepped springingly and beamingly forward; spat carefully in their
+hands (we did the same); shook hands all down the line: exchanged
+a long-drawn "moo-o-ga!" with each of us; and departed at the same
+springing rapid gait. The ordinary warriors greeted us, but did not
+offer to shake hands, thank goodness! There were a great many of them.
+Across the valleys and through the open spaces the sun, as it struck
+down the trail, was always flashing back from distant spears. Twice we
+met flocks of sheep being moved from one point to another. Three or four
+herdsmen and innumerable small boys seemed to be in charge. Occasionally
+we met a real chief or headman of a village, distinguished by the
+fact that he or a servant carried a small wooden stool. With these
+dignitaries we always stopped to exchange friendly words.
+
+These comprised the travelling public. The resident public also showed
+itself quite in evidence. Once our retainers had become sufficiently
+numerous to inspire confidence, the jungle people no longer hid. On
+the contrary, they came out to the very edge of the track to exchange
+greetings. They were very good-natured, exceedingly well-formed, and
+quite jocular with our boys. Especially did our suave and elegant Simba
+sparkle. This resident public, called from its daily labours and duties,
+did not always show as gaudy a make-up as did the dressed-up travelling
+public. Banana leaves were popular wear, and seemed to us at once pretty
+and fresh. To be sure some had rather withered away; but even wool will
+shrink. We saw some grass skirts, like the Sunday-school pictures.
+
+At noon we stopped under a tree by a little stream for lunch. Before
+long a dozen women were lined up in front of us staring at Billy with
+all their might. She nodded and smiled at them. Thereupon they sent
+one of their number away. The messenger returned after a few moments
+carrying a bunch of the small eating bananas which she laid at our feet.
+Billy fished some beads out of her saddle bags, and presented them.
+Friendly relations having been thus fully established, two or three of
+the women scurried hastily away, to return a few moments later each with
+her small child. To these infants they carefully and earnestly pointed
+out Billy and her wonders, talking in a tongue unknown to us. The
+admonition undoubtedly ran something like this:
+
+"Now, my child, look well at this: for when you get to be a very old
+person you will be able to look back at the day when with your own
+eyes you beheld a white woman. See all the strange things she wears-and
+HASN'T she a funny face?"
+
+We offered these bung-eyed and totally naked youngsters various bribes
+in the way of beads, the tinfoil from chocolate, and even a small piece
+of the chocolate itself. Most of them howled and hid their faces against
+their mothers. The mothers looked scandalized, and hypocritically
+astounded, and mortified.
+
+They made remarks, still in an unknown language, but which much past
+experience enabled me to translate very readily:
+
+"I don't know what has got into little Willie," was the drift of it. "I
+have never known him to act this way before. Why, only yesterday I was
+saying to his father that it really seemed as though that child NEVER
+cried-"
+
+It made me feel quite friendly and at home.
+
+Now at last came two marvellous and magnificent personages before
+whom the women and children drew back to a respectful distance. These
+potentates squatted down and smiled at us engagingly. Evidently this was
+a really important couple, so we called up Simba, who knew the language,
+and had a talk.
+
+They were old men, straight, and very tall, with the hawk-faced,
+high-headed dignity of the true aristocrat. Their robes were voluminous,
+of some short-haired skins, beautifully embroidered. Around their arms
+were armlets of polished buffalo horn. They wore most elaborate ear
+ornaments, and long cased marquise rings extending well beyond the first
+joints of the fingers. Very fine old gentlemen. They were quite unarmed.
+
+After appropriate greetings, we learned that these were the chief
+and his prime minister of a nearby village hidden in the jungle. We
+exchanged polite phrases; then offered tobacco. This was accepted.
+From the jungle came a youth carrying more bananas. We indicated our
+pleasure. The old men arose with great dignity and departed, sweeping
+the women and children before them.
+
+We rode on. Our acquired retinue, which had waited at a respectful
+distance, went on too. I suppose they must have desired the prestige
+of being attached to Our Persons. In the depths of the forest Billy
+succumbed to the temptation to bargain, and made her first trade. Her
+prize was a long water gourd strapped with leather and decorated with
+cowry shells. Our boys were completely scandalized at the price she paid
+for it, so I fear the wily savage got ahead of her.
+
+About the middle of the afternoon we sat down to wait for the safari to
+catch up. It would never do to cheat our boys out of their anticipated
+grand entrance to the Government post at Meru. We finally debouched
+from the forest to the great clearing at the head of a most impressive
+procession, flags flying, oryx horns blowing, boys chanting and beating
+the sides of their loads with the safari sticks. As there happened to be
+gathered, at this time, several thousand of warriors for the purpose
+of a council, or shauri, with the District Commissioner we had just the
+audience to delight our barbaric hearts.
+
+(b) MERU
+
+The Government post at Meru is situated in a clearing won from the
+forest on the first gentle slopes of Kenia's ranges. The clearing is a
+very large one, and on it the grass grows green and short, like a lawn.
+It resembles, as much as anything else, the rolling, beautiful downs
+of a first-class country club, and the illusion is enhanced by the
+Commissioner's house among some trees atop a hill. Well-kept roadways
+railed with rustic fences lead from the house to the native quarters
+lying in the hollow and to the Government offices atop another hill.
+Then also there are the quarters of the Nubian troops; round low houses
+with conical grass roofs.
+
+These, and the presence everywhere of savages, rather take away from
+the first country-club effect. A corral seemed full of a seething mob of
+natives; we found later that this was the market, a place of exchange.
+Groups wandered idly here and there across the greensward; and other
+groups sat in circles under the shade of trees, each man's spear stuck
+in the ground behind him. At stated points were the Nubians, fine, tall,
+black, soldierly men, with red fez, khaki shirt, and short breeches,
+bare knees and feet, spiral puttees, and a broad red sash of webbing.
+One of these soldiers assigned us a place to camp. We directed our
+safari there, and then immediately rode over to pay our respects to the
+Commissioner.
+
+The latter, Horne by name, greeted us with the utmost cordiality, and
+offered us cool drinks. Then we accompanied him to a grand shauri or
+council of chiefs.
+
+Horne was a little chap, dressed in flannels and a big slouch hat,
+carrying only a light rawhide whip, with very little of the dignity and
+"side" usually considered necessary in dealing with wild natives. The
+post at Meru had been established only two years, among a people that
+had always been very difficult, and had only recently ceased open
+hostilities. Nevertheless in that length of time Horne's personal
+influence had won them over to positive friendliness. He had, moreover,
+done the entire construction work of the post itself; and this we now
+saw to be even more elaborate than we had at first realized. Irrigating
+ditches ran in all directions brimming with clear mountain water; the
+roads and paths were rounded, graded and gravelled; the houses were
+substantial, well built and well kept; fences, except of course the
+rustic, were whitewashed; the native quarters and "barracks" were well
+ranged and in perfect order. The place looked ten years old instead of
+only two.
+
+We followed Horne to an enclosure, outside the gate of which were
+stacked a great number of spears. Inside we found the owners of those
+spears squatted before the open side of a small, three-walled building
+containing a table and a chair. Horne placed himself in the chair,
+lounged back, and hit the table smartly with his rawhide whip. From the
+centre of the throng an old man got up and made quite a long speech.
+When he had finished another did likewise. All was carried out with the
+greatest decorum. After four or five had thus spoken, Horne, without
+altering his lounging attitude, spoke twenty or thirty words, rapped
+again on the table with his rawhide whip, and immediately came over to
+us.
+
+"Now," said he cheerfully, "we'll have a game of golf."
+
+That was amusing, but not astonishing. Most of us have at one time or
+another laid out a scratch hole or so somewhere in the vacant lot. We
+returned to the house, Horne produced a sufficiency of clubs, and we
+sallied forth. Then came the surprise of our life! We played eighteen
+holes-eighteen, mind you-over an excellently laid-out and kept-up
+course! The fair greens were cropped short and smooth by a well-managed
+small herd of sheep; the putting greens were rolled, and in perfect
+order; bunkers had been located at the correct distances; there
+were water hazards in the proper spots. In short, it was a genuine,
+scientific, well-kept golf course. Over it played Horne, solitary except
+on the rare occasions when he and his assistant happened to be at the
+post at the same time. The nearest white man was six days' journey;
+the nearest small civilization 196 miles.* The whole affair was most
+astounding.
+
+     * Which was, in turn, over three hundred miles from the
+     next.
+
+Our caddies were grinning youngsters a good deal like the Gold
+Dust Twins. They wore nothing but our golf bags. Afield were other
+supernumerary caddies: one in case we sliced, one in case we pulled,
+and one in case we drove straight ahead. Horne explained that unlimited
+caddies were easier to get than unlimited golf balls. I can well believe
+it.
+
+F. joined forces with Horne against B. and me for a grand international
+match. I regret to state that America was defeated by two holes.
+
+We returned to find our camp crowded with savages. In a short time we
+had established trade relations and were doing a brisk business. Two
+years before we should have had to barter exclusively; but now, thanks
+to Horne's attempt to collect an annual hut tax, money was some good. We
+had, however, very good luck with bright blankets and cotton cloth.
+Our beads did not happen here to be in fashion. Probably three months
+earlier or later we might have done better with them. The feminine mind
+here differs in no basic essential from that of civilization. Fashions
+change as rapidly, as often and as completely in the jungle as in Paris.
+The trader who brings blue beads when blue beads have "gone out" might
+just as well have stayed at home. We bought a number of the pretty
+"marquise" rings for four cents apiece (our money), some war clubs or
+rungas for the same, several spears, armlets, stools and the like. Billy
+thought one of the short, soft skin cloaks embroidered with steel beads
+might be nice to hang on the wall. We offered a youth two rupees for
+one. This must have been a high price, for every man in hearing of the
+words snatched off his cloak and rushed forward holding it out. As that
+reduced his costume to a few knick-knacks, Billy retired from the busy
+mart until we could arrange matters.
+
+We dined with Horne. His official residence was most interesting. The
+main room was very high to beams and a grass-thatched roof, with a
+well-brushed earth floor covered with mats. It contained comfortable
+furniture, a small library, a good phonograph, tables, lamps and the
+like. When the mountain chill descended, Horne lit a fire in a coal-oil
+can with a perforated bottom. What little smoke was produced by the
+clean burning wood lost itself far aloft. Leopard skins and other
+trophies hung on the wall. We dined in another room at a well-appointed
+table. After dinner we sat up until the unheard of hour of ten o'clock
+discussing at length many matters that interested us. Horne told us of
+his personal bodyguard consisting of one son from each chief of his wide
+district. These youths were encouraged to make as good an appearance
+as possible, and as a consequence turned out in the extreme of savage
+gorgeousness. Horne spoke of them carelessly as a "matter of policy in
+keeping the different tribes well disposed," but I thought he was at
+heart a little proud of them. Certainly, later and from other sources,
+we heard great tales of their endurance, devotion and efficiency. Also
+we heard that Horne had cut in half his six months' leave (earned
+by three years' continuous service in the jungle) to hurry back from
+England because he could not bear the thought of being absent from the
+first collection of the hut tax! He is a good man.
+
+We said good-night to him and stepped from the lighted house into
+the vast tropical night. The little rays of our lantern showed us the
+inequalities of the ground, and where to step across the bubbling,
+little irrigation streams. But thousands of stars insisted on a
+simplification. The broad, rolling meadows of the clearing lay half
+guessed in the dim light; and about its edge was the velvet band of
+the forest, dark and mysterious, stretching away for leagues into the
+jungle. From it near at hand, far away, came the rhythmic beating of
+solemn great drums, and the rising and falling chants of the savage
+peoples.
+
+(C) THE CHIEFS
+
+We left Meru well observed by a very large audience, much to the delight
+of our safari boys, who love to show off. We had acquired fourteen more
+small boys, or totos, ranging in age from eight to twelve years. These
+had been fitted out by their masters to alleviate their original shenzi
+appearance of savagery. Some had ragged blankets, which they had already
+learned to twist turban wise around their heads; others had ragged
+old jerseys reaching to their knees, or the wrecks of full-grown
+undershirts; one or two even sported baggy breeches a dozen sizes too
+large. Each carried his little load, proudly, atop his head like a real
+porter, sufurias or cooking pots, the small bags of potio, and the like.
+Inside a mile they had gravitated together and with the small boy's
+relish for imitation and for playing a game, had completed a miniature
+safari organization of their own. Thenceforth they marched in a compact
+little company, under orders of their "headman." They marched very well,
+too, straight and proud and tireless. Of course we inspected their loads
+to see that they were not required to carry too much for their strength;
+but, I am bound to say, we never discovered an attempt at overloading.
+In fact, the toto brigade was treated very well indeed. M'ganga
+especially took great interest in their education and welfare. One of
+my most vivid camp recollections is that of M'ganga, very benign and
+didactic, seated on a chop box and holding forth to a semicircle of
+totos squatted on the ground before him. On reaching camp totos had
+several clearly defined duties: they must pick out good places for their
+masters' individual camps, they must procure cooking stones, they must
+collect kindling wood and start fires, they must fill the sufurias with
+water and set them over to boil. In the meantime, their masters were
+attending to the pitching of the bwana's camp. The rest of the time the
+toto played about quite happily, and did light odd jobs, or watched most
+attentively while his master showed him small details of a safari-boy's
+duty, or taught him simple handicraft. Our boys seemed to take great
+pains with their totos and to try hard to teach them.
+
+Also at Meru we had acquired two cocks and four hens of the ridiculously
+small native breed. These rode atop the loads: their feet were tied to
+the cords and there they swayed and teetered and balanced all day long,
+apparently quite happy and interested. At each new camp site they were
+released and went scratching and clucking around among the tents. They
+lent our temporary quarters quite a settled air of domesticity. We named
+the cocks Gaston and Alphonse and somehow it was rather fine, in
+the blackness before dawn, to hear these little birds crowing
+stout-heartedly against the great African wilderness. Neither Gaston,
+Alphonse nor any of their harem were killed and eaten by their owners;
+but seemed rather to fulfil the function of household pets.
+
+Along the jungle track we met swarms of people coming in to the post.
+One large native safari composed exclusively of women were transporting
+loads of trade goods for the Indian trader. They carried their burdens
+on their backs by means of a strap passing over the top of the head; our
+own "tump line" method. The labour seemed in no way to have dashed their
+spirits, for they grinned at us, and joked merrily with our boys. Along
+the way, every once in a while, we came upon people squatted down behind
+small stocks of sugarcane, yams, bananas, and the like. With these our
+boys did a brisk trade. Little paths led mysteriously into the jungle.
+Down them came more savages to greet us. Everybody was most friendly and
+cheerful, thanks to Horne's personal influence. Two years before this
+same lot had been hostile. From every hidden village came the headmen
+or chiefs. They all wanted to shake hands-the ordinary citizen never
+dreamed of aspiring to that honour-and they all spat carefully into
+their palms before they did so. This all had to be done in passing; for
+ordinary village headmen it was beneath Our Dignity to draw rein. Once
+only we broke over this rule. That was in the case of an old fellow with
+white hair who managed to get so tangled up in the shrubbery that he
+could not get to us. He was so frantic with disappointment that we made
+an exception and waited.
+
+About three miles out, we lost one of our newly acquired totos. Reason:
+an exasperated parent who had followed from Meru for the purpose of
+reclaiming his runaway offspring. The latter was dragged off howling.
+Evidently he, like some of his civilized cousins, had "run away to join
+the circus." As nearly as we could get at it, the rest of the totos, as
+well as the nine additional we picked up before we quitted the jungle,
+had all come with their parents' consent. In fact, we soon discovered
+that we could buy any amount of good sound totos, not house broke
+however, for an average of half a rupee (16-1/2 cents) apiece.
+
+The road was very much up and down hill over the numerous ridges that
+star-fish out from Mt. Kenia. We would climb down steep trails from 200
+to 800 feet (measured by aneroid), cross an excellent mountain stream of
+crystalline dashing water, and climb out again. The trails of course had
+no notion of easy grades. It was very hard work, especially for men with
+loads; and it would have been impossible on account of the heat were
+it not for the numerous streams. On the slopes and in the bottoms
+were patches of magnificent forest; on the crests was the jungle, and
+occasionally an outlook over extended views. The birds and the strange
+tropical big-leaved trees were a constant delight-exotic and strange.
+Billy was in a heaven of joy, for her specialty in Africa was plants,
+seeds and bulbs, for her California garden. She had syces, gunbearers
+and tent boys all climbing, shaking branches, and generally pawing
+about.
+
+This idiosyncracy of Billy's puzzled our boys hugely. At first they
+tried telling her that everything was poisonous; but when that did not
+work, they resigned themselves to their fate. In fact, some of the most
+enterprising like Memba Sasa, Kitaru, and, later, Kongoni used of their
+own accord to hunt up and bring in seeds and blossoms. They did not in
+the least understand what it was for; and it used to puzzle them
+hugely until out of sheer pity for their uneasiness, I implied that the
+Memsahib collected "medicine." That was rational, so the wrinkled brow
+of care was smoothed. From this botanical trait, Billy got her native
+name of "Beebee Kooletta"-"The Lady Who Says: Go Get That." For in
+Africa every white man has a name by which he is known among the native
+people. If you would get news of your friends, you must know their local
+cognomens-their own white man names will not do at all. For example,
+I was called either Bwana Machumwani or Bwana N'goma. The former means
+merely Master Four-eyes, referring to my glasses. The precise meaning of
+the latter is a matter much disputed between myself and Billy. An N'goma
+is a native dance, consisting of drum poundings, chantings, and hoppings
+around. Therefore I translate myself (most appropriately) as the
+Master who Makes Merry. On the other hand, Billy, with true feminine
+indirectness, insists that it means "The Master who Shouts and Howls." I
+leave it to any fairminded reader.
+
+About the middle of the morning we met a Government runner, a proud
+youth, young, lithe, with many ornaments and bangles; his red skin
+glistening; the long blade of his spear, bound around with a red strip
+to signify his office, slanting across his shoulder; his buffalo hide
+shield slung from it over his back; the letter he was bearing stuck in
+a cleft stick and carried proudly before him as a priest carries a cross
+to the heathen-in the pictures. He was swinging along at a brisk pace,
+but on seeing us drew up and gave us a smart military salute.
+
+At one point where the path went level and straight for some distance,
+we were riding in an absolute solitude. Suddenly from the jungle on
+either side and about fifty yards ahead of us leaped a dozen women. They
+were dressed in grass skirts, and carried long narrow wooden shields
+painted white and brown. These they clashed together, shrieked shrilly,
+and charged down on us at full speed. When within a few yards of
+our horses noses they came to a sudden halt, once more clashed their
+shields, shrieked, turned and scuttled away as fast as their legs
+could carry them. At a hundred yards they repeated the performance; and
+charged back at us again. Thus advancing and retreating, shrieking high,
+hitting the wooden shields with resounding crash, they preceded our slow
+advance for a half mile or so. Then at some signal unperceived by us
+they vanished abruptly into the jungle. Once more we rode forward in
+silence and in solitude. Why they did it I could not say.
+
+Of this tissue were our days made. At noon our boys plucked us each two
+or three banana leaves which they spread down for us to lie on. Then
+we dozed through the hot hours in great comfort, occasionally waking to
+blue sky through green trees, or to peer idly into the tangled jungle.
+At two o'clock or a little later we would arouse ourselves reluctantly
+and move on. The safari we had dimly heard passing us an hour before.
+In this country of the direct track we did not attempt to accompany our
+men.
+
+The end of the day's march found us in a little clearing where we could
+pitch camp. Generally this was atop a ridge, so that the boys had some
+distance to carry water; but that disadvantage was outweighed by the
+cleared space. Sometimes we found ourselves hemmed in by a wall of
+jungle. Again we enjoyed a broad outlook. One such in especial took in
+the magnificent, splintered, snow-capped peak of Kenia on the right, a
+tremendous gorge and rolling forested mountains straight ahead, and a
+great drop to a plain with other and distant mountains to the left. It
+was as fine a panoramic view as one could imagine.
+
+Our tents pitched, and ourselves washed and refreshed, we gave audience
+to the resident chief, who had probably been waiting. With this
+potentate we conversed affably, after the usual expectoratorial
+ceremonies. Billy, being a mere woman, did not always come in for this;
+but nevertheless she maintained what she called her "quarantine gloves,"
+and kept them very handy. We had standing orders with our boys for
+basins of hot water to be waiting always behind our tents. After the
+usual polite exchanges we informed the chief of our needs-firewood,
+perhaps, milk, a sheep or the like. These he furnished. When we left we
+made him a present of a few beads, a knife, a blanket or such according
+to the value of his contribution.
+
+To me these encounters were some of the most interesting of our many
+experiences, for each man differed radically from every other in his
+conceptions of ceremony, in his ideas, and in his methods. Our coming
+was a good deal of an event, always, and each chief, according to his
+temperament and training, tried to do things up properly. And in
+that attempt certain basic traits of human nature showed in the very
+strongest relief. Thus there are three points of view to take in running
+any spectacle: that of the star performer, the stage manager, or the
+truly artistic. We encountered well-marked specimens of each. I will
+tell you about them.
+
+The star performer knew his stagecraft thoroughly; and in the exposition
+of his knowledge he showed incidentally how truly basic are the
+principles of stagecraft anywhere.
+
+We were seated under a tree near the banks of a stream eating our lunch.
+Before us appeared two tall and slender youths, wreathed in smiles,
+engaging, and most attentive to the small niceties of courtesy. We
+returned their greeting from our recumbent positions, whereupon they
+made preparation to squat down beside us.
+
+"Are you sultans?" we demanded sternly, "that you attempt to sit in Our
+Presence," and we lazily kicked the nearest.
+
+Not at all abashed, but favourably impressed with our transcendent
+importance-as we intended-they leaned gracefully on their spears and
+entered into conversation. After a few trifles of airy persiflage they
+got down to business.
+
+"This," said they, indicating the tiny flat, "is the most beautiful
+place to camp in all the mountains."
+
+We doubted it.
+
+"Here is excellent water."
+
+We agreed to that.
+
+"And there is no more water for a journey."
+
+"You are liars," we observed politely.
+
+"And near is the village of our chief, who is a great warrior, and will
+bring you many presents; the greatest man in these parts."
+
+"Now you're getting to it," we observed in English; "you want trade."
+Then in Swahili, "We shall march two hours longer."
+
+After a few polite phrases they went away. We finished lunch, remounted,
+and rode up the trail. At the edge of the canyon we came to a wide
+clearing, at the farther side of which was evidently the village in
+question. But the merry villagers, down to the last toro, were drawn up
+at the edge of the track in a double line through which we rode. They
+were very wealthy savages, and wore it all. Bright neck, arm, and leg
+ornaments, yards and yards of cowry shells in strings, blue beads of
+all sizes (blue beads were evidently "in"), odd scraps and shapes of
+embroidered skins, clean shaves and a beautiful polish characterized
+this holiday gathering. We made our royal progress between the
+serried ranks. About eight or ten seconds after we had passed the last
+villager-just the proper dramatic pause, you observe-the bushes parted
+and a splendid, straight, springy young man came into view and stepped
+smilingly across the space that separated us. And about eight or ten
+seconds after his emergence-again just the right dramatic pause-the
+bushes parted again to give entrance to four of the quaintest little
+dolls of wives. These advanced all abreast, parted, and took up
+positions two either side the smiling chief. This youth was evidently
+in the height of fashion, his hair braided in a tight queue bound with
+skin, his ears dangling with ornaments, heavy necklaces around his neck,
+and armlets etc., ad lib. His robe was of fine monkey skin embroidered
+with rosettes of beads, and his spear was very long, bright and keen. He
+was tall and finely built carried himself with a free, lithe swing. As
+the quintette came to halt, the villagers fell silent and our shauri
+began.
+
+We drew up and dismounted. We all expectorated as gentlemen.
+
+"These," said he proudly, "are my beebees."
+
+We replied that they seemed like excellent beebees and politely inquired
+the price of wives thereabout, and also the market for totos. He gave us
+to understand that such superior wives as these brought three cows and
+twenty sheep apiece, but that you could get a pretty good toto for half
+a rupee.
+
+"When we look upon our women," he concluded grandly, "we find them
+good; but when we look upon the white women they are as nothing!"
+He completely obliterated the poor little beebees with a magnificent
+gesture. They looked very humble and abashed. I was, however, a bit
+uncertain as to whether this was intended as a genuine tribute to Billy,
+or was meant to console us for having only one to his four.
+
+Now observe the stagecraft of all this: entrance of diplomats,
+preliminary conversation introducing the idea of the greatness of
+N'Zahgi (for that was his name), chorus of villagers, and, as climax,
+dramatic entrance of the hero and heroines. It was pretty well done.
+
+Again we stopped about the middle of the afternoon in an opening on the
+rounded top of a hill. While waiting for the safari to come up, Billy
+wandered away fifty or sixty yards to sit under a big tree. She did not
+stay long. Immediately she was settled, a dozen women and young girls
+surrounded her. They were almost uproariously good-natured, but Billy
+was probably the first white woman they had ever seen, and they intended
+to make the most of her. Every item of her clothes and equipment they
+examined minutely, handled and discussed. When she told them with great
+dignity to go away, they laughed consumedly, fairly tumbling into each
+other's arms with excess of joy. Billy tried to gather her effects for a
+masterly retreat, but found the press of numbers too great. At last she
+had to signal for help. One of us wandered over with a kiboko with which
+lightly he flicked the legs of such damsels as he could reach. They
+scattered like quail, laughing hilariously. Billy was escorted back to
+safety.
+
+Shortly after the Chief and his Prime Minister came in. He was a little
+old gray-haired gentleman, as spry as a cricket, quite nervous, and very
+chatty. We indicated our wants to him, and he retired after enunciating
+many words. The safari came in, made camp. We had tea and a bath. The
+darkness fell; and still no Chief, no milk, no firewood, no promises
+fulfilled. There were plenty of natives around camp, but when we
+suggested that they get out and rustle on our behalf, they merely
+laughed good-naturedly. We seriously contemplated turning the whole lot
+out of camp.
+
+Finally we gave it up, and sat down to our dinner. It was now quite
+dark. The askaris had built a little campfire out in front.
+
+Then, far in the distance of the jungle's depths, we heard a faint
+measured chanting as of many people coming nearer. From another
+direction this was repeated. The two processions approached each other;
+their paths converged; the double chanting became a chorus that grew
+moment by moment. We heard beneath the wild weird minors the rhythmic
+stamping of feet, and the tapping of sticks. The procession debouched
+from the jungle's edge into the circle of the firelight. Our old chief
+led, accompanied by a bodyguard in all the panoply of war: ostrich
+feather circlets enclosing the head and face, shields of bright
+heraldry, long glittering spears. These were followed by a dozen of the
+quaintest solemn dolls of beebees dressed in all the white cowry shells,
+beads and brass the royal treasury afforded, very earnest, very much
+on inspection, every little head uplifted, singing away just as hard as
+ever they could. Each carried a gourd of milk, a bunch of bananas, some
+sugarcane, yams or the like. Straight to the fire marched the pageant.
+Then the warriors dividing right and left, drew up facing each other
+in two lines, struck their spears upright in the ground, and stood at
+attention. The quaint brown little women lined up to close the end of
+this hollow square, of which our group was, roughly speaking, the
+fourth side. Then all came to attention. The song now rose to a wild
+and ecstatic minor chanting. The beebees, still singing, one by one cast
+their burdens between the files and at our feet in the middle of the
+hollow square. Then they continued their chant, singing away at the tops
+of their little lungs, their eyes and teeth showing, their pretty bodies
+held rigidly upright. The warriors, very erect and military, stared
+straight ahead.
+
+And the chief? Was he the centre of the show, the important leading man,
+to the contemplation of whom all these glories led? Not at all! This
+particular chief did not have the soul of a leading man, but rather the
+soul of a stage manager. Quite forgetful of himself and his part in the
+spectacle, his brow furrowed with anxiety, he was flittering from one to
+another of the performers. He listened carefully to each singer in turn,
+holding his hand behind his ear to catch the individual note, striking
+one on the shoulder in admonition, nodding approval at another. He
+darted unexpectedly across to scrutinize a warrior, in the chance of
+catching a flicker of the eyelid even. Nary a flicker! They did their
+stage manager credit, and stood like magnificent bronzes. He even ran
+across to peer into our own faces to see how we liked it.
+
+With a sudden crescendo the music stopped. Involuntarily we broke
+into handclapping. The old boy looked a bit startled at this, but we
+explained to him, and he seemed very pleased. We then accepted formally
+the heap of presents, by touching them-and in turn passed over a
+blanket, a box of matches, and two needles, together with beads for the
+beebees. Then F., on an inspiration, produced his flashlight. This made
+a tremendous sensation. The women tittered and giggled and blinked as
+its beams were thrown directly into their eyes; the chief's sons grinned
+and guffawed; the chief himself laughed like a pleased schoolboy, and
+seemed never to weary of the sudden shutting on and off of the switch.
+But the trusty Spartan warriors, standing still in their formation
+behind their planted spears, were not to be shaken. They glared straight
+in front of them, even when we held the light within a few inches of
+their eyes, and not a muscle quivered!
+
+"It is wonderful! wonderful!" the old man repeated. "Many Government men
+have come here, but none have had anything like that! The bwanas must be
+very great sultans!"
+
+After the departure of our friends, we went rather grandly to bed. We
+always did after any one had called us sultans.
+
+But our prize chief was an individual named M'booley.* Our camp here
+also was on a fine cleared hilltop between two streams. After we had
+traded for a while with very friendly and prosperous people M'booley
+came in. He was young, tall, straight, with a beautiful smooth lithe
+form, and his face was hawklike and cleverly intelligent. He carried
+himself with the greatest dignity and simplicity, meeting us on an easy
+plane of familiarity. I do not know how I can better describe his manner
+toward us than to compare it to the manner the member of an exclusive
+golf club would use to one who is a stranger, but evidently a guest. He
+took our quality for granted; and supposed we must do the same by him,
+neither acting as though he considered us "great white men," nor yet
+standing aloof and too respectful. And as the distinguishing feature of
+all, he was absolutely without personal ornament.
+
+     * Pronounce each o separately.
+
+Pause for a moment to consider what a real advance in esthetic taste
+that one little fact stands for. All M'booley's attendants were the
+giddiest and gaudiest savages we had yet seen, with more colobus fur,
+sleighbells, polished metal, ostrich plumes, and red paint than would
+have fitted out any two other royal courts of the jungle. The women too
+were wealthy and opulent without limit. It takes considerable perception
+among our civilized people to realize that severe simplicity amid ultra
+magnificence makes the most effective distinguishing of an individual.
+If you do not believe it, drop in at the next ball to which you are
+invited. M'booley had fathomed this, and what was more he had the
+strength of mind to act on it. Any savage loves finery for its own
+sake. His hair was cut short, and shaved away at the edges to leave what
+looked like an ordinary close-fitting skull cap. He wore one pair of
+plain armlets on his left upper arm and small simple ear-rings. His robe
+was black. He had no trace of either oil or paint, nor did he even carry
+a spear.
+
+He greeted us with good-humoured ease, and inquired conversationally if
+we wanted anything. We suggested wood and milk, whereupon still
+smiling, he uttered a few casual words in his own language to no one in
+particular. There was no earthly doubt that he was chief. Three of the
+most gorgeous and haughty warriors ran out of camp. Shortly long
+files of women came in bringing loads of firewood; and others carrying
+bananas, yams, sugarcane and a sheep. Truly M'booley did things on a
+princely scale. We thanked him. He accepted the thanks with a casual
+smile, waved his hand and went on to talk of something else. In due
+order our M'ganga brought up one of our best trade blankets, to which we
+added a half dozen boxes of matches and a razor.
+
+Now into camp filed a small procession: four women, four children, and
+two young men. These advanced to where M'booley was standing smoking
+with great satisfaction one of B's tailor-made cigarettes. M'booley
+advanced ten feet to meet them, and brought them up to introduce them
+one by one in the most formal fashion. These were of course his family,
+and we had to confess that they "saw" N'Zahgi's outfit of ornaments and
+"raised" him beyond the ceiling. We gave them each in turn the handshake
+of ceremony, first with the palms as we do it, and then each grasping
+the other's upright thumb. The "little chiefs" were proud, aristocratic
+little fellows, holding themselves very straight and solemn. I think one
+would have known them for royalty anywhere.
+
+It was quite a social occasion. None of our guests was in the least ill
+at ease; in fact, the young ladies were quite coy and flirtatious. We
+had a great many jokes. Each of the little ladies received a handful
+of prevailing beads. M'booley smiled benignly at these delightful
+femininities. After a time he led us to the edge of the hill and showed
+us his houses across the cation, perched on a flat about halfway up the
+wall. They were of the usual grass-thatched construction, but rather
+larger and neater than most. Examining them through the glasses we saw
+that a little stream had been diverted to flow through the front
+yard. M'booley waved his hand abroad and gave us to understand that he
+considered the outlook worth looking at. It was; but an appreciation of
+that fact is foreign to the average native. Next morning, when we rode
+by very early, we found the little flat most attractively cleared
+and arranged. M'booley was out to shake us by the hand in farewell,
+shivering in the cold of dawn. The flirtatious and spoiled little
+beauties were not in evidence.
+
+One day after two very deep canyons we emerged from the forest jungle
+into an up and down country of high jungle bush-brush. From the top
+of a ridge it looked a good deal like a northern cut-over pine country
+grown up very heavily to blackberry vines; although, of course, when
+we came nearer, the "blackberry vines" proved to be ten or twenty feet
+high. This was a district of which Horne had warned us. The natives
+herein were reported restless and semi-hostile; and in fact had never
+been friendly. They probably needed the demonstration most native tribes
+seem to require before they are content to settle down and be happy. At
+any rate safaris were not permitted in their district; and we ourselves
+were allowed to go through merely because we were a large party, did not
+intend to linger, and had a good reputation with natives.
+
+It is very curious how abruptly, in Central Africa, one passes from one
+condition to another, from one tribe or race to the next. Sometimes, as
+in the present case, it is the traversing of a deep cation; at others
+the simple crossing of a tiny brook is enough. Moreover the line of
+demarcation is clearly defined, as boundaries elsewhere are never
+defined save in wartime.
+
+Thus we smiled our good-bye to a friendly numerous people, descended a
+hill, and ascended another into a deserted track. After a half mile we
+came unexpectedly on to two men carrying each a load of reeds. These
+they abandoned and fled up the hillside through the jungle, in spite of
+our shouted assurances. A moment later they reappeared at some distance
+above us, each with a spear he had snatched from somewhere; they were
+unarmed when we first caught sight of them. Examined through the glasses
+they proved to be sullen looking men, copper coloured, but broad across
+the cheekbones, broad in the forehead, more decidedly of the negro type
+than our late hosts.
+
+Aside from these two men we travelled through an apparently deserted
+jungle. I suspect, however, that we were probably well watched; for when
+we stopped for noon we heard the gunbearers beyond the screen of leaves
+talking to some one. On learning from our boys that these were some of
+the shenzis, we told them to bring the savages in for a shauri; but in
+this our men failed, nor could they themselves get nearer than fifty
+yards or so to the wild people. So until evening our impression remained
+that of two distant men, and the indistinct sound of voices behind a
+leafy screen.
+
+We made camp comparatively early in a wide open space surrounded by low
+forest. Almost immediately then the savages commenced to drift in,
+very haughty and arrogant. They were fully armed. Besides the spear and
+decorated shield, some of them carried the curious small grass spears.
+These are used to stab upward from below, the wielder lying flat in the
+grass. Some of these men were fantastically painted with a groundwork
+ochre, on which had been drawn intricate wavy designs on the legs,
+like stockings, and varied stripes across the face. One particularly
+ingenious individual, stark naked, had outlined a roughly entire
+skeleton! He was a gruesome object! They stalked here and there through
+the camp, looking at our men and their activities with a lofty and
+silent contempt.
+
+You may be sure we had our arrangements, though they did not appear on
+the surface. The askaris, or native soldiers, were posted here and there
+with their muskets; the gunbearers also kept our spare weapons by them.
+The askaris could not hit a barn, but they could make a noise. The
+gunbearers were fair shots.
+
+Of course the chief and his prime minister came in. They were
+evil-looking savages. To them we paid not the slightest attention, but
+went about our usual business as though they did not exist. At the end
+of an hour they of their own initiative greeted us. We did not hear
+them. Half an hour later they disappeared, to return after an interval,
+followed by a string of young men bearing firewood. Evidently our
+bearing had impressed them, as we had intended. We then unbent far
+enough to recognize them, carried on a formal conversation for a few
+moments, gave them adequate presents and dismissed them. Then we ordered
+the askaris to clear camp and to keep it clear. No women had appeared.
+Even the gifts of firewood had been carried by men, a most unusual
+proceeding.
+
+As soon as dark fell the drums began roaring in the forest all about our
+clearing, and the chanting to rise. We instructed our men to shoot first
+and inquire afterward, if a shenzi so much as showed himself in the
+clearing. This was not as bad as it sounded; the shenzi stood in no
+immediate danger. Then we turned in to a sleep rather light and broken
+by uncertainty. I do not think we were in any immediate danger of a
+considered attack, for these people were not openly hostile; but there
+was always a chance that the savages might by their drum pounding and
+dancing work themselves into a frenzy. Then we might have to do a little
+rapid shooting. Not for one instant the whole night long did those
+misguided savages cease their howling and dancing. At any rate we cost
+them a night's sleep.
+
+Next morning we took up our march through the deserted tracks once more.
+Not a sign of human life did we encounter. About ten o'clock we climbed
+down a tremendous gash of a box canyon with precipitous cliffs. From
+below we looked back to see, perched high against the skyline, the
+motionless figures of many savages watching us from the crags. So we had
+had company after all, and we had not known it. This canyon proved to
+be the boundary line. With the same abruptness we passed again into
+friendly country.
+
+(d) OUT THE OTHER SIDE
+
+We left the jungle finally when we turned on a long angle away from
+Kenia. At first the open country of the foothills was closely cultivated
+with fields of rape and maize. We saw some of the people breaking new
+soil by means of long pointed sticks. The plowmen quite simply inserted
+the pointed end in the ground and pried. It was very slow hard work. In
+other fields the grain stood high and good. From among the stalks, as
+from a miniature jungle, the little naked totos stared out, and the
+good-natured women smiled at us. The magnificent peak of Kenia had now
+shaken itself free of the forests. On its snow the sunrises and sunsets
+kindled their fires. The flames of grass fires, too, could plainly be
+made out, incredible distances away, and at daytime, through the reek,
+were fascinating suggestions of distant rivers, plains, jungles, and
+hills. You see, we were still practically on the wide slope of Kenia's
+base, though the peak was many days away, and so could look out over
+wide country.
+
+The last half day of this we wandered literally in a rape field. The
+stalks were quite above our heads, and we could see but a few yards in
+any direction. In addition the track had become a footpath not over two
+feet wide. We could occasionally look back to catch glimpses of a pack
+or so bobbing along on a porter's head. From our own path hundreds of
+other paths branched; we were continually taking the wrong fork and
+moving back to set the safari right before it could do likewise. This we
+did by drawing a deep double line in the earth across the wrong trail.
+Then we hustled on ahead to pioneer the way a little farther; our
+difficulties were further complicated by the fact that we had sent our
+horses back to Nairobi for fear of the tsetse fly, so we could not see
+out above the corn. All we knew was that we ought to go down hill.
+
+At the ends of some of our false trails we came upon fascinating little
+settlements: groups of houses inside brush enclosures, with low wooden
+gateways beneath which we had to stoop to enter. Within were groups of
+beehive houses with small naked children and perhaps an old woman or old
+man seated cross-legged under a sort of veranda. From them we obtained
+new-and confusing-directions.
+
+After three o'clock we came finally out on the edge of a cliff fifty or
+sixty feet high, below which lay uncultivated bottom lands like a great
+meadow and a little meandering stream. We descended the cliff, and
+camped by the meandering stream.
+
+By this time we were fairly tired from long walking in the heat, and so
+were content to sit down under our tent-fly before our little table, and
+let Mahomet bring us sparklets and lime juice. Before us was the flat of
+a meadow below the cliffs and the cliffs themselves. Just below the rise
+lay a single patch of standing rape not over two acres in extent, the
+only sign of human life. It was as though this little bit had overflowed
+from the countless millions on the plateau above. Beyond it arose a thin
+signal of smoke.
+
+We sipped our lime juice and rested. Soon our attention was attracted
+by the peculiar actions of a big flock of very white birds. They rose
+suddenly from one side of the tiny rape field, wheeled and swirled like
+leaves in the wind, and dropped down suddenly on the other side the
+patch. After a few moments they repeated the performance. The sun caught
+the dazzling white of their plumage. At first we speculated on what
+they might be, then on what they were doing, to behave in so peculiar
+a manner. The lime juice and the armchair began to get in their
+recuperative work. Somehow the distance across that flat did not seem
+quite as tremendous as at first. Finally I picked up the shotgun and
+sauntered across to investigate. The cause of action I soon determined.
+The owner of that rape field turned out to be an emaciated, gray-haired
+but spry old savage. He was armed with a spear; and at the moment his
+chief business in life seemed to be chasing a large flock of white birds
+off his grain. Since he had no assistance, and since the birds held his
+spear in justifiable contempt as a fowling piece, he was getting much
+exercise and few results. The birds gave way before his direct charge,
+flopped over to the other side, and continued their meal. They had
+already occasioned considerable damage; the rape heads were bent and
+destroyed for a space of perhaps ten feet from the outer edge of the
+field. As this grain probably constituted the old man's food supply
+for a season, I did not wonder at the vehemence with which he shook his
+spear at his enemies, nor the apparent flavour of his language, though I
+did marvel at his physical endurance. As for the birds, they had become
+cynical and impudent; they barely fluttered out of the way.
+
+I halted the old gentleman and hastened to explain that I was neither a
+pirate, a robber, nor an oppressor of the poor. This as counter-check to
+his tendency to flee, leaving me in sole charge. He understood a little
+Swahili, and talked a few words of something he intended for that
+language. By means of our mutual accomplishment in that tongue, and
+through a more efficient sign language, I got him to understand the plan
+of campaign. It was very simple. I squatted down inside the rape, while
+he went around the other side to scare them up.
+
+The white birds uttered their peculiarly derisive cackle at the old man
+and flapped over to my side. Then they were certainly an astonished
+lot of birds. I gave them both barrels and dropped a pair; got two more
+shots as they swung over me and dropped another pair, and brought down a
+straggling single as a grand finale. The flock, with shrill, derogatory
+remarks, flew in an airline straight away. They never deviated, as far
+as I could follow them with the eye. Even after they had apparently
+disappeared, I could catch an occasional flash of white in the sun.
+
+Now the old gentleman came whooping around with long, undignified bounds
+to fall on his face and seize my foot in an excess of gratitude. He rose
+and capered about, he rushed out and gathered in the slain one by one
+and laid them in a pile at my feet. Then he danced a jig-step around
+them and reviled them, and fell on his face once more, repeating the
+word "Bwana! bwana! bwana!" over and over-"Master! master! master!" We
+returned to camp together, the old gentleman carrying the birds, and
+capering about like a small boy, pouring forth a flood of his sort of
+Swahili, of which I could understand only a word here and there. Memba
+Sasa, very dignified and scornful of such performances, met us halfway
+and took my gun. He seemed to be able to understand the old fellow's
+brand of Swahili, and said it over again in a brand I could understand.
+From it I gathered that I was called a marvellously great sultan, a
+protector of the poor, and other Arabian Nights titles.
+
+The birds proved to be white egrets. Now at home I am strongly against
+the killing of these creatures, and have so expressed myself on many
+occasions. But, looking from the beautiful white plumage of these
+villainous mauraders, to the wrinkled countenance of the grateful weary
+old savage, I could not fan a spark of regret. And from the straight
+line of their retreating flight I like to think that the rest of the
+flock never came back, but took their toll from the wider fields of the
+plateau above.
+
+Next day we reentered the game-haunted wilderness, nor did we see any
+more native villages until many weeks later we came into the country of
+the Wakamba.
+
+
+
+
+
+XIX. THE TANA RIVER
+
+Our first sight of the Tana River was from the top of a bluff. It flowed
+below us a hundred feet, bending at a sharp elbow against the cliff
+on which we stood. Out of the jungle it crept sluggishly and into the
+jungle it crept again, brown, slow, viscid, suggestive of the fevers and
+the lurking beasts by which, indeed, it was haunted. From our elevation
+we could follow its course by the jungle that grew along its banks.
+At first this was intermittent, leaving thin or even open spaces at
+intervals, but lower down it extended away unbroken and very tall. The
+trees were many of them beginning to come into flower.
+
+Either side of the jungle were rolling hills. Those to the left made up
+to the tremendous slopes of Kenia. Those to the right ended finally in
+a low broken range many miles away called the Ithanga Hills. The country
+gave one the impression of being clothed with small trees; although
+here and there this growth gave space to wide grassy plains. Later we
+discovered that the forest was more apparent than real. The small trees,
+even where continuous, were sparse enough to permit free walking in all
+directions, and open enough to allow clear sight for a hundred yards or
+so. Furthermore, the shallow wide valleys between the hills were almost
+invariably treeless and grown to very high thick grass.
+
+Thus the course of the Tana possessed advantages to such as we. By
+following in general the course of the stream we were always certain
+of wood and water. The river itself was full of fish-not to speak of
+hundreds of crocodiles and hippopotamuses. The thick river jungle gave
+cover to such animals as the bushbuck, leopard, the beautiful colobus,
+some of the tiny antelope, waterbuck, buffalo and rhinoceros. Among
+the thorn and acacia trees of the hillsides one was certain of impalla,
+eland, diks-diks, and giraffes. In the grass bottoms were lions,
+rhinoceroses, a half dozen varieties of buck, and thousands and
+thousands of game birds such as guinea fowl and grouse. On the plains
+fed zebra, hartebeeste, wart-hog, ostriches, and several species of the
+smaller antelope. As a sportsman's paradise this region would be hard to
+beat.
+
+We were now afoot. The dreaded tsetse fly abounded here, and we had
+sent our horses in via Fort Hall. F. had accompanied them, and hoped to
+rejoin us in a few days or weeks with tougher and less valuable mules.
+Pending his return we moved on leisurely, camping long at one spot,
+marching short days, searching the country far and near for the special
+trophies of which we stood in need.
+
+It was great fun. Generally we hunted each in his own direction and
+according to his own ideas. The jungle along the river, while not the
+most prolific in trophies, was by all odds the most interesting. It was
+very dense, very hot, and very shady. Often a thorn thicket would fling
+itself from the hills right across to the water's edge, absolutely and
+hopelessly impenetrable save by way of the rhinoceros tracks. Along
+these then we would slip, bent double, very quietly and gingerly,
+keeping a sharp lookout for the rightful owners of the trail. Again
+we would wander among lofty trees through the tops of which the sun
+flickered on festooned serpent-like vines. Every once in a while we
+managed a glimpse of the sullen oily river through the dense leaf screen
+on its banks. The water looked thick as syrup, of a deadly menacing
+green. Sometimes we saw a loathsome crocodile lying with his nose just
+out of water, or heard the snorting blow of a hippopotamus coming up for
+air. Then the thicket forced us inland again. We stepped very slowly,
+very alertly, our ears cocked for the faintest sound, our eyes roving.
+Generally, of course, the creatures of the jungle saw us first. We
+became aware of them by a crash or a rustling or a scamper. Then we
+stood stock listening with all our ears for some sound distinguishing
+to the species. Thus I came to recognize the queer barking note of the
+bushbuck, for example, and to realize how profane and vulgar that and
+the beautiful creature, the impalla, can be when he forgets himself. As
+for the rhinoceros, he does not care how much noise he makes, nor how
+badly he scares you.
+
+Personally, I liked very well to circle out in the more open country
+until about three o'clock, then to enter the river jungle and work
+my way slowly back toward camp. At that time of day the shadows were
+lengthening, the birds and animals were beginning to stir about. In
+the cooling nether world of shadow we slipped silently from thicket
+to thicket, from tree to tree; and the jungle people fled from us, or
+withdrew, or gazed curiously, or cursed us as their dispositions varied.
+
+While thus returning one evening I saw my first colobus. He was swinging
+rapidly from one tree to another, his long black and white fur shining
+against the sun. I wanted him very much, and promptly let drive at him
+with the 405 Winchester. I always carried this heavier weapon in the
+dense jungle. Of course I missed him, but the roar of the shot so
+surprised him that he came to a stand. Memba Sasa passed me the
+Springfield, and I managed to get him in the head. At the shot another
+flashed into view, high up in the top of a tree. Again I aimed and
+fired. The beast let go and fell like a plummet. "Good shot," said I to
+myself. Fifty feet down the colobus seized a limb and went skipping away
+through the branches as lively as ever. In a moment he stopped to look
+back, and by good luck I landed him through the body. When we retrieved
+him we found that the first shot had not hit him at all!
+
+At the time I thought he must have been frightened into falling; but
+many subsequent experiences showed me that this sheer let-go-all-holds
+drop is characteristic of the colobus and his mode of progression. He
+rarely, as far as my observation goes, leaps out and across as do
+the ordinary monkeys, but prefers to progress by a series of slanting
+ascents followed by breath-taking straight drops to lower levels. When
+closely pressed from beneath, he will go as high as he can, and will
+then conceal himself in the thick leaves.
+
+B. and I procured our desired number of colobus by taking advantage of
+this habit-as soon as we had learned it. Shooting the beasts with our
+rifles we soon found to be not only very difficult, but also destructive
+of the skins. On the other hand, a man could not, save by sheer good
+fortune, rely on stalking near enough to use a shotgun. Therefore we
+evolved a method productive of the maximum noise, row, barked shins,
+thorn wounds, tumbles, bruises-and colobus! It was very simple. We took
+about twenty boys into the jungle with us, and as soon as we caught
+sight of a colobus we chased him madly. That was all there was to it.
+
+And yet this method, simple apparently to the point of imbecility,
+had considerable logic back of it after all; for after a time somebody
+managed to get underneath that colobus when he was at the top of a tree.
+Then the beast would hide.
+
+Consider then a tumbling riotous mob careering through the jungle as
+fast as the jungle would let it, slipping, stumbling, falling flat,
+getting tangled hopelessly, disentangling with profane remarks, falling
+behind and catching up again, everybody yelling and shrieking. Ahead of
+us we caught glimpses of the sleek bounding black and white creature,
+running up the long slanting limbs, and dropping like a plummet into the
+lower branches of the next tree. We white men never could keep up with
+the best of our men at this sort of work, although in the open country I
+could hold them well enough. We could see them dashing through the thick
+cover at a great rate of speed far ahead of us. After an interval came
+a great shout in chorus. By this we knew that the quarry had been
+definitely brought to a stand. Arriving at the spot we craned our heads
+backward, and proceeded to get a crick in the neck trying to make out
+invisible colobus in the very tops of the trees above us. For gaudily
+marked beasts the colobus were extraordinarily difficult to see. This
+was in no sense owing to any far-fetched application of protective
+colouration; but to the remarkable skill the animals possessed
+in concealing themselves behind apparently the scantiest and most
+inadequate cover. Fortunately for us our boys' ability to see them was
+equally remarkable. Indeed, the most difficult part of their task was to
+point the game out to us. We squinted, and changed position, and tried
+hard to follow directions eagerly proffered by a dozen of the men.
+Finally one of us would, by the aid of six power-glasses, make out,
+or guess at a small tuft of white or black hair showing beyond the
+concealment of a bunch of leaves. We would unlimber the shotgun and send
+a charge of BB into that bunch. Then down would plump the game, to
+the huge and vociferous delight of all the boys. Or, as occasionally
+happened, the shot was followed merely by a shower of leaves and a
+chorus of expostulations indicating that we had mistaken the place, and
+had fired into empty air.
+
+In this manner we gathered the twelve we required between us. At noon
+we sat under the bank, with the tangled roots of trees above us, and the
+smooth oily river slipping by. You may be sure we always selected a
+spot protected by very shoal water, for the crocodiles were numerous. I
+always shot these loathsome creatures whenever I got a chance, whenever
+the sound of a shot would not alarm more valuable game. Generally they
+were to be seen in midstream, just the tip of their snouts above water,
+and extraordinarily like anything but crocodiles. Often it took several
+close scrutinies through the glass to determine the brutes. This
+required rather nice shooting. More rarely we managed to see them on the
+banks, or only half submerged. In this position, too, they were all but
+undistinguishable as living creatures. I think this is perhaps because
+of their complete immobility. The creatures of the woods, standing quite
+still, are difficult enough to see; but I have a notion that the eye,
+unknown to itself, catches the sum total of little flexings of the
+muscles, movements of the skin, winkings, even the play of wind and
+light in the hair of the coat, all of which, while impossible of
+analysis, together relieve the appearance of dead inertia. The vitality
+of a creature like the crocodile, however, seems to have withdrawn into
+the inner recesses of its being. It lies like a log of wood, and for a
+log of wood it is mistaken.
+
+Nevertheless the crocodile has stored in it somewhere a fearful
+vitality. The swiftness of its movements when seizing prey is most
+astonishing; a swirl of water, the sweep of a powerful tail, and the
+unfortunate victim has disappeared. For this reason it is especially
+dangerous to approach the actual edge of any of the great rivers, unless
+the water is so shallow that the crocodile could not possibly approach
+under cover, as is its cheerful habit. We had considerable difficulty in
+impressing this elementary truth on our hill-bred totos until one day,
+hearing wild shrieks from the direction of the river, I rushed down
+to find the lot huddled together in the very middle of a sand spit
+that-reached well out into the stream. Inquiry developed that while
+paddling in the shallows they had been surprised by the sudden
+appearance of an ugly snout and well drenched by the sweep of an eager
+tail. The stroke fortunately missed. We stilled the tumult, sat down
+quietly to wait, and at the end of ten minutes had the satisfaction of
+abating that croc.
+
+Generally we killed the brutes where we found them and allowed them to
+drift away with the current. Occasionally however we wanted a piece of
+hide, and then tried to retrieve them. One such occasion showed very
+vividly the tenacity of life and the primitive nervous systems of these
+great saurians.
+
+I discovered the beast, head out of water, in a reasonable sized pool
+below which were shallow rapids. My Springfield bullet hit him fair,
+whereupon he stood square on his head and waved his tail in the air,
+rolled over three or four times, thrashed the water, and disappeared.
+After waiting a while we moved on downstream. Returning four hours later
+I sneaked up quietly. There the crocodile lay sunning himself on the
+sand bank. I supposed he must be dead; but when I accidentally broke a
+twig, he immediately commenced to slide off into the water. Thereupon
+I stopped him with a bullet in the spine. The first shot had smashed
+a hole in his head, just behind the eye, about the size of an ordinary
+coffee cup. In spite of this wound, which would have been instantly
+fatal to any warm-blooded animal, the creature was so little affected
+that it actually reacted to a slight noise made at some distance from
+where it lay. Of course the wound would probably have been fatal in the
+long run.
+
+The best spot to shoot at, indeed, is not the head but the spine
+immediately back of the head.
+
+These brutes are exceedingly powerful. They are capable of taking down
+horses and cattle, with no particular effort. This I know from my
+own observation. Mr. Fleischman, however, was privileged to see
+the wonderful sight of the capture and destruction of a full-grown
+rhinoceros by a crocodile. The photographs he took of this most
+extraordinary affair leave no room for doubt. Crossing a stream was
+always a matter of concern to us. The boys beat the surface of the water
+vigorously with their safari sticks. On occasion we have even let loose
+a few heavy bullets to stir up the pool before venturing in.
+
+A steep climb through thorn and brush would always extricate us from the
+river jungle when we became tired of it. Then we found ourselves in a
+continuous but scattered growth of small trees. Between the trunks of
+these we could see for a hundred yards or so before their numbers closed
+in the view. Here was the favourite haunt of numerous beautiful impalla.
+We caught glimpses of them, flashing through the trees; or occasionally
+standing, gazing in our direction, their slender necks stretched high,
+their ears pointed for us. These curious ones were generally the does.
+The bucks were either more cautious or less inquisitive. A herd or so
+of eland also liked this covered country; and there were always a
+few waterbuck and rhinoceroses about. Often too we here encountered
+stragglers from the open plains-zebra or hartebeeste, very alert and
+suspicious in unaccustomed surroundings.
+
+A great deal of the plains country had been burned over; and a
+considerable area was still afire. The low bright flames licked their
+way slowly through the grass in a narrow irregular band extending
+sometimes for miles. Behind it was blackened soil, and above it rolled
+dense clouds of smoke. Always accompanied it thousands of birds wheeling
+and dashing frantically in and out of the murk, often fairly at the
+flames themselves. The published writings of a certain worthy and
+sentimental person waste much sympathy over these poor birds dashing
+frenziedly about above their destroyed nests. As a matter of fact they
+are taking greedy advantage of a most excellent opportunity to get
+insects cheap. Thousands of the common red-billed European storks
+patrolled the grass just in front of the advancing flames, or wheeled
+barely above the fire. Grasshoppers were their main object, although
+apparently they never objected to any small mammals or reptiles that
+came their way. Far overhead wheeled a few thousand more assorted
+soarers who either had no appetite or had satisfied it.
+
+The utter indifference of the animals to the advance of a big
+conflagration always impressed me. One naturally pictures the beasts as
+fleeing wildly, nostrils distended, before the devouring element. On
+the contrary I have seen kongoni grazing quite peacefully with flames on
+three sides of them. The fire seems to travel rather slowly in the tough
+grass; although at times and for a short distance it will leap to a wild
+and roaring life. Beasts will then lope rapidly away to right or left,
+but without excitement.
+
+On these open plains we were more or less pestered with ticks of
+various sizes. These clung to the grass blades; but with no invincible
+preference for that habitat; trousers did them just as well. Then they
+ascended looking for openings. They ranged in size from little red ones
+as small as the period of a printed page to big patterned fellows the
+size of a pea. The little ones were much the most abundant. At times
+I have had the front of my breeches so covered with them that their
+numbers actually imparted a reddish tinge to the surface of the cloth.
+This sounds like exaggeration, but it is a measured statement. The
+process of de-ticking (new and valuable word) can then be done only by
+scraping with the back of a hunting knife.
+
+Some people, of tender skin, are driven nearly frantic by these pests.
+Others, of whom I am thankful to say I am one, get off comparatively
+easy. In a particularly bad tick country, one generally appoints one of
+the youngsters as "tick toto." It is then his job in life to de-tick
+any person or domestic animal requiring his services. His is a busy
+existence. But though at first the nuisance is excessive, one becomes
+accustomed to it in a remarkably short space of time. The adaptability
+of the human being is nowhere better exemplified. After a time one gets
+so that at night he can remove a marauding tick and cast it forth into
+the darkness without even waking up. Fortunately ticks are local
+in distribution. Often one may travel weeks or months without this
+infliction.
+
+I was always interested and impressed to observe how indifferent the
+wild animals seem to be to these insects. Zebra, rhinoceros and giraffe
+seem to be especially good hosts. The loathsome creatures fasten
+themselves in clusters wherever they can grip their fangs. Thus in
+a tick country a zebra's ears, the lids and corners of his eyes, his
+nostrils and lips, the soft skin between his legs and body, and between
+his hind legs, and under his tail are always crusted with ticks as
+thick as they can cling. One would think the drain on vitality would be
+enormous, but the animals are always plump and in condition. The
+same state of affairs obtains with the other two beasts named. The
+hartebeeste also carries ticks but not nearly in the same abundance;
+while such creatures as the waterbuck, impalla, gazelles and the smaller
+bucks seem either to be absolutely free from the pests, or to have a
+very few. Whether this is because such animals take the trouble to rid
+themselves, or because they are more immune from attack it would be
+difficult to say. I have found ticks clinging to the hair of lions, but
+never fastened to the flesh. It is probable that they had been brushed
+off from the grass in passing. Perhaps ticks do not like lions,
+waterbuck, Tommies, et al., or perhaps only big coarse-grained common
+brutes like zebra and rhinos will stand them at all.
+
+
+
+
+
+XX. DIVERS ADVENTURES ALONG THE TANA
+
+Late one afternoon I shot a wart-hog in the tall grass. The beast was an
+unusually fine specimen, so I instructed Fundi and the porters to take
+the head, and myself started for camp with Memba Sasa. I had gone not
+over a hundred yards when I was recalled by wild and agonized appeals of
+"Bwana! bwana!" The long-legged Fundi was repeatedly leaping straight
+up in the air to an astonishing height above the long grass, curling
+his legs up under him at each jump, and yelling like a steam-engine.
+Returning promptly, I found that the wart-hog had come to life at the
+first prick of the knife. He was engaged in charging back and forth in
+an earnest effort to tusk Fundi, and the latter was jumping high in an
+equally earnest effort to keep out of the way. Fortunately he proved
+agile enough to do so until I planted another bullet in the aggressor.
+
+These wart-hogs are most comical brutes from whatever angle one views
+them. They have a patriarchal, self-satisfied, suburban manner of
+complete importance. The old gentleman bosses his harem outrageously,
+and each and every member of the tribe walks about with short steps and
+a stuffy parvenu small-town self-sufficiency. One is quite certain that
+it is only by accident that they have long tusks and live in Africa,
+instead of rubber-plants and self-made business and a pug-dog within
+commuters' distance of New York. But at the slightest alarm this swollen
+and puffy importance breaks down completely. Away they scurry, their
+tails held stiffly and straightly perpendicular, their short legs
+scrabbling the small stones in a frantic effort to go faster than nature
+had intended them to go. Nor do they cease their flight at a reasonable
+distance, but keep on going over hill and dale, until they fairly vanish
+in the blue. I used to like starting them off this way, just for the
+sake of contrast, and also for the sake of the delicious but impossible
+vision of seeing their human prototypes do likewise.
+
+When a wart-hog is at home, he lives down a hole. Of course it has to
+be a particularly large hole. He turns around and backs down it. No
+more peculiar sight can be imagined than the sardonically toothsome
+countenance of a wart-hog fading slowly in the dimness of a deep burrow,
+a good deal like Alice's Cheshire Cat. Firing a revolver, preferably
+with smoky black powder, just in front of the hole annoys the wart-hog
+exceedingly. Out he comes full tilt, bent on damaging some one, and it
+takes quick shooting to prevent his doing so.
+
+Once, many hundreds of miles south of the Tana, and many months later,
+we were riding quite peaceably through the country, when we were
+startled by the sound of a deep and continuous roaring in a small brush
+patch to our left. We advanced cautiously to a prospective lion, only
+to discover that the roaring proceeded from the depths of a wart-hog
+burrow. The reverberation of our footsteps on the hollow ground had
+alarmed him. He was a very nervous wart-hog.
+
+On another occasion, when returning to camp from a solitary walk, I saw
+two wart-hogs before they saw me. I made no attempt to conceal myself,
+but stood absolutely motionless. They fed slowly nearer and nearer until
+at last they were not over twenty yards away. When finally they made
+me out, their indignation and amazement and utter incredulity were very
+funny. In fact, they did not believe in me at all for some few snorty
+moments. Finally they departed, their absurd tails stiff upright.
+
+
+One afternoon F. and I, hunting along one of the wide grass bottom
+lands, caught sight of a herd of an especially fine impalla. The animals
+were feeding about fifty yards the other side of a small solitary bush,
+and the bush grew on the sloping bank of the slight depression
+that represented the dry stream bottom. We could duck down into the
+depression, sneak along it, come up back of the little bush, and shoot
+from very close range. Leaving the gunbearers, we proceeded to do this.
+
+So quietly did we move that when we rose up back of the little bush a
+lioness lying under it with her cub was as surprised as we were!
+
+Indeed, I do not think she knew what we were, for instead of attacking,
+she leaped out the other side the bush, uttering a startled snarl. At
+once she whirled to come at us, but the brief respite had allowed us
+to recover our own scattered wits. As she turned I caught her broadside
+through the heart. Although this shot knocked her down, F. immediately
+followed it with another for safety's sake. We found that actually we
+had just missed stepping on her tail!
+
+The cub we caught a glimpse of. He was about the size of a setter dog.
+We tried hard to find him, but failed. The lioness was an unusually
+large one, probably about as big as the female ever grows, measuring
+nine feet six inches in length, and three feet eight inches tail at the
+shoulder.
+
+Billy had her funny times housekeeping. The kitchen department never
+quite ceased marvelling at her. Whenever she went to the cook-camp to
+deliver her orders she was surrounded by an attentive and respectful
+audience. One day, after holding forth for some time in Swahili, she
+found that she had been standing hobnailed on one of the boy's feet.
+
+"Why, Mahomet!" she cried. "That must hurt you! Why didn't you tell me?"
+
+"Memsahib," he smiled politely, "I think perhaps you move some time!"
+
+On another occasion she was trying to tell the cook, through Mahomet
+as interpreter, that she wanted a tough old buffalo steak pounded,
+boarding-house style. This evidently puzzled all hands. They turned
+to in an earnest discussion of what it was all about, anyway. Billy
+understood Swahili well enough at that time to gather that they could
+not understand the Memsahib's wanting the meat "kibokoed"-FLOGGED. Was
+it a religious rite, or a piece of revenge? They gave it up.
+
+"All right," said Mahomet patiently at last. "He say he do it. WHICH ONE
+IS IT?"
+
+Part of our supplies comprised tins of dehydrated fruit. One evening
+Billy decided to have a grand celebration, so she passed out a
+tin marked "rhubarb" and some cornstarch, together with suitable
+instructions for a fruit pudding. In a little while the cook returned.
+
+"Nataka m'tund-I want fruit," said he.
+
+Billy pointed out, severely, that he already had fruit. He went away
+shaking his head. Evening and the pudding came. It looked good, and we
+congratulated Billy on her culinary enterprise. Being hungry, we took
+big mouthfuls. There followed splutterings and investigations. The
+rhubarb can proved to be an old one containing heavy gun grease!
+
+When finally we parted with our faithful cook we bought him a really
+wonderful many bladed knife as a present. On seeing it he slumped to the
+ground-six feet of lofty dignity-and began to weep violently, rocking
+back and forth in an excess of grief.
+
+"Why, what is it?" we inquired, alarmed.
+
+"Oh, Memsahib!" he wailed, the tears coursing down his cheeks, "I wanted
+a watch!"
+
+
+One morning about nine o'clock we were riding along at the edge of a
+grass-grown savannah, with a low hill to our right and another about
+four hundred yards ahead. Suddenly two rhinoceroses came to their feet
+some fifty yards to our left out in the high grass, and stood looking
+uncertainly in our direction.
+
+"Look out! Rhinos!" I warned instantly.
+
+"Why-why!" gasped Billy in an astonished tone of voice, "they have
+manes!"
+
+In some concern for her sanity I glanced in her direction. She was
+staring, not to her left, but straight ahead. I followed the direction
+of her gaze, to see three lions moving across the face of the hill.
+
+Instantly we dropped off our horses. We wanted a shot at those
+lions very much indeed, but were hampered in our efforts by the
+two rhinoceroses, now stamping, snorting, and moving slowly in our
+direction. The language we muttered was racy, but we dropped to a
+kneeling position and opened fire on the disappearing lions. It was
+most distinctly a case of divided attention, one eye on those menacing
+rhinos, and one trying to attend to the always delicate operation of
+aligning sights and signalling from a rather distracted brain just when
+to pull the trigger. Our faithful gunbearers crouched by us, the heavy
+guns ready.
+
+One rhino seemed either peaceable or stupid. He showed no inclination
+either to attack or to depart, but was willing to back whatever play his
+friend might decide on. The friend charged toward us until we began to
+think he meant battle, stopped, thought a moment, and then, followed by
+his companion, trotted slowly across our bows about eighty yards away,
+while we continued our long range practice at the lions over their
+backs.
+
+In this we were not winning many cigars. F. had a 280-calibre rifle
+shooting the Ross cartridge through the much advertised grooveless oval
+bore. It was little accurate beyond a hundred yards. Memba Sasa had
+thrust the 405 into my hand, knowing it for the "lion gun," and kept
+just out of reach with the long-range Springfield. I had no time to
+argue the matter with him. The 405 has a trajectory like a rainbow
+at that distance, and I was guessing at it, and not making very good
+guesses either. B. had his Springfield and made closer practice, finally
+hitting a leg of one of the beasts. We saw him lift his paw and shake
+it, but he did not move lamely afterward, so the damage was probably
+confined to a simple scrape. It was a good shot anyway. Then they
+disappeared over the top of the hill.
+
+We walked forward, regretting rhinos. Thirty yards ahead of me came a
+thunderous and roaring growl, and a magnificent old lion reared his head
+from a low bush. He evidently intended mischief, for I could see his
+tail switching. However, B. had killed only one lion and I wanted very
+much to give him the shot. Therefore, I held the front sight on the
+middle of his chest, and uttered a fervent wish to myself that B. would
+hurry up. In about ten seconds the muzzle of his rifle poked over my
+shoulder, so I resigned the job.
+
+At B.'s shot the lion fell over, but was immediately up and trying to
+get at us. Then we saw that his hind quarters were paralyzed. He was
+a most magnificent sight as he reared his fine old head, roaring at us
+full mouthed so that the very air trembled. Billy had a good look at a
+lion in action. B. took up a commanding position on an ant hill to one
+side with his rifle levelled. F. and I advanced slowly side by side.
+At twelve feet from the wounded beast stopped, F. unlimbered the kodak,
+while I held the bead of the 405 between the lion's eyes, ready to press
+trigger at the first forward movement, however slight. Thus we took
+several exposures in the two cameras. Unfortunately one of the cameras
+fell in the river the next day. The other contained but one exposure.
+While not so spectacular as some of those spoiled, it shows very well
+the erect mane, the wicked narrowing of the eyes, the flattening of the
+ears of an angry lion. You must imagine, furthermore, the deep rumbling
+diapason of his growling.
+
+We backed away, and B. put in the finishing shot. The first bullet,
+we then found, had penetrated the kidneys, thus inflicting a temporary
+paralysis.
+
+When we came to skin him we found an old-fashioned lead bullet between
+the bones of his right forepaw. The entrance wound had so entirely
+healed over that hardly the trace of a scar remained. From what I know
+of the character of these beasts, I have no doubt that this ancient
+injury furnished the reason for his staying to attack us instead of
+departing with the other three lions over the hill.
+
+
+Following the course of the river, we one afternoon came around a bend
+on a huge herd of mixed game that had been down to water. The river,
+a quite impassable barrier lay to our right, and an equally impassable
+precipitous ravine barred their flight ahead. They were forced to cross
+our front, quite close, within the hundred yards. We stopped to watch
+them go, a seemingly endless file of them, some very much frightened,
+bounding spasmodically as though stung; others more philosophical,
+loping easily and unconcernedly; still others to a few-even stopping for
+a moment to get a good view of us. The very young creatures, as always,
+bounced along absolutely stiff-legged, exactly like wooden animals
+suspended by an elastic, touching the ground and rebounding high,
+without a bend of the knee nor an apparent effort of the muscles.
+Young animals seem to have to learn how to bend their legs for the most
+efficient travel. The same is true of human babies as well. In this herd
+were, we estimated, some four or five hundred beasts.
+
+
+While hunting near the foothills I came across the body of a large eagle
+suspended by one leg from the crotch of a limb. The bird's talon had
+missed its grip, probably on alighting, the tarsus had slipped through
+the crotch beyond the joint, the eagle had fallen forward, and had never
+been able to flop itself back to an upright position!
+
+
+
+
+
+XXI. THE RHINOCEROS
+
+The rhinoceros is, with the giraffe, the hippopotamus, the gerenuk, and
+the camel, one of Africa's unbelievable animals. Nobody has bettered
+Kipling's description of him in the Just-so Stories: "A horn on his
+nose, piggy eyes, and few manners." He lives a self-centred life,
+wrapped up in the porcine contentment that broods within nor looks
+abroad over the land. When anything external to himself and his food
+and drink penetrates to his intelligence he makes a flurried fool of
+himself, rushing madly and frantically here and there in a hysterical
+effort either to destroy or get away from the cause of disturbance. He
+is the incarnation of a living and perpetual Grouch.
+
+Generally he lives by himself, sometimes with his spouse, more rarely
+still with a third that is probably a grown-up son or daughter. I
+personally have never seen more than three in company. Some observers
+have reported larger bands, or rather collections, but, lacking other
+evidence, I should be inclined to suspect that some circumstances of
+food or water rather than a sense of gregariousness had attracted a
+number of individuals to one locality.
+
+The rhinoceros has three objects in life: to fill his stomach with food
+and water, to stand absolutely motionless under a bush, and to imitate
+ant hills when he lies down in the tall grass. When disturbed at any
+of these occupations he snorts. The snort sounds exactly as though the
+safety valve of a locomotive had suddenly opened and as suddenly shut
+again after two seconds of escaping steam. Then he puts his head down
+and rushes madly in some direction, generally upwind. As he weighs
+about two tons, and can, in spite of his appearance, get over the ground
+nearly as fast as an ordinary horse, he is a truly imposing sight,
+especially since the innocent bystander generally happens to be upwind,
+and hence in the general path of progress. This is because the rhino's
+scent is his keenest sense, and through it he becomes aware, in the
+majority of times, of man's presence. His sight is very poor indeed; he
+cannot see clearly even a moving object much beyond fifty yards. He can,
+however, hear pretty well.
+
+The novice, then, is subjected to what he calls a "vicious charge" on
+the part of the rhinoceros, merely because his scent was borne to the
+beast from upwind, and the rhino naturally runs away upwind. He opens
+fire, and has another thrilling adventure to relate. As a matter of
+fact, if he had approached from the other side, and then aroused the
+animal with a clod of earth, the beast would probably have "charged"
+away in identically the same direction. I am convinced from a fairly
+varied experience that this is the basis for most of the thrilling
+experiences with rhinoceroses.
+
+But whatever the beast's first mental attitude, the danger is quite
+real. In the beginning he rushes, upwind in instinctive reaction against
+the strange scent. If he catches sight of the man at all, it must be
+after he has approached to pretty close range, for only at close range
+are the rhino's eyes effective. Then he is quite likely to finish what
+was at first a blind dash by a genuine charge. Whether this is from
+malice or from the panicky feeling that he is now too close to attempt
+to get away, I never was able determine. It is probably in the majority
+of cases the latter. This seems indicated by the fact that the rhino, if
+avoided in his first rush, will generally charge right through and keep
+on going. Occasionally, however, he will whirl and come back to the
+attack. There can then be no doubt that he actually intends mischief.
+
+Nor must it be forgotten that with these animals, AS WITH ALL OTHERS,
+not enough account is taken of individual variation. They, as well as
+man, and as well as other animals, have their cowards, their fighters,
+their slothful and their enterprising. And, too, there seem to be
+truculent and peaceful districts. North of Mt. Kenia, between that peak
+and the Northern Guaso Nyero River, we saw many rhinos, none of which
+showed the slightest disposition to turn ugly. In fact, they were so
+peaceful that they scrabbled off as fast as they could go every time
+they either scented, heard, or SAW us; and in their flight they held
+their noses up, not down. In the wide angle between the Tana and Thika
+rivers, and comprising the Yatta Plains, and in the thickets of the
+Tsavo, the rhinoceroses generally ran nose down in a position of attack
+and were much inclined to let their angry passions master them at the
+sight of man. Thus we never had our safari scattered by rhinoceroses
+in the former district, while in the latter the boys were up trees six
+times in the course of one morning! Carl Akeley, with a moving picture
+machine, could not tease a charge out of a rhino in a dozen tries, while
+Dugmore, in a different part of the country, was so chivied about that
+he finally left the district to avoid killing any more of the brutes in
+self-defence!
+
+The fact of the matter is that the rhinoceros is neither animated by the
+implacable man-destroying passion ascribed to him by the amateur hunter,
+nor is he so purposeless and haphazard in his rushes as some would have
+us believe. On being disturbed his instinct is to get away. He generally
+tries to get away in the direction of the disturbance, or upwind, as the
+case may be. If he catches sight of the cause of disturbance he is apt
+to try to trample and gore it, whatever it is. As his sight is short,
+he will sometimes so inflict punishment on unoffending bushes. In doing
+this he is probably not animated by a consuming destructive blind rage,
+but by a naturally pugnacious desire to eliminate sources of annoyance.
+Missing a definite object, he thunders right through and disappears
+without trying again to discover what has aroused him.
+
+This first rush is not a charge in the sense that it is an attack on a
+definite object. It may not, and probably will not, amount to a charge
+at all, for the beast will blunder through without ever defining more
+clearly the object of his blind dash. That dash is likely, however, at
+any moment, to turn into a definite charge should the rhinoceros happen
+to catch sight of his disturber. Whether the impelling motive would then
+be a mistaken notion that on the part of the beast he was so close he
+had to fight, or just plain malice, would not matter. At such times the
+intended victim is not interested in the rhino's mental processes.
+
+Owing to his size, his powerful armament, and his incredible quickness
+the rhinoceros is a dangerous animal at all times, to be treated with
+respect and due caution. This is proved by the number of white men,
+out of a sparse population, that are annually tossed and killed by the
+brutes, and by the promptness with which the natives take to trees-thorn
+trees at that!-when the cry of faru! is raised. As he comes rushing in
+your direction, head down and long weapon pointed, tail rigidly erect,
+ears up, the earth trembling with his tread and the air with his snorts,
+you suddenly feel very small and ineffective.
+
+If you keep cool, however, it is probable that the encounter will
+result only in a lot of mental perturbation for the rhino and a bit
+of excitement for yourself. If there is any cover you should duck down
+behind it and move rapidly but quietly to one side or another of the
+line of advance. If there is no cover, you should crouch low and hold
+still. The chances are he will pass to one side or the other of you, and
+go snorting away into the distance. Keep your eye on him very closely.
+If he swerves definitely in your direction, AND DROPS HIS HEAD A LITTLE
+LOWER, it would be just as well to open fire. Provided the beast was
+still far enough away to give me "sea-room," I used to put a small
+bullet in the flesh of the outer part of the shoulder. The wound thus
+inflicted was not at all serious, but the shock of the bullet usually
+turned the beast. This was generally in the direction of the wounded
+shoulder, which would indicate that the brute turned toward the apparent
+source of the attack, probably for the purpose of getting even. At
+any rate, the shot turned the rush to one side, and the rhinoceros, as
+usual, went right on through. If, however, he seemed to mean business,
+or was too close for comfort, the point to aim for was the neck just
+above the lowered horn.
+
+In my own experience I came to establish a "dead line" about twenty
+yards from myself. That seemed to be as near as I cared to let the
+brutes come. Up to that point I let them alone on the chance that they
+might swerve or change their minds, as they often did. But inside of
+twenty yards, whether the rhinoceros meant to charge me, or was merely
+running blindly by, did not particularly matter. Even in the latter case
+he might happen to catch sight of me and change his mind. Thus,
+looking over my notebook records, I find that I was "charged" forty odd
+times-that is to say, the rhinoceros rushed in my general direction. Of
+this lot I can be sure of but three, and possibly four, that certainly
+meant mischief. Six more came so directly at us, and continued so to
+come, that in spite of ourselves we were compelled to kill them. The
+rest were successfully dodged.
+
+As I have heard old hunters of many times my experience, affirm that
+only in a few instances have they themselves been charged indubitably
+and with malice aforethought, it might be well to detail my reasons for
+believing myself definitely and not blindly attacked.
+
+The first instance was that when B. killed his second trophy rhinoceros.
+The beast's companion refused to leave the dead body for a long time,
+but finally withdrew. On our approaching, however, and after we had
+been some moments occupied with the trophy, it returned and charged
+viciously. It was finally killed at fifteen yards.
+
+The second instance was of a rhinoceros that got up from the grass
+sixty yards away, and came headlong in my direction. At the moment I
+was standing on the edge of a narrow eroded ravine, ten feet deep, with
+perpendicular sides. The rhinoceros came on bravely to the edge of this
+ravine-and stopped. Then he gave an exhibition of unmitigated bad temper
+most amusing to contemplate-from my safe position. He snorted, and
+stamped, and pawed the earth, and tramped up and down at a great rate.
+I sat on the opposite bank and laughed at him. This did not please him
+a bit, but after many short rushes to the edge of the ravine, he gave
+it up and departed slowly, his tail very erect and rigid. From the
+persistency with which he tried to get at me, I cannot but think he
+intended something of the sort from the first.
+
+The third instance was much more aggravating. In company with Memba Sasa
+and Fundi I left camp early one morning to get a waterbuck. Four or five
+hundred yards out, however, we came on fresh buffalo signs, not an hour
+old. To one who knew anything of buffaloes' habits this seemed like an
+excellent chance, for at this time of the morning they should be feeding
+not far away preparatory to seeking cover for the day. Therefore we
+immediately took up the trail.
+
+It led us over hills, through valleys, high grass, burned country,
+brush, thin scrub, and small woodland alternately. Unfortunately we had
+happened on these buffalo just as they were about changing district, and
+they were therefore travelling steadily. At times the trail was easy to
+follow and at other times we had to cast about very diligently to
+find traces of the direction even such huge animals had taken. It was
+interesting work, however, and we drew on steadily, keeping a sharp
+lookout ahead in case the buffalo had come to a halt in some shady
+thicket out of the sun. As the latter ascended the heavens and the
+scorching heat increased, our confidence in nearing our quarry
+ascended likewise, for we knew that buffaloes do not like great heat.
+Nevertheless this band continued straight on its way. I think now they
+must have got scent of our camp, and had therefore decided to move to
+one of the alternate and widely separated feeding grounds every herd
+keeps in its habitat. Only at noon, and after six hours of steady
+trailing, covering perhaps a dozen miles, did we catch them up.
+
+From the start we had been bothered with rhinoceroses. Five times did
+we encounter them, standing almost squarely on the line of the spoor we
+were following. Then we had to make a wide quiet circle to leeward in
+order to avoid disturbing them, and were forced to a very minute search
+in order to pick up the buffalo tracks again on the other side. This was
+at once an anxiety and a delay, and we did not love those rhino.
+
+Finally, at the very edge of the Yatta Plains we overtook the herd,
+resting for noon in a scattered thicket. Leaving Fundi, I, with Memba
+Sasa, stalked down to them. We crawled and crept by inches flat to the
+ground, which was so hot that it fairly burned the hand. The sun beat
+down on us fiercely, and the air was close and heavy even among the
+scanty grass tufts in which we were trying to get cover. It was very
+hard work indeed, but after a half hour of it we gained a thin bush not
+over thirty yards from a half dozen dark and indeterminate bodies dozing
+in the very centre of a brush patch. Cautiously I wiped the sweat
+from my eyes and raised my glasses. It was slow work and patient work,
+picking out and examining each individual beast from the mass. Finally
+the job was done. I let fall my glasses.
+
+"Monumookee y'otey-all cows," I whispered to Memba Sasa.
+
+We backed out of there inch by inch, with intention of circling a short
+distance to the leeward, and then trying the herd again lower down. But
+some awkward slight movement, probably on my part, caught the eye of
+one of those blessed cows. She threw up her head; instantly the whole
+thicket seemed alive with beasts. We could hear them crashing and
+stamping, breaking the brush, rushing headlong and stopping again; we
+could even catch momentary glimpses of dark bodies. After a few minutes
+we saw the mass of the herd emerge from the thicket five hundred yards
+away and flow up over the hill. There were probably a hundred and fifty
+of them, and, looking through my glasses, I saw among them two fine old
+bulls. They were of course not much alarmed, as only the one cow knew
+what it was all about anyway, and I suspected they would stop at the
+next thicket.
+
+We had only one small canteen of water with us, but we divided that. It
+probably did us good, but the quantity was not sufficient to touch our
+thirst. For the remainder of the day we suffered rather severely, as the
+sun was fierce.
+
+After a short interval we followed on after the buffaloes. Within a half
+mile beyond the crest of the hill over which they had disappeared
+was another thicket. At the very edge of the thicket, asleep under an
+outlying bush, stood one of the big bulls!
+
+Luck seemed with us at last. The wind was right, and between us and the
+bull lay only four hundred yards of knee-high grass. All we had to
+do was to get down on our hands and knees, and, without further
+precautions, crawl up within range and pot him. That meant only a bit of
+hard, hot work.
+
+When we were about halfway a rhinoceros suddenly arose from the grass
+between us and the buffalo, and about one hundred yards away.
+
+What had aroused him, at that distance and upwind, I do not know. It
+hardly seemed possible that he could have heard us, for we were moving
+very quietly, and, as I say, we were downwind. However, there he was
+on his feet, sniffing now this way, now that, in search for what had
+alarmed him. We sank out of sight and lay low, fully expecting that the
+brute would make off.
+
+For just twenty-five minutes by the watch that rhinoceros looked and
+looked deliberately in all directions while we lay hidden waiting for
+him to get over it. Sometimes he would start off quite confidently for
+fifty or sixty yards, so that we thought at last we were rid of him, but
+always he returned to the exact spot where we had first seen him,
+there to stamp, and blow. The buffalo paid no attention to these
+manifestations. I suppose everybody in jungleland is accustomed to
+rhinoceros bad temper over nothing. Twice he came in our direction, but
+both times gave it up after advancing twenty-five yards or so. We lay
+flat on our faces, the vertical sun slowly roasting us, and cursed that
+rhino.
+
+Now the significance of this incident is twofold: first, the fact that,
+instead of rushing off at the first intimation of our presence, as would
+the average rhino, he went methodically to work to find us; second, that
+he displayed such remarkable perseverance as to keep at it nearly a
+half hour. This was a spirit quite at variance with that finding its
+expression in the blind rush or in the sudden passionate attack. From
+that point of view it seems to me that the interest and significance of
+the incident can hardly be overstated.
+
+Four or five times we thought ourselves freed of the nuisance, but
+always, just as we were about to move on, back he came, as eager as ever
+to nose us out. Finally he gave it up, and, at a slow trot, started to
+go away from there. And out of the three hundred and sixty degrees of
+the circle where he might have gone he selected just our direction. Note
+that this was downwind for him, and that rhinoceroses usually escape
+upwind.
+
+We laid very low, hoping that, as before, he would change his mind as to
+direction. But now he was no longer looking, but travelling. Nearer
+and nearer he came. We could see plainly his little eyes, and hear
+the regular swish, swish, swish of his thick legs brushing through the
+grass. The regularity of his trot never varied, but to me lying there
+directly in his path, he seemed to be coming on altogether too fast
+for comfort. From our low level he looked as big as a barn. Memba Sasa
+touched me lightly on the leg. I hated to shoot, but finally when he
+loomed fairly over us I saw it must be now or never. If I allowed him to
+come closer, he must indubitably catch the first movement of my gun
+and so charge right on us before I would have time to deliver even an
+ineffective shot. Therefore, most reluctantly, I placed the ivory bead
+of the great Holland gun just to the point of his shoulder and pulled
+the trigger. So close was he that as he toppled forward I instinctively,
+though unnecessarily of course, shrank back as though he might fall on
+me. Fortunately I had picked my spot properly, and no second shot was
+necessary. He fell just twenty-seven feet-nine yards--from where we lay!
+
+The buffalo vanished into the blue. We were left with a dead rhino,
+which we did not want, twelve miles from camp, and no water. It was
+a hard hike back, but we made it finally, though nearly perished from
+thirst.
+
+This beast, be it noted, did not charge us at all, but I consider him
+as one of the three undoubtedly animated by hostile intentions. Of the
+others I can, at this moment, remember five that might or might not have
+been actually and maliciously charging when they were killed or dodged.
+I am no mind reader for rhinoceros. Also I am willing to believe in
+their entirely altruistic intentions. Only, if they want to get the
+practical results of their said altruistic intentions they must really
+refrain from coming straight at me nearer than twenty yards. It has been
+stated that if one stands perfectly still until the rhinoceros is just
+six feet away, and then jumps sideways, the beast will pass him. I never
+happened to meet anybody who had acted on this theory. I suppose that
+such exist: though I doubt if any persistent exponent of the art is
+likely to exist long. Personally I like my own method, and stoutly
+maintain that within twenty yards it is up to the rhinoceros to begin to
+do the dodging.
+
+
+
+
+
+XXII. THE RHINOCEROS-(continued)
+
+At first the traveller is pleased and curious over rhinoceros. After he
+has seen and encountered eight or ten, he begins to look upon them as
+an unmitigated nuisance. By the time he has done a week in thick
+rhino-infested scrub he gets fairly to hating them.
+
+They are bad enough in the open plains, where they can be seen and
+avoided, but in the tall grass or the scrub they are a continuous
+anxiety. No cover seems small enough to reveal them. Often they will
+stand or lie absolutely immobile until you are within a very short
+distance, and then will outrageously break out. They are, in spite of
+their clumsy build, as quick and active as polo ponies, and are the
+only beasts I know of capable of leaping into full speed ahead from a
+recumbent position. In thorn scrub they are the worst, for there, no
+matter how alert the traveller may hold himself, he is likely to come
+around a bush smack on one. And a dozen times a day the throat-stopping,
+abrupt crash and smash to right or left brings him up all standing, his
+heart racing, the blood pounding through his veins. It is jumpy work,
+and is very hard on the temper. In the natural reaction from being
+startled into fits one snaps back to profanity. The cumulative effects
+of the epithets hurled after a departing and inconsiderately hasty
+rhinoceros may have done something toward ruining the temper of the
+species. It does not matter whether or not the individual beast proves
+dangerous; he is inevitably most startling. I have come in at night
+with my eyes fairly aching from spying for rhinos during a day's journey
+through high grass.
+
+And, as a friend remarked, rhinos are such a mussy death. One poor chap,
+killed while we were away on our first trip, could not be moved from
+the spot where he had been trampled. A few shovelfuls of earth over the
+remains was all the rhinoceros had left possible.
+
+Fortunately, in the thick stuff especially, it is often possible to
+avoid the chance rhinoceros through the warning given by the rhinoceros
+birds. These are birds about the size of a robin that accompany the
+beast everywhere. They sit in a row along his back occupying themselves
+with ticks and a good place to roost. Always they are peaceful and quiet
+until a human being approaches. Then they flutter a few feet into the
+air uttering a peculiar rapid chattering. Writers with more sentiment
+than sense of proportion assure us that this warns the rhinoceros of
+approaching danger! On the contrary, I always looked at it the other
+way. The rhinoceros birds thereby warned ME of danger, and I was duly
+thankful.
+
+The safari boys stand quite justly in a holy awe of the rhino. The
+safari is strung out over a mile or two of country, as a usual thing,
+and a downwind rhino is sure to pierce some part of the line in his
+rush. Then down go the loads with a smash, and up the nearest trees
+swarm the boys. Usually their refuges are thorn trees, armed, even on
+the main trunk, with long sharp spikes. There is no difficulty in going
+up, but the gingerly coming down, after all the excitement has died, is
+a matter of deliberation and of voices uplifted in woe. Cuninghame tells
+of an inadequate slender and springy, but solitary, sapling into which
+swarmed half his safari on the advent of a rambunctious rhino. The tree
+swayed and bent and cracked alarmingly, threatening to dump the whole
+lot on the ground. At each crack the boys yelled. This attracted the
+rhinoceros, which immediately charged the tree full tilt. He hit square,
+the tree shivered and creaked, the boys wound their arms and legs around
+the slender support and howled frantically. Again and again rhinoceros
+drew back to repeat his butting of that tree. By the time Cuninghame
+reached the spot, the tree, with its despairing burden of black birds,
+was clinging to the soil by its last remaining roots.
+
+In the Nairobi Club I met a gentleman with one arm gone at the shoulder.
+He told his story in a slightly bored and drawling voice, picking
+his words very carefully, and evidently most occupied with neither
+understating nor overstating the case. It seems he had been out, and had
+killed some sort of a buck. While his men were occupied with this, he
+strolled on alone to see what he could find. He found a rhinoceros, that
+charged viciously, and into which he emptied his gun.
+
+"When I came to," he said, "it was just coming on dusk, and the lions
+were beginning to grunt. My arm was completely crushed, and I was badly
+bruised and knocked about. As near as I could remember I was fully ten
+miles from camp. A circle of carrion birds stood all about me not more
+than ten feet away, and a great many others were flapping over me and
+fighting in the air. These last were so close that I could feel the wind
+from their wings. It was rawther gruesome." He paused and thought a a
+moment, as though weighing his words. "In fact," he added with an air of
+final conviction, "it was QUITE gruesome!"
+
+The most calm and imperturbable rhinoceros I ever saw was one that made
+us a call on the Thika River. It was just noon, and our boys were making
+camp after a morning's march. The usual racket was on, and the usual
+varied movement of rather confused industry. Suddenly silence fell.
+We came out of the tent to see the safari gazing spellbound in one
+direction. There was a rhinoceros wandering peaceably over the little
+knoll back of camp, and headed exactly in our direction. While we
+watched, he strolled through the edge of camp, descended the steep bank
+to the river's edge, drank, climbed the bank, strolled through camp
+again and departed over the hill. To us he paid not the slightest
+attention. It seems impossible to believe that he neither scented nor
+saw any evidences of human life in all that populated flat, especially
+when one considers how often these beasts will SEEM to become aware of
+man's presence by telepathy.* Perhaps he was the one exception to the
+whole race, and was a good-natured rhino.
+
+     * Opposing theories are those of "instinct," and of slight
+     causes, such a grasshoppers leaping before the hunter's
+     feet, not noticed by the man approaching.
+
+The babies are astonishing and amusing creatures, with blunt noses on
+which the horns are just beginning to form, and with even fewer manners
+than their parents. The mere fact of an 800-pound baby does not cease
+to be curious. They are truculent little creatures, and sometimes rather
+hard to avoid when they get on the warpath. Generally, as far as my
+observation goes, the mother gives birth to but one at a time. There may
+be occasional twin births, but I happen never to have met so interesting
+a family.
+
+Rhinoceroses are still very numerous-too numerous. I have seen as many
+as fourteen in two hours, and probably could have found as many more
+if I had been searching for them. There is no doubt, however, that this
+species must be the first to disappear of the larger African animals.
+His great size combined with his 'orrid 'abits mark him for early
+destruction. No such dangerous lunatic can be allowed at large in a
+settled country, nor in a country where men are travelling constantly.
+The species will probably be preserved in appropriate restricted
+areas. It would be a great pity to have so perfect an example of the
+Prehistoric Pinhead wiped out completely. Elsewhere he will diminish,
+and finally disappear.
+
+For one thing, and for one thing only, is the traveller indebted to the
+rhinoceros. The beast is lazy, large, and has an excellent eye for easy
+ways through. For this reason, as regards the question of good roads, he
+combines the excellent qualities of Public Sentiment, the Steam Roller,
+and the Expert Engineer. Through thorn thickets impenetrable to anything
+less armoured than a Dreadnaught like himself he clears excellent
+paths. Down and out of eroded ravines with perpendicular sides he makes
+excellent wide trails, tramped hard, on easy grades, often with zigzags
+to ease the slant. In some of the high country where the torrential
+rains wash hundreds of such gullies across the line of march it
+is hardly an exaggeration to say that travel would be practically
+impossible without the rhino trails wherewith to cross. Sometimes the
+perpendicular banks will extend for miles without offering any natural
+break down to the stream-bed. Since this is so I respectfully submit to
+Government the following proposal:
+
+(a) That a limited number of these beasts shall be licensed as Trail
+Rhinos; and that all the rest shall be killed from the settled and
+regularly travelled districts.
+
+(b) That these Trail Rhinos shall be suitably hobbled by short steel
+chains.
+
+(c) That each Trail Rhino shall carry painted conspicuously on his side
+his serial number.
+
+(d) That as a further precaution for public safety each Trail Rhino
+shall carry firmly attached to his tail a suitable red warning flag.
+Thus the well-known habit of the rhinoceros of elevating his tail
+rigidly when about to charge, or when in the act of charging, will fly
+the flag as a warning to travellers.
+
+(e) That an official shall be appointed to be known as the Inspector of
+Rhinos whose duty it shall be to examine the hobbles, numbers and flags
+of all Trail Rhinos, and to keep the same in due working order and
+repair.
+
+And I do submit to all and sundry that the above resolutions have as
+much sense to them as have most of the petitions submitted to Government
+by settlers in a new country.
+
+
+
+
+
+XXIII. THE HIPPO POOL
+
+For a number of days we camped in a grove just above a dense jungle
+and not fifty paces from the bank of a deep and wide river. We could
+at various points push through light low undergrowth, or stoop beneath
+clear limbs, or emerge on tiny open banks and promontories to look out
+over the width of the stream. The river here was some three or four
+hundred feet wide. It cascaded down through various large boulders and
+sluiceways to fall bubbling and boiling into deep water; it then flowed
+still and sluggish for nearly a half mile and finally divided into
+channels around a number of wooded islands of different sizes. In the
+long still stretch dwelt about sixty hippopotamuses of all sizes.
+
+During our stay these hippos led a life of alarmed and angry care.
+When we first arrived they were distributed picturesquely on banks or
+sandbars, or were lying in midstream. At once they disappeared under
+water. By the end of four or five minutes they began to come to the
+surface. Each beast took one disgusted look, snorted, and sank again.
+So hasty was his action that he did not even take time to get a full
+breath; consequently up he had to come in not more than two minutes,
+this time. The third submersion lasted less than a minute; and at the
+end of half hour of yelling we had the hippos alternating between the
+bottom of the river and the surface of the water about as fast as they
+could make a round trip, blowing like porpoises. It was a comical sight.
+And as some of the boys were always out watching the show, those hippos
+had no respite during the daylight hours. From a short distance inland
+the explosive blowing as they came to the surface sounded like the
+irregular exhaust of a steam-engine.
+
+We camped at this spot four days; and never, in that length of time,
+during the daytime, did those hippopotamuses take any recreation and
+rest. To be sure after a little they calmed down sufficiently to remain
+on the surface for a half minute or so, instead of gasping a mouthful of
+air and plunging below at once; but below was where they considered they
+belonged most of the time. We got to recognize certain individuals. They
+would stare at us fixedly for a while; and then would glump down out of
+sight like submarines.
+
+When I saw them thus floating with only the very top of the head and
+snout out of water, I for the first time appreciated why the Greeks had
+named them hippopotamuses-the river horses. With the heavy jowl hidden;
+and the prominent nostrils, the long reverse-curved nose, the wide eyes,
+and the little pointed ears alone visible, they resembled more than
+a little that sort of conventionalized and noble charger seen on the
+frieze of the Parthenon, or in the prancy paintings of the Renaissance.
+
+There were hippopotamuses of all sizes and of all colours. The
+little ones, not bigger than a grand piano, were of flesh pink. Those
+half-grown were mottled with pink and black in blotches. The adults were
+almost invariably all dark, though a few of them retained still a small
+pink spot or so-a sort of persistence in mature years of the eternal
+boy-, I suppose. All were very sleek and shiny with the wet; and they
+had a fashion of suddenly and violently wiggling one or the other or
+both of their little ears in ridiculous contrast to the fixed stare of
+their bung eyes. Generally they had nothing to say as to the situation,
+though occasionally some exasperated old codger would utter a grumbling
+bellow.
+
+The ground vegetation for a good quarter mile from the river bank
+was entirely destroyed, and the earth beaten and packed hard by these
+animals. Landing trails had been made leading out from the water by easy
+and regular grades. These trails were about two feet wide and worn a
+foot or so deep. They differed from the rhino trails, from which they
+could be easily distinguished, in that they showed distinctly two
+parallel tracks separated from each other by a slight ridge. In other
+words, the hippo waddles. These trails we found as far as four and
+five miles inland. They were used, of course, only at night; and led
+invariably to lush and heavy feed. While we were encamped there, the
+country on our side the river was not used by our particular herd of
+hippos. One night, however, we were awakened by a tremendous rending
+crash of breaking bushes, followed by an instant's silence and then the
+outbreak of a babel of voices. Then we heard a prolonged sw-i-sh-sh-sh,
+exactly like the launching of a big boat. A hippo had blundered out the
+wrong side the river, and fairly into our camp.
+
+In rivers such as the Tana these great beasts are most extraordinarily
+abundant. Directly in front of our camp, for example, were three
+separate herds which contained respectively about sixty, forty, and
+twenty-five head. Within two miles below camp were three other big pools
+each with its population; while a walk of a mile above showed about as
+many more. This sort of thing obtained for practically the whole length
+of the river-hundreds of miles. Furthermore, every little tributary
+stream, no matter how small, provided it can muster a pool or so deep
+enough to submerge so large an animal, has its faithful band. I have
+known of a hippo quite happily occupying a ditch pool ten feet wide and
+fifteen feet long. There was literally not room enough for the beast to
+turn around; he had to go in at one end and out at the other! Each lake,
+too, is alive with them; and both lakes and rivers are many.
+
+Nobody disturbs hippos, save for trophies and an occasional supply of
+meat for the men or of cooking fat for the kitchen. Therefore they wax
+fat and sassy, and will long continue to flourish in the land.
+
+It takes time to kill a hippo, provided one is wanted. The mark is
+small, and generally it is impossible to tell whether or not the bullet
+has reached the brain. Harmed or whole the beast sinks anyway. Some
+hours later the distention of the stomach will float the body. Therefore
+the only decent way to do is to take the shot, and then wait a half
+day to see whether or not you have missed. There are always plenty of
+volunteers in camp to watch the pool, for the boys are extravagantly
+fond of hippo meat. Then it is necessary to manoeuvre a rope on the
+carcass, often a matter of great difficulty, for the other hippos bellow
+and snort and try to live up to the circus posters of the Blood-sweating
+Behemoth of Holy Writ, and the crocodiles like dark meat very much.
+Usually one offers especial reward to volunteers, and shoots into the
+water to frighten the beasts. The volunteer dashes rapidly across the
+shallows, makes a swift plunge, and clambers out on the floating body as
+onto a raft.
+
+Then he makes fast the rope, and everybody tails on and tows the whole
+outfit ashore. On one occasion the volunteer produced a fish line and
+actually caught a small fish from the floating carcass! This sounds like
+a good one; but I saw it with my own two eyes.
+
+It was at the hippo pool camp that we first became acquainted with Funny
+Face.
+
+Funny Face was the smallest, furriest little monkey you ever saw. I
+never cared for monkeys before; but this one was altogether engaging. He
+had thick soft fur almost like that on a Persian cat, and a tiny human
+black face, and hands that emerged from a ruff; and he was about as big
+as old-fashioned dolls used to be before they began to try to imitate
+real babies with them. That is to say, he was that big when we said
+farewell to him. When we first knew him, had he stood in a half pint
+measure he could just have seen over the rim. We caught him in a little
+thorn ravine all by himself, a fact that perhaps indicates that his
+mother had been killed, or perhaps that he, like a good little Funny
+Face, was merely staying where he was told while she was away. At any
+rate he fought savagely, according to his small powers. We took him
+ignominiously by the scruff of the neck, haled him to camp, and dumped
+him down on Billy. Billy constructed him a beautiful belt by sacrificing
+part of a kodak strap (mine), and tied him to a chop box filled with dry
+grass. Thenceforth this became Funny Face's castle, at home and on the
+march.
+
+Within a few hours his confidence in life was restored. He accepted
+small articles of food from our hands, eyeing us intently, retired and
+examined them. As they all proved desirable, he rapidly came to the
+conclusion that these new large strange monkeys, while not so beautiful
+and agile as his own people, were nevertheless a good sort after all.
+Therefore he took us into his confidence. By next day he was quite
+tame, would submit to being picked up without struggling, and had ceased
+trying to take an end off our various fingers. In fact when the finger
+was presented, he would seize it in both small black hands; convey it
+to his mouth; give it several mild and gentle love-chews; and then,
+clasping it with all four hands, would draw himself up like a little
+athlete and seat himself upright on the outspread palm. Thence he would
+survey the world, wrinkling up his tiny brow.
+
+This chastened and scholarly attitude of mind lasted for four or five
+days. Then Funny Face concluded that he understood all about it, had
+settled satisfactorily to himself all the problems of the world and
+his relations to it, and had arrived at a good working basis for life.
+Therefore these questions ceased to occupy him. He dismissed them from
+his mind completely, and gave himself over to light-hearted frivolity.
+
+His disposition was flighty but full of elusive charm. You deprecated
+his lack of serious purpose in life, disapproved heartily of his
+irresponsibility, but you fell to his engaging qualities. He was a
+typical example of the lovable good-for-naught. Nothing retained his
+attention for two consecutive minutes. If he seized a nut and started
+for his chop box with it, the chances were he would drop it and forget
+all about it in the interest excited by a crawling ant or the colour of
+a flower. His elfish face was always alight with the play of emotions
+and of flashing changing interests. He was greatly given to starting off
+on very important errands, which he forgot before he arrived.
+
+In this he contrasted strangely with his friend Darwin. Darwin was
+another monkey of the same species, caught about a week later. Darwin's
+face was sober and pondering, and his methods direct and effective. No
+side excursions into the brilliant though evanescent fields of fancy
+diverted him from his ends. These were, generally, to get the most and
+best food and the warmest corner for sleep. When he had acquired a nut,
+a kernel of corn, or a piece of fruit, he sat him down and examined it
+thoroughly and conscientiously and then, conscientiously and thoroughly,
+he devoured it. No extraneous interest could distract his attention; not
+for a moment. That he had sounded the seriousness of life is proved by
+the fact that he had observed and understood the flighty character
+of Funny Face. When Funny Face acquired a titbit, Darwin took up a
+hump-backed position near at hand, his bright little eyes fixed on his
+friend's activities. Funny Face would nibble relishingly at his prune
+for a moment or so; then an altogether astonishing butterfly would
+flitter by just overhead. Funny Face, lost in ecstasy would gaze skyward
+after the departing marvel. This was Darwin's opportunity. In two
+hops he was at Funny Face's side. With great deliberation, but most
+businesslike directness, Darwin disengaged Funny Face's unresisting
+fingers from the prune, seized it, and retired. Funny Face never
+knew it; his soul was far away after the blazoned wonder, and when it
+returned, it was not to prunes at all. They were forgotten, and his
+wandering eye focussed back to a bright button in the grass. Thus by
+strict attention to business did Darwin prosper.
+
+Darwin's attitude was always serious, and his expression grave. When he
+condescended to romp with Funny Face one could see that it was not for
+the mere joy of sport, but for the purposes of relaxation. If offered
+a gift he always examined it seriously before finally accepting it,
+turning it over and over in his hands, and considering it with wrinkled
+brow. If you offered anything to Funny Face, no matter what, he dashed
+up, seized it on the fly, departed at speed uttering grateful low
+chatterings; probably dropped and forgot it in the excitement of
+something new before he had even looked to see what it was.
+
+"These people," said Darwin to himself, "on the whole, and as an
+average, seem to give me appropriate and pleasing gifts. To be sure, it
+is always well to see that they don't try to bunco me with olive stones
+or such worthless trash, but still I believe they are worth cultivating
+and standing in with."
+
+"It strikes me," observed Funny Face to himself, "that my adorable
+Memsahib and my beloved bwana have been very kind to me to-day, though I
+don't remember precisely how. But I certainly do love them!"
+
+We cut good sized holes on each of the four sides of their chop box to
+afford them ventilation on the march. The box was always carried on one
+of the safari boy's heads: and Funny Face and Darwin gazed forth with
+great interest. It was very amusing to see the big negro striding
+jauntily along under his light burden; the large brown winking eyes
+glued to two of the apertures. When we arrived in camp and threw the
+box cover open, they hopped forth, shook themselves, examined their
+immediate surroundings and proceeded to take a little exercise. When
+anything alarmed them, such as the shadow of a passing hawk, they
+skittered madly up the nearest thing in sight-tent pole, tree, or human
+form-- and scolded indignantly or chittered in a low tone according to
+the degree of their terror. When Funny Face was very young, indeed, the
+grass near camp caught fire. After the excitement was over we found him
+completely buried in the straw of his box, crouched, and whimpering like
+a child. As he could hardly, at his tender age, have had any previous
+experience with fire, this instinctive fear was to me very interesting.
+
+The monkeys had only one genuine enemy. That was an innocent plush
+lion named Little Simba. It had been given us in joke before we left
+California, we had tucked it into an odd corner of our trunk, had
+discovered it there, carried it on safari out of sheer idleness, and
+lo! it had become an important member of the expedition. Every morning
+Mahomet or Yusuf packed it-or rather him-carefully away in the tin box.
+Promptly at the end of the day's march Little Simba was haled forth
+and set in a place of honour in the centre of the table, and reigned
+there-or sometimes in a little grass jungle constructed by his faithful
+servitors-until the march was again resumed. His job in life was to look
+after our hunting luck. When he failed to get us what we wanted, he was
+punished; when he procured us what we desired he was rewarded by having
+his tail sewed on afresh, or by being presented with new black thread
+whiskers, or even a tiny blanket of Mericani against the cold. This
+last was an especial favour for finally getting us the greater kudu.
+Naturally as we did all this in the spirit of an idle joke our rewards
+and punishments were rather desultory. To our surprise, however, we soon
+found that our boys took Little Simba quite seriously. He was a fetish,
+a little god, a power of good or bad luck. We did not appreciate this
+point until one evening, after a rather disappointing day, Mahomet came
+to us bearing Little Simba in his hand.
+
+"Bwana," said he respectfully, "is it enough that I shut Simba in the
+tin box, or do you wish to flog him?"
+
+On one very disgraceful occasion, when everything went wrong, we
+plucked Little Simba from his high throne and with him made a beautiful
+drop-kick out into the tall grass. There, in a loud tone of voice, we
+sternly bade him lie until the morrow. The camp was bung-eyed. It is not
+given to every people to treat its gods in such fashion: indeed, in
+very deed, great is the white man! To be fair, having published Little
+Simba's disgrace, we should publish also Little Simba's triumph: to
+tell how, at the end of a certain very lucky three months' safari he was
+perched atop a pole and carried into town triumphantly at the head of
+a howling, singing procession of a hundred men. He returned to America,
+and now, having retired from active professional life, is leading an
+honoured old age among the trophies he helped to procure.
+
+Funny Face first met Little Simba when on an early investigating tour.
+With considerable difficulty he had shinnied up the table leg, and had
+hoisted himself over the awkwardly projecting table edge. When almost
+within reach of the fascinating affairs displayed atop, he looked
+straight up into the face of Little Simba! Funny Face shrieked aloud,
+let go all holds and fell off flat on his back. Recovering immediately,
+he climbed just as high as he could, and proceeded, during the next
+hour, to relieve his feelings by the most insulting chatterings and
+grimaces. He never recovered from this initial experience. All that was
+necessary to evoke all sorts of monkey talk was to produce Little Simba.
+Against his benign plush front then broke a storm of remonstrance.
+He became the object of slow advances and sudden scurrying, shrieking
+retreats, that lasted just as long as he stayed there, and never got any
+farther than a certain quite conservative point. Little Simba did not
+mind. He was too busy being a god.
+
+
+
+
+
+XXIV. BUFFALO
+
+The Cape Buffalo is one of the four dangerous kinds of African big game;
+of which the other three are the lion, the rhinoceros, and the elephant.
+These latter are familiar to us in zoological gardens, although the
+African and larger form of the rhinoceros and elephant are seldom or
+never seen in captivity. But buffaloes are as yet unrepresented in our
+living collections. They are huge beasts, tremendous from any point
+of view, whether considered in height, in mass, or in power. At the
+shoulder they stand from just under five feet to just under six feet in
+height; they are short legged, heavy bodied bull necked, thick in every
+dimension. In colour they are black as to hair, and slate gray as to
+skin; so that the individual impression depends on the thickness of the
+coat. They wear their horns parted in the middle, sweeping smoothly away
+in the curves of two great bosses either side the head. A good trophy
+will measure in spread from forty inches to four feet. Four men will
+be required to carry in the head alone. As buffaloes when disturbed or
+suspicious have a habit of thrusting their noses up and forward, that
+position will cling to one's memory as the most typical of the species.
+
+A great many hunters rank the buffalo first among the dangerous beasts.
+This is not my own opinion, but he is certainly dangerous enough. He
+possesses the size, power, and truculence of the rhinoceros, together
+with all that animal's keenness of scent and hearing but with a
+sharpness of vision the rhinoceros has not. While not as clever as
+either the lion or the elephant, he is tricky enough when angered to
+circle back for the purpose of attacking his pursuers in the rear or
+flank, and to arrange rather ingenious ambushes for the same purpose.
+He is rather more tenacious of life than the rhinoceros, and will
+carry away an extraordinary quantity of big bullets. Add to these
+considerations the facts that buffaloes go in herds; and that, barring
+luck, chances are about even they will have to be followed into the
+thickest cover, it can readily be seen that their pursuit is exciting.
+
+The problem would be simplified were one able or willing to slip into
+the thicket or up to the grazing herd and kill the nearest beast that
+offers. As a matter of fact an ordinary herd will contain only two or
+three bulls worth shooting; and it is the hunter's delicate task to
+glide and crawl here and there, with due regard for sight, scent and
+sound, until he has picked one of these from the scores of undesirables.
+Many times will he worm his way by inches toward the great black bodies
+half defined in the screen of thick undergrowth only to find that he has
+stalked cows or small bulls. Then inch by inch he must back out again,
+unable to see twenty yards to either side, guiding himself by the
+probabilities of the faint chance breezes in the thicket. To right and
+left he hears the quiet continued crop, crop, crop, sound of animals
+grazing. The sweat runs down his face in streams, and blinds his eyes,
+but only occasionally and with the utmost caution can he raise his
+hand-or, better, lower his head-to clear his vision. When at last he has
+withdrawn from the danger zone, he wipes his face, takes a drink from
+the canteen, and tries again. Sooner or later his presence comes to the
+notice of some old cow. Behind the leafy screen where unsuspected she
+has been standing comes the most unexpected and heart-jumping crash!
+Instantly the jungle all about roars into life. The great bodies of the
+alarmed beasts hurl themselves through the thicket, smash! bang! crash!
+smash! as though a tornado were uprooting the forest. Then abruptly a
+complete silence! This lasts but ten seconds or so; then off rushes the
+wild stampede in another direction; only again to come to a listening
+halt of breathless stillness. So the hunter, unable to see anything,
+and feeling very small, huddles with his gunbearers in a compact group,
+listening to the wild surging short rushes, now this way, now that,
+hoping that the stampede may not run over him. If by chance it does, he
+has his two shots and the possibility of hugging a tree while the rush
+divides around him. The latter is the most likely; a single buffalo
+is hard enough to stop with two shots, let alone a herd. And yet,
+sometimes, the mere flash and noise will suffice to turn them, provided
+they are not actually trying to attack, but only rushing indefinitely
+about. Probably a man can experience few more thrilling moments than he
+will enjoy standing in one of the small leafy rooms of an African jungle
+while several hundred tons of buffalo crash back and forth all around
+him.
+
+In the best of circumstances it is only rarely that having identified
+his big bull, the hunter can deliver a knockdown blow. The beast is
+extraordinarily vital, and in addition it is exceedingly difficult to
+get a fair, open shot. Then from the danger of being trampled down
+by the blind and senseless stampede of the herd he passes to the more
+defined peril from an angered and cunning single animal. The majority of
+fatalities in hunting buffaloes happen while following wounded beasts. A
+flank charge at close range may catch the most experienced man; and even
+when clearly seen, it is difficult to stop. The buffalo's wide bosses
+are a helmet to his brain, and the body shot is always chancy. The beast
+tosses his victim, or tramples him, or pushes him against a tree to
+crush him like a fly.
+
+He who would get his trophy, however, is not always-perhaps is not
+generally-forced into the thicket to get it. When not much disturbed,
+buffaloes are in the habit of grazing out into the open just before
+dark; and of returning to their thicket cover only well after sunrise.
+If the hunter can arrange to meet his herd at such a time, he stands a
+very good chance of getting a clear shot. The job then requires merely
+ordinary caution and manoeuvring; and the only danger, outside the
+ever-present one from the wounded beast, is that the herd may charge
+over him deliberately. Therefore it is well to keep out of sight.
+
+The difficulty generally is to locate your beasts. They wander all
+night, and must be blundered upon in the early morning before they have
+drifted back into the thickets. Sometimes, by sending skilled trackers
+in several directions, they can be traced to where they have entered
+cover. A messenger then brings the white man to the place, and every one
+tries to guess at what spot the buffaloes are likely to emerge for their
+evening stroll. It is remarkably easy to make a wrong guess, and the
+remaining daylight is rarely sufficient to repair a mistake. And also,
+in the case of a herd ranging a wide country with much tall grass and
+several drinking holes, it is rather difficult, without very good luck,
+to locate them on any given night or morning. A few herds, a very few,
+may have fixed habits, and so prove easy hunting.
+
+These difficulties, while in no way formidable, are real enough in their
+small way; but they are immensely increased when the herds have been
+often disturbed. Disturbance need not necessarily mean shooting. In
+countries unvisited by white men often the pastoral natives will so
+annoy the buffalo by shoutings and other means, whenever they appear
+near the tame cattle, that the huge beasts will come practically
+nocturnal. In that case only the rankest luck will avail to get a man
+a chance in the open. The herds cling to cover until after sundown and
+just at dusk; and they return again very soon after the first streaks of
+dawn. If the hunter just happens to be at the exact spot, he may get
+a twilight shot when the glimmering ivory of his front sight is barely
+visible. Otherwise he must go into the thicket.
+
+As an illustration of the first condition might be instanced an
+afternoon on the Tana. The weather was very hot. We had sent three lots
+of men out in different directions, each under the leadership of one
+of the gunbearers, to scout, while we took it easy in the shade of our
+banda, or grass shelter, on the bank of the river. About one o'clock
+a messenger came into camp reporting that the men under Mavrouki had
+traced a herd to its lying-down place. We took our heavy guns and
+started.
+
+The way led through thin scrub up the long slope of a hill that broke
+on the other side into undulating grass ridges that ended in a range of
+hills. These were about four or five miles distant, and thinly wooded
+on sides and lower slopes with what resembled a small live-oak growth.
+Among these trees, our guide told us, the buffalo had first been
+sighted.
+
+The sun was very hot, and all the animals were still. We saw impalla in
+the scrub, and many giraffes and bucks on the plains. After an hour and
+a half's walk we entered the parklike groves at the foot of the hills,
+and our guide began to proceed more cautiously. He moved forward a few
+feet, peered about, retraced his steps. Suddenly his face broke into a
+broad grin. Following his indication we looked up, and there in a tree
+almost above us roosted one of our boys sound asleep! We whistled at
+him. Thereupon he awoke, tried to look very alert, and pointed in the
+direction we should go. After an interval we picked up another sentinel,
+and another, and another until, passed on thus from one to the next,
+we traced the movements of the herd. Finally we came upon Mavrouki and
+Simba under a bush. From them, in whispers, we learned that the buffalo
+were karibu sana-very near; that they had fed this far, and were now
+lying in the long grass just ahead. Leaving the men, we now continued
+our forward movement on hands and knees, in single file. It was very hot
+work, for the sun beat square down on us, and the tall grass kept off
+every breath of air. Every few moments we rested, lying on our faces.
+Occasionally, when the grass shortened, or the slant of ground tended
+to expose us, we lay quite flat and hitched forward an inch at a time by
+the strength of our toes. This was very severe work indeed, and we were
+drenched in perspiration. In fact, as I had been feeling quite ill all
+day, it became rather doubtful whether I could stand the pace.
+
+However after a while we managed to drop down into an eroded deep little
+ravine. Here the air was like that of a furnace, but at least we could
+walk upright for a few rods. This we did, with the most extraordinary
+precautions against even the breaking of a twig or the rolling of a
+pebble. Then we clambered to the top of the bank, wormed our way forward
+another fifty feet to the shelter of a tiny bush, and stretched out to
+recuperate. We lay there some time, sheltered from the sun. Then ahead
+of us suddenly rumbled a deep bellow. We were fairly upon the herd!
+
+Cautiously F., who was nearest the centre of the bush, raised himself
+alongside the stem to look. He could see where the beasts were lying,
+not fifty yards away, but he could make out nothing but the fact of
+great black bodies taking their ease in the grass under the shade of
+trees. So much he reported to us; then rose again to keep watch.
+
+Thus we waited the rest of the afternoon. The sun dipped at last toward
+the west, a faint irregular breeze wandered down from the hills, certain
+birds awoke and uttered their clear calls, an unsuspected kongoni
+stepped from the shade of a tree over the way and began to crop the
+grass, the shadows were lengthening through the trees. Then ahead of
+us an uneasiness ran through the herd. We in the grass could hear the
+mutterings and grumblings of many great animals. Suddenly F. snapped his
+fingers, stooped low and darted forward. We scrambled to our feet and
+followed.
+
+Across a short open space we ran, bent double to the shelter of a big
+ant hill. Peering over the top of this we found ourselves within sixty
+yards of a long compact column of the great black beasts, moving forward
+orderly to the left, the points of the cow's horns, curved up and in,
+tossing slowly as the animals walked. On the flank of the herd was a big
+gray bull.
+
+It had been agreed that B. was to have the shot. Therefore he opened
+fire with his 405 Winchester, a weapon altogether too light for this
+sort of work. At the shot the herd dashed forward to an open grass
+meadow a few rods away, wheeled and faced back in a compact mass, their
+noses thrust up and out in their typical fashion, trying with all their
+senses to locate the cause of the disturbance.
+
+Taking advantage both of the scattered cover, and the half light of the
+shadows we slipped forward as rapidly and as unobtrusively as we could
+to the edge of the grass meadow. Here we came to a stand eighty yards
+from the buffaloes. They stood compactly like a herd of cattle, staring,
+tossing their heads, moving slightly, their wild eyes searching for us.
+I saw several good bulls, but always they moved where it was impossible
+to shoot without danger of getting the wrong beast. Finally my chance
+came; I planted a pair of Holland bullets in the shoulder of one of
+them.
+
+The herd broke away to the right, sweeping past us at close range. My
+bull ran thirty yards with them, then went down stone dead. When we
+examined him we found the hole made by B.'s Winchester bullet; so that
+quite unintentionally and by accident I had fired at the same beast.
+This was lucky. The trophy, by hunter's law, of course, belonged to B.
+
+Therefore F. and I alone followed on after the herd. It was now coming
+on dusk. Within a hundred yards we began to see scattered beasts. The
+formation of the herd had broken. Some had gone on in flight, while
+others in small scattered groups would stop to stare back, and would
+then move slowly on for a few paces before stopping again. Among these
+I made out a bull facing us about a hundred and twenty-five yards away,
+and managed to stagger him, but could not bring him down.
+
+Now occurred an incident which I should hesitate to relate were it not
+that both F. and myself saw it. We have since talked it over, compared
+our recollections, and found them to coincide in every particular.
+
+As we moved cautiously in pursuit of the slowly retreating herd three
+cows broke back and came running down past us. We ducked aside and hid,
+of course, but noticed that of the three two were very young, while one
+was so old that she had become fairly emaciated, a very unusual thing
+with buffaloes. We then followed the herd for twenty minutes, or until
+twilight, when we turned back. About halfway down the slope we again met
+the three cows, returning. They passed us within twenty yards, but paid
+us no attention whatever. The old cow was coming along very reluctantly,
+hanging back at every step, and every once in a while swinging her head
+viciously at one or the other of her two companions. These escorted her
+on either side, and a little to the rear. They were plainly urging her
+forward, and did not hesitate to dig her in the ribs with their horns
+whenever she turned especially obstinate. In fact they acted exactly
+like a pair of cowboys HERDING a recalcitrant animal back to its band
+and I have no doubt at all that when they first by us the old lady was
+making a break for liberty in the wrong direction, AND THAT THE TWO
+YOUNGER COWS WERE TRYING TO ROUND HER BACK! Whether they were her
+daughters or not is problematical; but it certainly seemed that they
+were taking care of her and trying to prevent her running back where
+it was dangerous to go. I never heard of a similar case, though Herbert
+Ward* mentions, without particulars that elephants AND BUFFALOES will
+assist each other WHEN WOUNDED.
+
+     * A Voice from the Congo.
+
+After passing these we returned to where B. and the men, who had now
+come up, had prepared the dead bull for transportation. We started at
+once, travelling by the stars, shouting and singing to discourage the
+lions, but did not reach camp until well into the night.
+
+
+
+
+
+XXV. THE BUFFALO-continued
+
+Some months later, and many hundreds of miles farther south, Billy and
+I found ourselves alone with twenty men, and two weeks to pass until
+C.-our companion at the time-should return from a long journey out with
+a wounded man. By slow stages, and relaying back and forth, we landed in
+a valley so beautiful in every way that we resolved to stay as long as
+possible. This could be but five days at most. At the end of that time
+we must start for our prearranged rendezvous with C.
+
+The valley was in the shape of an ellipse, the sides of which were
+formed by great clifflike mountains, and the other two by hills lower,
+but still of considerable boldness and size. The longest radius was
+perhaps six or eight miles, and the shortest three or four. At one end
+a canyon dropped away to a lower level, and at the other a pass in the
+hills gave over to the country of the Narassara River. The name of the
+valley was Lengeetoto.
+
+From the great mountains flowed many brooks of clear sparkling water,
+that ran beneath the most beautiful of open jungles, to unite finally in
+one main stream that disappeared down the canyon. Between these brooks
+were low broad rolling hills, sometimes grass covered, sometimes grown
+thinly with bushes. Where they headed in the mountains, long stringers
+of forest trees ran up to blocklike groves, apparently pasted like
+wafers against the base of the cliffs, but in reality occupying spacious
+slopes below them.
+
+We decided to camp at the foot of a long grass slant within a hundred
+yards of the trees along one of the small streams. Before us we had the
+sweep of brown grass rising to a clear cut skyline; and all about us the
+distant great hills behind which the day dawned and fell. One afternoon
+a herd of giraffes stood silhouetted on this skyline quite a half hour
+gazing curiously down on our camp. Hartebeeste and zebra swarmed in
+the grassy openings; and impalla in the brush. We saw sing-sing and
+steinbuck, and other animals, and heard lions nearly every night. But
+principally we elected to stay because a herd of buffaloes ranged the
+foothills and dwelt in the groves of forest trees under the cliffs. We
+wanted a buffalo; and as Lengeetoto is practically unknown to white men,
+we thought this a good chance to get one. In that I reckoned without
+the fact that at certain seasons the Masai bring their cattle in, and at
+such times annoy the buffalo all they can.
+
+We started out well enough. I sent Memba Sasa with two men to locate the
+herd. About three o'clock a messenger came to camp after me. We plunged
+through our own jungle, crossed a low swell, traversed another jungle,
+and got in touch with the other two men. They reported the buffalo
+had entered the thicket a few hundred yards below us. Cautiously
+reconnoitering the ground it soon became evident that we would be forced
+more definitely to locate the herd. To be sure, they had entered the
+stream jungle at a known point, but there could be no telling how far
+they might continue in the thicket, nor on what side of it they would
+emerge at sundown. Therefore we commenced cautiously and slowly follow
+the trail.
+
+The going was very thick, naturally, and we could not see very far
+ahead. Our object was not now to try for a bull, but merely to find
+where the herd was feeding, in order that we might wait for it to come
+out. However, we were brought to a stand, in the middle of a jungle of
+green leaves, by the cropping sound of a beast grazing just the other
+side of a bush. We could not see it, and we stood stock still in the
+hope of escaping discovery ourselves. But an instant later a sudden
+crash of wood told us we had been seen. It was near work. The gunbearers
+crouched close to me. I held the heavy double gun ready. If the beast
+had elected to charge I would have had less than ten yards within which
+to stop it. Fortunately it did not do so. But instantly the herd was
+afoot and off at full speed. A locomotive amuck in a kindling pile could
+have made no more appalling a succession of rending crashes than did
+those heavy animals rushing here and there through the thick woody
+growth. We could see nothing. Twice the rush started in our direction,
+but stopped as suddenly as it had begun, to be succeeded by absolute
+stillness when everything, ourselves included, held its breath to
+listen. Finally, the first panic over, the herd started definitely away
+downstream. We ran as fast as we could out of the jungle to a commanding
+position on the hill. Thence we could determine the course of the herd.
+It continued on downstream as far as we could follow the sounds in the
+convolutions of the hills. Realizing that it would improbably recover
+enough from its alarmed condition to resume its regular habits that day,
+we returned to camp.
+
+Next morning Memba Sasa and I were afield before daylight. We took no
+other men. In hunting I am a strong disbeliever in the common habit of
+trailing along a small army. It is simple enough, in case the kill
+is made, to send back for help. No matter how skilful your men are at
+stalking, the chances of alarming the game are greatly increased
+by numbers; while the possibilities of misunderstanding the plan of
+campaign, and so getting into the wrong place at the wrong time, are
+infinite. Alone, or with one gunbearer, a man can slip in and out a herd
+of formidable animals with the least chances of danger. Merely going out
+after camp meat is of course a different matter.
+
+We did not follow in the direction taken by the herd the night before,
+but struck off toward the opposite side of the valley. For two hours we
+searched the wooded country at the base of the cliff mountains, working
+slowly around the circle, examining every inlet, ravine and gully.
+Plenty of other sorts of game we saw, including elephant tracks not
+a half hour old; but no buffalo. About eight o'clock, however, while
+looking through my glasses, I caught sight of some tiny chunky black
+dots crawling along below the mountains diagonally across the valley,
+and somewhat over three miles away. We started in that direction as fast
+as we could walk. At the end of an hour we surmounted the last swell,
+and stood at the edge of a steep drop. Immediately below us flowed a
+good-sized stream through a high jungle over the tops of which we looked
+to a triangular gentle slope overgrown with scattered bushes and high
+grass. Beyond this again ran another jungle, angling up hill from
+the first, to end in a forest of trees about thirty or forty acres in
+extent. This jungle and these trees were backed up against the slope of
+the mountain. The buffaloes we had first seen above the grove: they must
+now have sought cover among either the trees or the lower jungle, and
+it seemed reasonable that the beasts would emerge on the grass and bush
+area late in the afternoon. Therefore Memba Sasa and I selected good
+comfortable sheltered spots, leaned our backs against rocks, and
+resigned ourselves to long patience. It was now about nine o'clock in
+the morning, and we could not expect our game to come out before half
+past three at earliest. We could not, however, go away to come back
+later because of the chance that the buffaloes might take it into their
+heads to go travelling. I had been fooled that way before. For this
+reason, also, it was necessary, every five minutes or so, to examine
+carefully all our boundaries; lest the beasts might be slipping away
+through the cover.
+
+The hours passed very slowly. We made lunch last as long as possible. I
+had in my pocket a small edition of Hawthorne's "The House of the Seven
+Gables," which I read, pausing every few minutes to raise my glasses
+for the periodical examination of the country. The mental focussing
+back from the pale gray half light of Hawthorne's New England to the
+actuality of wild Africa was a most extraordinary experience.
+
+Through the heat of the day the world lay absolutely silent. At about
+half-past three, however, we heard rumblings and low bellows from the
+trees a half mile away. I repocketed Hawthorne, and aroused myself to
+continuous alertness.
+
+The ensuing two hours passed more slowly than all the rest of the
+day, for we were constantly on the lookout. The buffaloes delayed most
+singularly, seemingly reluctant to leave their deep cover. The sun
+dropped behind the mountains, and their shadow commenced to climb the
+opposite range. I glanced at my watch. We had not more than a half hour
+of daylight left.
+
+Fifteen minutes of this passed. It began to look as though our long
+and monotonous wait had been quite in vain; when, right below us, and
+perhaps five hundred yards away, four great black bodies fed leisurely
+from the bushes. Three of them we could see plainly. Two were bulls
+of fair size. The fourth, half concealed in the brush, was by far the
+biggest of the lot.
+
+In order to reach them we would have to slip down the face of the hill
+on which we sat, cross the stream jungle at the bottom, climb out the
+other side, and make our stalk to within range. With a half hour more
+of daylight this would have been comparatively easy, but in such
+circumstances it is difficult to move at the same time rapidly and
+unseen. However, we decided to make the attempt. To that end we
+disencumbered ourselves of all our extras-lunch box, book, kodak,
+glasses, etc.-and wormed our way as rapidly as possible toward the
+bottom of the hill. We utilized the cover as much as we were able, but
+nevertheless breathed a sigh of relief when we had dropped below the
+line of the jungle. We wasted very little time crossing the latter,
+save for precautions against noise. Even in my haste, however, I had
+opportunity to notice its high and austere character, with the arching
+overhead vines, and the clear freedom from undergrowth in its heart.
+Across this cleared space we ran at full speed, crouching below the
+grasp of the vines, splashed across the brook and dashed up the other
+bank. Only a faint glimmer of light lingered in the jungle. At the upper
+edge we paused, collected ourselves, and pushed cautiously through the
+thick border-screen of bush.
+
+The twilight was just fading into dusk. Of course we had taken our
+bearings from the other hill; so now, after reassuring ourselves of
+them, we began to wriggle our way at a great pace through the high
+grass. Our calculations were quite accurate. We stalked successfully,
+and at last, drenched in sweat, found ourselves lying flat within ten
+yards of a small bush behind which we could make out dimly the black
+mass of the largest beast we had seen from across the way.
+
+Although it was now practically dark, we had the game in our own hands.
+From our low position the animal, once it fed forward from behind the
+single small bush, would be plainly outlined against the sky, and at ten
+yards I should be able to place my heavy bullets properly, even in the
+dark. Therefore, quite easy in our minds, we lay flat and rested. At the
+end of twenty seconds the animal began to step forward. I levelled my
+double gun, ready to press trigger the moment the shoulder appeared in
+the clear. Then against the saffron sky emerged the ugly outline and two
+upstanding horns of a rhinoceros!
+
+"Faru!" I whispered disgustedly to Memba Sasa. With infinite pains we
+backed out, then retreated to a safe distance. It was of course now too
+late to hunt up the three genuine buffaloes of this ill-assorted group.
+
+In fact our main necessity was to get through the river jungle before
+the afterglow had faded from the sky, leaving us in pitch darkness.
+I sent Memba Sasa across to pick up the effects we had left on the
+opposite ridge, while I myself struck directly across the flat toward
+camp.
+
+I had plunged ahead thus, for two or three hundred yards, when I was
+brought up short by the violent snort of a rhinoceros just off the
+starboard bow. He was very close, but I was unable to locate him in the
+dusk. A cautious retreat and change of course cleared me from him, and
+I was about to start on again full speed when once more I was halted by
+another rhinoceros, this time dead ahead. Attempting to back away from
+him, I aroused another in my rear; and as though this were not enough a
+fourth opened up to the left.
+
+It was absolutely impossible to see anything ten yards away unless it
+happened to be silhouetted against the sky. I backed cautiously toward
+a little bush, with a vague idea of having something to dodge around.
+As the old hunter said when, unarmed, he met the bear, "Anything, even
+a newspaper, would have come handy." To my great joy I backed against
+a conical ant hill four or five feet high. This I ascended and began
+anti-rhino demonstrations. I had no time to fool with rhinos, anyway. I
+wanted to get through that jungle before the leopards left their family
+circles. I hurled clods of earth and opprobrious shouts and epithets
+in the four directions of my four obstreperous friends, and I thought
+I counted four reluctant departures. Then, with considerable doubt, I
+descended from my ant hill and hurried down the slope, stumbling
+over grass hummocks, colliding with bushes, tangling with vines, but
+progressing in a gratifyingly rhinoless condition. Five minutes cautious
+but rapid feeling my way brought me through the jungle. Shortly after I
+raised the campfires; and so got home.
+
+The next two days were repetitions, with slight variation, of this
+experience, minus the rhinos! Starting from camp before daylight we were
+only in time to see the herd-always aggravatingly on the other side of
+the cover, no matter which side we selected for our approach, slowly
+grazing into the dense jungle. And always they emerged so late and so
+far away that our very best efforts failed to get us near them before
+dark. The margin always so narrow, however, that our hopes were alive.
+
+On the fourth day, which must be our last in Longeetoto, we found that
+the herd had shifted to fresh cover three miles along the base of the
+mountains. We had no faith in those buffaloes, but about half-past three
+we sallied forth dutifully and took position on a hill overlooking the
+new hiding place. This consisted of a wide grove of forest trees varied
+by occasional open glades and many dense thickets. So eager were we to
+win what had by now developed into a contest that I refused to shoot a
+lioness with a three-quarters-grown cub that appeared within easy shot
+from some reeds below us.
+
+Time passed as usual until nearly sunset. Then through an opening into
+one of the small glades we caught sight of the herd travelling slowly
+but steadily from right to left. The glimpse was only momentary, but it
+was sufficient to indicate the direction from which we might expect them
+to emerge. Therefore we ran at top speed down from our own hill, tore
+through the jungle at its foot, and hastily, but with more caution,
+mounted the opposite slope through the scattered groves and high grass.
+We could hear occasionally indications of the buffaloes' slow advance,
+and we wanted to gain a good ambuscade above them before they emerged.
+We found it in the shape of a small conical hillock perched on the
+side hill itself, and covered with long grass. It commanded open vistas
+through the scattered trees in all directions. And the thicket itself
+ended not fifty yards away. No buffalo could possibly come out without
+our seeing him; and we had a good half hour of clear daylight before us.
+It really seemed that luck had changed at last.
+
+We settled ourselves, unlimbered for action, and got our breath. The
+buffaloes came nearer and nearer. At length, through a tiny opening a
+hundred yards away, we could catch momentary glimpses of their great
+black bodies. I thrust forward the safety catch and waited. Finally
+a half dozen of the huge beasts were feeding not six feet inside the
+circle of brush, and only thirty-odd yards from where we lay.
+
+And they came no farther! I never passed a more heart-breaking half hour
+of suspense than that in which little by little the daylight and our
+hopes faded, while those confounded buffaloes moved slowly out to the
+very edge of the thicket, turned, and moved as slowly back again. At
+times they came actually into view. We could see their sleek black
+bodies rolling lazily into sight and back again, like seals on the
+surface of water, but never could we make out more than that. I could
+have had a dozen good shots, but I could not even guess what I would be
+shooting at. And the daylight drained away and the minutes ticked by!
+
+Finally, as I could see no end to this performance save that to which we
+had been so sickeningly accustomed in the last four days, I motioned to
+Memba Sasa, and together we glided like shadows into the thicket.
+
+There it was already dusk. We sneaked breathlessly through the small
+openings, desperately in a hurry, almost painfully on the alert. In the
+dark shadow sixty yards ahead stood a half dozen monstrous bodies all
+facing our way. They suspected the presence of something unusual, but in
+the darkness and the stillness they could neither identify it nor locate
+it exactly. I dropped on one knee and snatched my prism glasses to my
+eyes. The magnification enabled me to see partially into the shadows.
+Every one of the group carried the sharply inturned points to the horns:
+they were all cows!
+
+An instant after I had made out this fact, they stampeded across our
+face. The whole band thundered and crashed away.
+
+Desperately we sprang after them, our guns atrail, our bodies stooped
+low to keep down in the shadow of the earth. And suddenly, without the
+slightest warning we plumped around a bush square on top of the entire
+herd. It had stopped and was staring back in our direction. I could see
+nothing but the wild toss of a hundred pair of horns silhouetted against
+such of the irregular saffron afterglow as had not been blocked off by
+the twigs and branches of the thicket. All below was indistinguishable
+blackness.
+
+They stood in a long compact semicircular line thirty yards away, quite
+still, evidently staring intently into the dusk to find out what had
+alarmed them. At any moment they were likely to make another rush;
+and if they did so in the direction they were facing, they would most
+certainly run over us and trample us down.
+
+Remembering the dusk I thought it likely that the unexpected vivid flash
+of the gun might turn them off before they got started. Therefore I
+raised the big double Holland, aimed below the line of heads, and was
+just about to pull trigger when my eye caught the silhouette of a pair
+of horns whose tips spread out instead of turning in. This was a bull,
+and I immediately shifted the gun in his direction. At the heavy double
+report, the herd broke wildly to right and left and thundered away. I
+confess I was quite relieved.
+
+A low moaning bellow told us that our bull was down. The last few days'
+experience at being out late had taught us wisdom so Memba Sasa had
+brought a lantern. By the light of this, we discovered our bull down,
+and all but dead. To make sure, I put a Winchester bullet into his
+backbone.
+
+We felt ourselves legitimately open to congratulations, for we had
+killed this bull from a practically nocturnal herd, in the face of
+considerable danger and more than considerable difficulty. Therefore we
+shook hands and made appropriate remarks to each other, lacking anybody
+to make them for us.
+
+By now it was pitch dark in the thicket, and just about so outside. We
+had to do a little planning. I took the Holland gun, gave Memba Sasa the
+Winchester, and started him for camp after help. As he carried off the
+lantern, it was now up to me to make a fire and to make it quickly.
+
+For the past hour a fine drizzle had been falling; and the whole country
+was wet from previous rains. I hastily dragged in all the dead wood I
+could find near, collected what ought to be good kindling, and started
+in to light a fire. Now, although I am no Boy Scout, I have lit several
+fires in my time. But never when I was at the same time in such a
+desperate need and hurry; and in possession of such poor materials. The
+harder I worked, the worse things sputtered and smouldered. Probably
+the relief from the long tension of the buffalo hunt had something to
+do with my general piffling inefficiency. If I had taken time to do a
+proper job once instead of a halfway job a dozen times, as I should have
+done and usually would have done, I would have had a fire in no time.
+I imagine I was somewhat scared. The lioness and her hulking cub had
+smelled the buffalo and were prowling around. I could hear them purring
+and uttering their hollow grunts. However, at last the flame held. I
+fed it sparingly, lit a pipe, placed the Holland gun next my hand, and
+resigned myself to waiting. For two hours this was not so bad. I smoked,
+and rested up, and dried out before my little fire. Then my fuel began
+to run low. I arose and tore down all the remaining dead limbs within
+the circle of my firelight. These were not many, so I stepped out into
+the darkness for more. Immediately I was warned back by a deep growl!
+
+The next hour was not one of such solid comfort. I began to get
+parsimonious about my supply of firewood, trying to use it in such a
+manner as to keep up an adequate blaze, and at the same time to make it
+last until Memba Sasa should return with the men. I did it, though I got
+down to charred ends before I was through. The old lioness hung around
+within a hundred yards or so below, and the buffalo herd, returning,
+filed by above, pausing to stamp and snort at the fire. Finally, about
+nine o'clock, I made out two lanterns bobbing up to me through the
+trees.
+
+The last incident to be selected from many experiences with buffaloes
+took place in quite an unvisited district over the mountains from the
+Loieta Plains. For nearly two months we had ranged far in this lovely
+upland country of groves and valleys and wide grass bottoms between
+hills, hunting for greater kudu. One day we all set out from camp to
+sweep the base of a range of low mountains in search of a good specimen
+of Newman's hartebeeste, or anything else especially desirable that
+might happen along. The gentle slope from the mountains was of grass cut
+by numerous small ravines grown with low brush. This brush was so scanty
+as to afford but indifferent cover for anything larger than one of the
+small grass antelopes. All the ravines led down a mile or so to a deeper
+main watercourse paralleling the mountains. Some water stood in the
+pools here; and the cover was a little more dense, but consisted at best
+of but a "stringer" no wider than a city street. Flanking the stringer
+were scattered high bushes for a few yards; and then the open country.
+Altogether as unlikely a place for the shade-loving buffalo as could be
+imagined.
+
+We collected our Newmanii after rather a long hunt; and just at noon,
+when the heat of the day began to come on, we wandered down to the water
+for lunch. Here we found a good clear pool and drank. The boys began to
+make themselves comfortable by the water's edge; C. went to superintend
+the disposal of Billy's mule. Billy had sat down beneath the shade of
+the most hospitable of the bushes a hundred feet or so away, and was
+taking off her veil and gloves. I was carrying to her the lunch box.
+When I was about halfway from where the boys were drinking at the
+stream's edge to where she sat, a buffalo bull thrust his head from the
+bushes just the other side of her. His head was thrust up and forward,
+as he reached after some of the higher tender leaves on the bushes. So
+close was he that I could see plainly the drops glistening on his moist
+black nose. As for Billy, peacefully unwinding her long veil, she seemed
+fairly under the beast.
+
+I had no weapon, and any moment might bring some word or some noise that
+would catch the animal's attention. Fortunately, for the moment, every
+one, relaxed in the first reaction after the long morning, was keeping
+silence. If the buffalo should look down, he could not fail to see
+Billy; and if he saw her, he would indubitably kill her.
+
+As has been explained, snapping the fingers does not seem to reach the
+attention of wild animals. Therefore I snapped mine as vigorously as I
+knew how. Billy heard, looked toward me, turned in the direction of my
+gaze, and slowly sank prone against the ground. Some of the boys heard
+me also, and I could see the heads of all of them popping up in interest
+from the banks of the stream. My cautious but very frantic signals to
+lie low were understood: the heads dropped back. Mavrouki, a rifle
+in each hand, came worming his way toward me through the grass with
+incredible quickness and agility. A moment later he thrust the 405
+Winchester into my hand.
+
+This weapon, powerful and accurate as it is, the best of the lot for
+lions, was altogether too small for the tremendous brute before
+me. However, the Holland was in camp; and I was very glad in the
+circumstances to get this. The buffalo had browsed slowly forward into
+the clear, and was now taking the top off a small bush, and facing half
+away from us. It seemed to me quite the largest buffalo I had ever seen,
+though I should have been willing to have acknowledged at that moment
+that the circumstances had something to do with the estimate. However,
+later we found that the impression was correct. He was verily a giant of
+his kind. His height at the shoulder was five feet ten inches; and
+his build was even chunkier than the usual solid robust pattern of
+buffaloes. For example, his neck, just back of the horns, was two feet
+eight inches thick! He weighed not far from three thousand pounds.
+
+Once the rifle was in my hands I lost the feeling of utter helplessness,
+and began to plan the best way out of the situation. As yet the beast
+was totally unconscious of our presence; but that could not continue
+long. There were too many men about. A chance current of air from any
+one of a half dozen directions could not fail to give him the scent.
+Then there would be lively doings. It was exceedingly desirable to
+deliver the first careful blow of the engagement while he was unaware.
+On the other hand, his present attitude-half away from me-was not
+favourable; nor, in my exposed position dared I move to a better place.
+There seemed nothing better than to wait; so wait we did. Mavrouki
+crouched close at my elbow, showing not the faintest indication of a
+desire to be anywhere but there.
+
+The buffalo browsed for a minute or so; then swung slowly broadside on.
+So massive and low were the bosses of his horns that the brain shot
+was impossible. Therefore I aimed low in the shoulder. The shock of the
+bullet actually knocked that great beast off his feet! My respect for
+the hitting power of the 405 went up several notches. The only
+trouble was that he rebounded like a rubber ball. Without an instant's
+hesitation I gave him another in the same place. This brought him to
+his knees for an instant; but he was immediately afoot again. Billy
+had, with great good sense and courage, continued to lie absolutely flat
+within a few yards of the beast, Mavrouki and I had kept low, and C. and
+the men were out of sight. The buffalo therefore had seen none of his
+antagonists. He charged at a guess, and guessed wrong. As he went by
+I fired at his head, and, as we found out afterward, broke his jaw. A
+moment later C.'s great elephant gun roared from somewhere behind me as
+he fired by a glimpse through the brush at the charging animal. It was
+an excellent snapshot, and landed back of the ribs.
+
+When the buffalo broke through the screen of brush I dashed after him,
+for I thought our only chance of avoiding danger lay in keeping close
+track of where that buffalo went. On the other side the bushes I found a
+little grassy opening, and then a small but dense thicket into which the
+animal had plunged. To my left, C. was running up, followed closely by
+Billy, who, with her usual good sense, had figured out the safest place
+to be immediately back of the guns. We came together at the thicket's
+edge.
+
+The animal's movements could be plainly followed by the sound of his
+crashing. We heard him dash away some distance, pause, circle a bit to
+the right, and then come rushing back in our direction. Stooping low
+we peered into the darkness of the thicket. Suddenly we saw him, not
+a dozen yards away. He was still afoot, but very slow. I dropped the
+magazine of five shots into him as fast as I could work the lever. We
+later found all the bullet-holes in a spot as big as the palm of your
+hand. These successive heavy blows delivered all in the same place were
+too much for even his tremendous vitality; and slowly he sank on his
+side.
+
+
+
+
+
+XXVI. JUJA
+
+Most people have heard of Juja, the modern dwelling in the heart of an
+African wilderness, belonging to our own countryman, Mr. W. N.
+McMillan. If most people are as I was before I saw the place, they have
+considerable curiosity and no knowledge of what it is and how it looks.
+
+We came to Juja at the end of a wide circle that had lasted three
+months, and was now bringing us back again toward our starting point.
+For five days we had been camped on top a high bluff at the junction of
+two rivers. When we moved we dropped down the bluff, crossed one river,
+and, after some searching, found our way up the other bluff. There we
+were on a vast plain bounded by mountains thirty miles away. A large
+white and unexpected sign told us we were on Juja Farm, and warned us
+that we should be careful of our fires in the long grass.
+
+For an hour we plodded slowly along. Herds of zebra and hartebeeste drew
+aside before us, dark heavy wildebeeste-the gnu-stood in groups at a
+safe distance their heads low, looking exactly like our vanished bison;
+ghostlike bands of Thompson's gazelles glided away with their smooth
+regular motion. On the vast and treeless plains single small objects
+standing above the general uniformity took an exaggerated value; so
+that, before it emerged from the swirling heat mirage, a solitary tree
+might easily be mistaken for a group of buildings or a grove. Finally,
+however, we raised above the horizon a dark straight clump of trees. It
+danced in the mirage, and blurred and changed form, but it persisted.
+A strange patch of white kept appearing and disappearing again. This
+resolved itself into the side of a building. A spider-legged water tower
+appeared above the trees.
+
+Gradually we drew up on these. A bit later we swung to the right around
+a close wire fence ten feet high, passed through a gate, and rode down
+a long slanting avenue of young trees. Between the trees were century
+plants and flowers, and a clipped border ran before them. The avenue
+ended before a low white bungalow, with shady verandas all about it, and
+vines. A formal flower garden lay immediately about it, and a very tall
+flag pole had been planted in front. A hundred feet away the garden
+dropped off steep to one of the deep river canyons.
+
+Two white-robed Somalis appeared on the veranda to inform us that
+McMillan was off on safari. Our own boys approaching at this moment, we
+thereupon led them past the house, down another long avenue of trees and
+flowers, out into an open space with many buildings at its edges, past
+extensive stables, and through another gate to the open plains once
+more. Here we made camp. After lunch we went back to explore.
+
+Juja is situated on the top of a high bluff overlooking a river. In
+all directions are tremendous grass plains. Donya Sabuk-the Mountain of
+Buffaloes-is the only landmark nearer than the dim mountains beyond
+the edge of the world, and that is a day's journey away. A rectangle of
+possibly forty acres has been enclosed on three sides by animal-proof
+wire fence. The fourth side is the edge of the bluff. Within this
+enclosure have been planted many trees, now of good size; a pretty
+garden with abundance of flowers, ornamental shrubs, a sundial, and
+lawns. In the river bottom land below the bluff is a very extensive
+vegetable and fruit garden, with cornfields, and experimental plantings
+of rubber, and the like. For the use of the people of Juja here are
+raised a great variety and abundance of vegetables, fruits, and grains.
+
+Juja House, as has been said, stands back a hundred feet from a bend
+in the bluffs that permits a view straight up the river valley. It
+is surrounded by gardens and trees, and occupies all one end of the
+enclosed rectangle. Farther down and perched on the edge of a bluff,
+are several pretty little bungalows for the accommodation of the
+superintendent and his family, for the bachelors' mess, for the farm
+offices and dispensary, and for the dairy room, the ice-plant and the
+post-office and telegraph station. Back of and inland from this row on
+the edge of the cliff, and scattered widely in open space, are a large
+store stocked with everything on earth, the Somali quarters of low
+whitewashed buildings, the cattle corrals, the stables, wild animal
+cages, granaries, blacksmith and carpenter shops, wagon sheds and the
+like. Outside the enclosure, and a half mile away, are the conical grass
+huts that make up the native village. Below the cliff is a concrete dam,
+an electric light plant, a pumping plant and a few details of the sort.
+
+Such is a relief map of Juja proper. Four miles away, and on another
+river, is Long Juja, a strictly utilitarian affair where grow ostriches,
+cattle, sheep, and various irrigated things in the bottom land. All
+the rest of the farm, or estate, or whatever one would call it, is open
+plain, with here and there a river bottom, or a trifle of brush cover.
+But never enough to constitute more than an isolated and lonesome patch.
+
+Before leaving London we had received from McMillan earnest assurances
+that he kept open house, and that we must take advantage of his
+hospitality should we happen his way. Therefore when one of his
+white-robed Somalis approached us to inquire respectfully as to what
+we wanted for dinner, we yielded weakly to the temptation and told him.
+Then we marched us boldly to the house and took possession.
+
+All around the house ran a veranda, shaded bamboo curtains and vines,
+furnished with the luxurious teakwood chairs of the tropics of which you
+can so extend the arms as to form two comfortable and elevated rests for
+your feet. Horns of various animals ornamented the walls. A megaphone
+and a huge terrestrial telescope on a tripod stood in one corner.
+Through the latter one could examine at favourable times the herds of
+game on the plains.
+
+And inside-mind you, we were fresh from three months in the
+wilderness-we found rugs, pictures, wall paper, a pianola, many books,
+baths, beautiful white bedrooms with snowy mosquito curtains, electric
+lights, running water, and above all an atmosphere of homelike comfort.
+We fell into easy chairs, and seized books and magazines. The Somalis
+brought us trays with iced and fizzy drinks in thin glasses. When
+the time came we crossed the veranda in the rear to enter a spacious
+separate dining-room. The table was white with napery, glittering with
+silver and glass, bright with flowers. We ate leisurely of a well-served
+course dinner, ending with black coffee, shelled nuts, and candied
+fruit. Replete and satisfied we strolled back across the veranda to the
+main house. F. raised his hand.
+
+"Hark!" he admonished us.
+
+We held still. From the velvet darkness came the hurried petulant
+barking of zebra; three hyenas howled.
+
+
+
+
+
+XXVII. A VISIT AT JUJA
+
+Next day we left all this; and continued our march. About a month later,
+however, we encountered McMillan himself in Nairobi. I was just out from
+a very hard trip to the coast-Billy not with me-and wanted nothing so
+much as a few days' rest. McMillan's cordiality was not to be denied,
+however, so the very next day found us tucking ourselves into a
+buckboard behind four white Abyssinian mules. McMillan, some Somalis
+and Captain Duirs came along in another similar rig. Our driver was a
+Hottentot half-caste from South Africa. He had a flat face, a yellow
+skin, a quiet manner, and a competent hand. His name was Michael. At his
+feet crouched a small Kikuyu savage, in blanket ear ornaments and all
+the fixings, armed with a long lashed whip and raucous voice. At
+any given moment he was likely to hop out over the moving wheel, run
+forward, bat the off leading mule, and hop back again, all with the
+most extraordinary agility. He likewise hurled what sounded like very
+opprobrious epithets at such natives as did not get out the way quickly
+enough to suit him. The expression of his face, which was that of a
+person steeped in woe, never changed.
+
+We rattled out of Nairobi at a great pace, and swung into the Fort Hall
+Road. This famous thoroughfare, one of the three or four made roads in
+all East Africa, is about sixty miles long. It is a strategic necessity
+but is used by thousands of natives on their way to see the sights of
+the great metropolis. As during the season there is no water for much of
+the distance, a great many pay for their curiosity with their lives. The
+road skirts the base of the hills, winding in and out of shallow canyons
+and about the edges of rounded hills. To the right one can see far out
+across the Athi Plains.
+
+We met an almost unbroken succession of people. There were long pack
+trains of women, quite cheerful, bent over under the weight of firewood
+or vegetables, many with babies tucked away in the folds of their
+garments; mincing dandified warriors with poodle-dog hair, skewers in
+their ears, their jewelery brought to a high polish a fatuous expression
+of self-satisfaction on their faces, carrying each a section of
+sugarcane which they now used as a staff but would later devour for
+lunch; bearers, under convoy of straight soldierly red-sashed Sudanese,
+transporting Government goods; wild-eyed staring shenzis from the
+forest, with matted hair and goatskin garments, looking ready to bolt
+aside at the slightest alarm; coveys of marvellous and giggling damsels,
+their fine-grained skin anointed and shining with red oil, strung with
+beads and shells, very coquettish and sure of their feminine charm;
+naked small boys marching solemnly like their elders; camel trains from
+far-off Abyssinia or Somaliland under convoy of white-clad turbaned
+grave men of beautiful features; donkey safaris in charge of dirty
+degenerate looking East Indians carrying trade goods to some distant
+post-all these and many more, going one way or the other, drew one side,
+at the sight of our white faces, to let us pass.
+
+About two o'clock we suddenly turned off from the road, apparently quite
+at random, down the long grassy interminable incline that dipped slowly
+down and slowly up again over great distance to form the Athi Plains.
+Along the road, with its endless swarm of humanity, we had seen no game,
+but after a half mile it began to appear. We encountered herds of zebra,
+kongoni, wildebeeste, and "Tommies" standing about or grazing, sometimes
+almost within range from the moving buckboard. After a time we made out
+the trees and water tower of Juja ahead; and by four o'clock had turned
+into the avenue of trees. Our approach had been seen. Tea was ready, and
+a great and hospitable table of bottles, ice, and siphons.
+
+The next morning we inspected the stables, built of stone in a hollow
+square, like a fort, with box stalls opening directly into the courtyard
+and screened carefully against the deadly flies. The horses, beautiful
+creatures, were led forth each by his proud and anxious syce. We tried
+them all, and selected our mounts for the time of our stay. The syces
+were small black men, lean and well formed, accustomed to running afoot
+wherever their charges went, at walk, lope or gallop. Thus in a day they
+covered incredible distances over all sorts of country; but were always
+at hand to seize the bridle reins when the master wished to dismount.
+Like the rickshaw runners in Nairobi, they wore their hair clipped close
+around their bullet heads and seemed to have developed into a small
+compact hard type of their own. They ate and slept with their horses.
+
+Just outside the courtyard of the stables a little barred window had
+been cut through. Near this were congregated a number of Kikuyu savages
+wrapped in their blankets, receiving each in turn a portion of cracked
+corn from a dusty white man behind the bars. They were a solemn,
+unsmiling, strange type of savage, and they performed all the manual
+work within the enclosure, squatting on their heels and pulling
+methodically but slowly at the weeds, digging with their pangas,
+carrying loads: to and fro, or solemnly pushing a lawn mower, blankets
+wrapped shamelessly about their necks. They were harried about by a
+red-faced beefy English gardener with a marvellous vocabulary of
+several native languages and a short hippo-hide whip. He talked himself
+absolutely purple in the face without, as far as my observation went,
+penetrating an inch below the surface. The Kikuyus went right on doing
+what they were already doing in exactly the same manner. Probably the
+purple Englishman was satisfied with that, but I am sure apoplexy of
+either the heat or thundering variety has him by now.
+
+Before the store building squatted another group of savages. Perhaps
+in time one of the lot expected to buy something; or possibly they just
+sat. Nobody but a storekeeper would ever have time to find out. Such
+is the native way. The storekeeper in this case was named John. Besides
+being storekeeper, he had charge of the issuing of all the house
+supplies, and those for the white men's mess; he must do all the
+worrying about the upper class natives; he must occasionally kill a
+buck for the meat supply; and he must be prepared to take out any stray
+tenderfeet that happen along during McMillan's absence, and persuade
+them that they are mighty hunters. His domain was a fascinating place,
+for it contained everything from pianola parts to patent washstands. The
+next best equipped place of the kind I know of is the property room of a
+moving picture company.
+
+We went to mail a letter, and found the postmaster to be a
+gentle-voiced, polite little Hindu, who greeted us smilingly,
+and attempted to conceal a work of art. We insisted; whereupon he
+deprecatingly drew forth a copy of a newspaper cartoon having to do with
+Colonel Roosevelt's visit. It was copied with mathematical exactness,
+and highly coloured in a manner to throw into profound melancholy
+the chauffeur of a coloured supplement press. We admired and praised;
+whereupon, still shyly, he produced more, and yet again more copies
+of the same cartoon. When we left, he was reseating himself to the
+painstaking valueless labour with which he filled his days. Three times
+a week such mail as Juja gets comes in via native runner. We saw the
+latter, a splendid figure, almost naked, loping easily, his little
+bundle held before him.
+
+Down past the office and dispensary we strolled, by the comfortable,
+airy, white man's clubhouse. The headman of the native population passed
+us with a dignified salute; a fine upstanding deep-chested man, with a
+lofty air of fierce pride. He and his handful of soldiers alone of the
+natives, except the Somalis and syces, dwelt within the compound in
+a group of huts near the gate. There when off duty they might be seen
+polishing their arms, or chatting with their women. The latter were
+ladies of leisure, with wonderful chignons, much jewelery, and patterned
+Mericani wrapped gracefully about their pretty figures.
+
+By the time we had seen all these things it was noon. We ate lunch. The
+various members of the party decided to do various things. I elected to
+go out with McMillan while he killed a wildebeeste, and I am very glad I
+did. 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. So we jogged out on the
+road to Long Juju, examining with a critical eye the herds of game to
+right and left of us. The latter examined us, apparently, with an eye as
+critical. Finally, in a herd of zebra, we espied a lone wildebeeste.
+
+The wildebeeste is the Jekyll and Hyde of the animal kingdom. His
+usual and familiar habit is that of a heavy, sluggish animal, like
+our vanished bison. He stands solid and inert, his head down; he plods
+slowly forward in single file, his horns swinging, each foot planted
+deliberately. In short, he is the personification of dignity, solid
+respectability, gravity of demeanour. But then all of a sudden, at any
+small interruption, he becomes the giddiest of created beings. Up goes
+his head and tail, he buck jumps, cavorts, gambols, kicks up his heels,
+bounds stiff-legged, and generally performs like an irresponsible
+infant. To see a whole herd at once of these grave and reverend
+seigneurs suddenly blow up into such light-headed capers goes far to
+destroy one's faith in the stability of institutions.
+
+Also the wildebeeste is not misnamed. He is a conservative, and he sees
+no particular reason for allowing his curiosity to interfere with his
+preconceived beliefs. The latter are distrustful. Therefore he and his
+females and his young-I should say small-depart when one is yet far
+away. I say small, because I do not believe that any wildebeeste is ever
+young. They do not resemble calves, but are exact replicas of the big
+ones, just as Niobe's daughters are in nothing childlike, but merely
+smaller women.
+
+When we caught sight of this lone wildebeeste among the zebra, I
+naturally expected that we would pull up the buckboard, descend, and
+approach to within some sort of long range. Then we would open fire.
+Barring luck, the wildebeeste would thereupon depart "wilder and
+beestier than ever," as John McCutcheon has it. Not at all! Michael, the
+Hottentot, turned the buckboard off the road, headed toward the distant
+quarry, and charged at full speed! Over stones we went that sent us feet
+into the air, down and out of shallow gullies that seemed as though they
+would jerk the pole from the vehicle with a grand rattlety-bang, every
+one hanging on for his life. I was entirely occupied with the state of
+my spinal column and the retention of my teeth, but McMillan must have
+been keeping his eye on the game. One peculiarity of the wildebeeste
+is that he cannot see behind him, and another is that he is curious. It
+would not require a very large bump of curiosity, however, to cause any
+animal to wonder what all the row was about. There could be no doubt
+that this animal would sooner or later stop for an instant to look for
+the purpose of seeing what was up in jungleland; and just before
+doing so he would, for a few steps, slow down from a gallop to a trot.
+McMillan was watching for this symptom.
+
+"Now!" he yelled, when he saw it.
+
+Instantly Michael threw his weight into the right rein and against the
+brake. We swerved so violently to the right and stopped so suddenly
+that I nearly landed on the broad prairies. The manoeuvre fetched us up
+broadside. The small black syce-and heaven knows how HE had managed to
+hang on-darted to the heads of the leading mules. At the same moment the
+wildebeeste turned, and stopped; but even before he had swung his head,
+McMillan had fired. It was extraordinarily good, quick work, the way he
+picked up the long range from the spurts of dust where the bullets hit.
+At the third or fourth shots he landed one. Immediately the beast
+was off again at a tearing run pursued by a rapid fusillade from the
+remaining shots. Then with a violent jerk and a wild yell we were off
+again.
+
+This time, since the animal was wounded, he made for rougher country.
+And everywhere that wildebeeste went we too were sure to go. We hit
+or shaved boulders that ought to have smashed a wheel, we tore through
+thick brush regardless. Twice we charged unhesitatingly over apparent
+precipices. I do not know the name of the manufacturer of the buckboard.
+If I did, I should certainly recommend it here. Twice more we swerved to
+our broadside and cut loose the port batteries. Once more McMillan
+hit. Then, on the fourth "run," we gained perceptibly. The beast was
+weakening. When he came to a stumbling halt we were not over a hundred
+yards from him, and McMillan easily brought him down. We had chased him
+four or five miles, and McMillan had fired nineteen shots, of which two
+had hit. The rifle practice throughout had been remarkably good, and a
+treat to watch. Personally, besides the fun of attending the show, I got
+a mighty good afternoon's exercise.
+
+We loaded the game aboard and jogged slowly back to the house, for the
+mules were pretty tired. We found a neighbour, Mr. Heatley of Kamiti
+Ranch who had "dropped down" twelve miles to see us. On account of a
+theft McMillan now had all the Somalis assembled for interrogation on
+the side verandas. The interrogation did not amount to much, but while
+it was going on the Sudanese headman and his askaris were quietly
+searching the boys' quarters. After a time they appeared. The suspected
+men had concealed nothing, but the searchers brought with them three of
+McMillan's shirts which they had found among the effects of another, and
+entirely unsuspected, boy named Abadie.
+
+"How is this, Abadie?" demanded McMillan sternly.
+
+Abadie hesitated. Then he evidently reflected that there is slight use
+in having a deity unless one makes use of him.
+
+"Bwana," said he with an engaging air of belief and candour, "God must
+have put them there!"
+
+That evening we planned a "general day" for the morrow. We took boys and
+buckboards and saddle-horses, beaters, shotguns, rifles, and revolvers,
+and we sallied forth for a grand and joyous time. The day from a
+sporting standpoint was entirely successful, the bag consisting of
+two waterbuck, a zebra, a big wart-hog, six hares, and six grouse.
+Personally I was a little hazy and uncertain. By evening the fever had
+me, and though I stayed at Juja for six days longer, it was as a patient
+to McMillan's unfailing kindness rather than as a participant in the
+life of the farm.
+
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII. A RESIDENCE AT JUJA
+
+A short time later, at about middle of the rainy season, McMillan left
+for a little fishing off Catalina Island. The latter is some fourteen
+thousand miles of travel from Juja. Before leaving on this flying trip,
+McMillan made us a gorgeous offer.
+
+"If," said he, "you want to go it alone, you can go out and use Juja as
+long as you please."
+
+This offer, or, rather, a portion of it, you may be sure, we accepted
+promptly. McMillan wanted in addition to leave us his servants; but to
+this we would not agree. Memba Sasa and Mahomet were, of course, members
+of our permanent staff. In addition to them we picked up another house
+boy, named Leyeye. He was a Masai. These proud and aristocratic savages
+rarely condescend to take service of any sort except as herders; but
+when they do they prove to be unusually efficient and intelligent. We
+had also a Somali cook, and six ordinary bearers to do general labour.
+This small safari we started off afoot for Juja. The whole lot cost us
+about what we would pay one Chinaman on the Pacific Coast.
+
+Next day we ourselves drove out in the mule buckboard. The rains were
+on, and the road was very muddy. After the vital tropical fashion the
+grass was springing tall in the natural meadows and on the plains and
+the brief-lived white lilies and an abundance of ground flowers washed
+the slopes with colour. Beneath the grass covering, the entire surface
+of the ground was an inch or so deep in water. This was always most
+surprising, for, apparently, the whole country should have been high
+and dry. Certainly its level was that of a plateau rather than a bottom
+land; so that one seemed always to be travelling at an elevation.
+Nevertheless walking or riding we were continually splashing, and the
+only dry going outside the occasional rare "islands" of the slight
+undulations we found near the very edge of the bluffs above the rivers.
+There the drainage seemed sufficient to carry off the excess. Elsewhere
+the hardpan or bedrock must have been exceptionally level and near the
+top of the ground.
+
+Nothing nor nobody seemed to mind this much. The game splashed around
+merrily, cropping at the tall grass; the natives slopped indifferently,
+and we ourselves soon became so accustomed to two or three inches of
+water and wet feet that after the first two days we never gave those
+phenomena a thought.
+
+The world above at this season of the year was magnificent. The African
+heavens are always widely spacious, but now they seemed to have blown
+even vaster than usual. In the sweep of the vision four or five heavy
+black rainstorms would be trailing their skirts across an infinitely
+remote prospect; between them white piled scud clouds and cumuli sailed
+like ships; and from them reflected so brilliant a sunlight and behind
+all showed so dazzling a blue sky that the general impression was of
+a fine day. The rainstorms' gray veils slanted; tremendous patches of
+shadow lay becalmed on the plains; bright sunshine poured abundantly its
+warmth and yellow light.
+
+So brilliant with both direct and reflected light and the values of
+contrast were the heavens, that when one happened to stand within one of
+the great shadows it became extraordinarily difficult to make out game
+on the plains. The pupils contracted to the brilliancy overhead. Often
+too, near sunset, the atmosphere would become suffused with a lurid
+saffron light that made everything unreal and ghastly. At such times
+the game seemed puzzled by the unusual aspect of things. The zebra
+especially would bark and stamp and stand their ground, and even come
+nearer out of sheer curiosity. I have thus been within fifty yards of
+them, right out in the open. At such times it was as though the sky,
+instead of rounding over in the usual shape, had been thrust up at the
+western horizon to the same incredible height as the zenith. In the
+space thus created were piled great clouds through which slanted broad
+bands of yellow light on a diminished world.
+
+It rained with great suddenness on our devoted heads, and with a curious
+effect of metamorphoslng the entire universe. One moment all was clear
+and smiling, with the trifling exception of distant rain squalls that
+amounted to nothing in the general scheme. Then the horizon turned
+black, and with incredible swiftness the dark clouds materialized out of
+nothing, rolled high to the zenith like a wave, blotted out every last
+vestige of brightness. A heavy oppressive still darkness breathed over
+the earth. Then through the silence came a faraway soft drumming sound,
+barely to be heard. As we bent our ears to catch this it grew louder and
+louder, approaching at breakneck speed like a troop of horses. It became
+a roar fairly terrifying in its mercilessly continued crescendo. At last
+the deluge of rain burst actually as a relief.
+
+And what a deluge! Facing it we found difficulty in breathing. In six
+seconds every stitch we wore was soaked through, and only the notebook,
+tobacco, and matches bestowed craftily in the crown of the cork helmet
+escaped. The visible world was dark and contracted. It seemed that
+nothing but rain could anywhere exist; as though this storm must fill
+all space to the horizon and beyond. Then it swept on and we found
+ourselves steaming in bright sunlight. The dry flat prairie (if this
+was the first shower for some time) had suddenly become a lake from the
+surface of which projected bushes and clumps of grass. Every game trail
+had become the water course of a swiftly running brook.
+
+But most pleasant were the evenings at Juja, when, safe indoors, we sat
+and listened to the charge of the storm's wild horsemen, and the thunder
+of its drumming on the tin roof. The onslaughts were as fierce and
+abrupt as those of Cossacks, and swept by as suddenly. The roar died
+away in the distance, and we could then hear the steady musical dripping
+of waters.
+
+Pleasant it was also to walk out from Juja in almost any direction. The
+compound, and the buildings and trees within it, soon dwindled in the
+distances of the great flat plain. Herds of game were always in
+sight, grazing, lying down, staring in our direction. The animals
+were incredibly numerous. Some days they were fairly tame, and others
+exceedingly wild, without any rhyme or reason. This shyness or the
+reverse seemed not to be individual to one herd; but to be practically
+universal. On a "wild day" everything was wild from the Lone Tree
+to Long Juju. It would be manifestly absurd to guess at the reason.
+Possibly the cause might be atmospheric or electrical; possibly days of
+nervousness might follow nights of unusual activity by the lions; one
+could invent a dozen possibilities. Perhaps the kongonis decided it.
+
+At Juja we got to know the kongonis even better than we had before.
+They are comical, quizzical beasts, with long-nosed humorous faces, a
+singularly awkward construction, a shambling gait; but with altruistic
+dispositions and an ability to get over the ground at an extraordinary
+speed. Every move is a joke; their expression is always one of grieved
+but humorous astonishment. They quirk their heads sidewise or down and
+stare at an intruder with the most comical air of skeptical wonder.
+"Well, look who's here!" says the expression.
+
+"Pooh!" says the kongoni himself, after a good look, "pooh! pooh!" with
+the most insulting inflection.
+
+He is very numerous and very alert. One or more of a grazing herd are
+always perched as sentinels atop ant hills or similar small elevations.
+On the slightest intimation of danger they give the alarm, whereupon the
+herd makes off at once, gathering in all other miscellaneous game that
+may be in the vicinity. They will go out of their way to do this, as
+every African hunter knows. It immensely complicates matters; for the
+sportsman must not only stalk his quarry, but he must stalk each and
+every kongoni as well. Once, in another part of the country, C. and I
+saw a kongoni leave a band of its own species far down to our right,
+gallop toward us and across our front, pick up a herd of zebra we were
+trying to approach and make off with them to safety. We cursed that
+kongoni, but we admired him, for he deliberately ran out of safety into
+danger for the purpose of warning those zebra. So seriously do they take
+their job as policemen of the plains that it is very common for a lazy
+single animal of another species to graze in a herd of kongonis simply
+for the sake of protection. Wildebeeste are much given to this.
+
+The kongoni progresses by a series of long high bounds. While in
+midair he half tucks up his feet, which gives him the appearance of an
+automatic toy. This gait looks deliberate, but is really quite fast, as
+the mounted sportsman discovers when he enters upon a vain pursuit. If
+the horse is an especially good one, so that the kongoni feels himself
+a trifle closely pressed, the latter stops bouncing and runs. Then he
+simply fades away into the distance.
+
+These beasts are also given to chasing each other all over the
+landscape. When a gentleman kongoni conceives a dislike for another
+gentleman kongoni, he makes no concealment of his emotions, but marches
+up and prods him in the ribs. The ensuing battle is usually fought
+out very stubbornly with much feinting, parrying, clashing of the
+lyre-shaped horns; and a good deal of crafty circling for a favourable
+opening. As far as I was ever able to see not much real damage is
+inflicted; though I could well imagine that only skilful fence prevented
+unpleasant punctures in soft spots. After a time one or the other feels
+himself weakening. He dashes strongly in, wheels while his antagonist is
+braced, and makes off. The enemy pursues. Then, apparently, the chase
+is on for the rest of the day. The victor is not content merely to drive
+his rival out of the country; he wants to catch him. On that object he
+is very intent; about as intent as the other fellow is of getting away.
+I have seen two such beasts almost run over a dozen men who were making
+no effort to keep out of sight. Long after honour is satisfied, indeed,
+as it seems to me, long after the dictates of common decency would call
+a halt that persistent and single-minded pursuer bounds solemnly and
+conscientiously along in the wake of his disgusted rival.
+
+These and the zebra and wildebeeste were at Juja the most conspicuous
+game animals. If they could not for the moment be seen from the veranda
+of the house itself, a short walk to the gate was sufficient to reveal
+many hundreds. Among them fed herds of the smaller Thompson's gazelle,
+or "Tommies." So small were they that only their heads could be seen
+above the tall grass as they ran.
+
+To me there was never-ending fascination in walking out over those
+sloppy plains in search of adventure, and in the pleasure of watching
+the beasts. Scarcely less fascination haunted a stroll down the river
+canyons or along the tops of the bluffs above them. Here the country was
+broken into rocky escarpments in which were caves; was clothed with low
+and scattered brush; or was wooded in the bottom lands. Naturally an
+entirely different set of animals dwelt here; and in addition one was
+often treated to the romance of surprise. Herds of impalla haunted these
+edges; graceful creatures, trim and pretty with wide horns and beautiful
+glowing red coats. Sometimes they would venture out on the open plains,
+in a very compact band, ready to break back for cover at the slightest
+alarm; but generally fed inside the fringe of bushes. Once from the
+bluff above I saw a beautiful herd of over a hundred pacing decorously
+along the river bottom below me, single file, the oldest buck at the
+head, and the miscellaneous small buck bringing up the rear after the
+does. I shouted at them. Immediately the solemn procession broke. They
+began to leap, springing straight up into the air as though from a
+released spring, or diving forward and upward in long graceful bounds
+like dolphins at sea. These leaps were incredible. Several even jumped
+quite over the backs of others; and all without a semblance of effort.
+
+Along the fringe of the river, too, dwelt the lordly waterbuck,
+magnificent and proud as the stags of Landseer; and the tiny steinbuck
+and duiker, no bigger than jack-rabbits, but perfect little deer for
+all that. The incredibly plebeian wart-hog rooted about; and down in
+the bottom lands were leopards. I knocked one off a rock one day. In
+the river itself dwelt hippopotamuses and crocodiles. One of the latter
+dragged under a yearling calf just below the house itself, and while
+we were there. Besides these were of course such affairs as hyenas and
+jackals, and great numbers of small game: hares, ducks, three kinds of
+grouse, guinea fowl, pigeons, quail, and jack snipe, not to speak of a
+variety of plover.
+
+In the drier extents of dry grass atop the bluffs the dance birds were
+especially numerous; each with his dance ring nicely trodden out, each
+leaping and falling rhythmically for hours at a time. Toward sunset
+great flights of sand grouse swarmed across the yellowing sky from some
+distant feeding ground.
+
+Near Juja I had one of the three experiences that especially impressed
+on my mind the abundance of African big game. I had stalked and wounded
+a wildebeeste across the N'derogo River, and had followed him a mile
+or so afoot, hoping to be able to put in a finishing shot. As sometimes
+happens the animal rather gained strength as time went on; so I
+signalled for my horse, mounted, and started out to run him down. After
+a quarter mile we began to pick up the game herds. Those directly in
+our course ran straight away; other herds on either side, seeing them
+running, came across in a slant to join them. Inside of a half mile I
+was driving before me literally thousands of head of game of several
+varieties. The dust rose in a choking cloud that fairly obscured the
+landscape, and the drumming of the hooves was like the stampeding of
+cattle. It was a wonderful sight.
+
+On the plains of Juja, also, I had my one real African Adventure,
+when, as in the Sunday Supplements, I Stared Death in the Face-also
+everlasting disgrace and much derision. We were just returning to the
+farm after an afternoon's walk, and as we approached I began to look
+around for much needed meat. A herd of zebra stood in sight; so leaving
+Memba Sasa I began to stalk them. My usual weapon for this sort of thing
+was the Springfield, for which I carried extra cartridges in my belt. On
+this occasion, however, I traded with Memba Sasa for the 405, simply for
+the purpose of trying it out. At a few paces over three hundred yards
+I landed on the zebra, but did not knock him down. Then I set out to
+follow. It was a long job and took me far, for again and again he joined
+other zebra, when, of course, I could not tell one from t'other. My only
+expedient was to frighten the lot. There upon the uninjured ones would
+distance the one that was hurt. The latter kept his eye on me. Whenever
+I managed to get within reasonable distance, I put up the rear sight of
+the 405, and let drive. I heard every shot hit, and after each hit was
+more than a little astonished to see the zebra still on his feet, and
+still able to wobble on.* The fifth shot emptied the rifle. As I had no
+more cartridges for this arm, I approached to within sixty yards, and
+stopped to wait either for him to fall, or for a very distant Memba Sasa
+to come up with more cartridges. Then the zebra waked up. He put his
+ears back and came straight in my direction. This rush I took for a
+blind death flurry, and so dodged off to one side, thinking that he
+would of course go by me. Not at all! He swung around on the circle too,
+and made after me. I could see that his ears were back, eyes blazing,
+and his teeth snapping with rage. It was a malicious charge, and, as
+such, with due deliberation, I offer it to sportsman's annals. As I had
+no more cartridges I ran away as fast as I could go. Although I made
+rather better time than ever I had attained to before, it was evident
+that the zebra would catch me; and as the brute could paw, bite, and
+kick, I did not much care for the situation. Just as he had nearly
+reached me, and as I was trying to figure on what kind of a fight I
+could put up with a clubbed rifle barrel, he fell dead. To be killed by
+a lion is at least a dignified death; but to be mauled by a zebra!
+
+I am sorry I did not try out this heavy-calibred rifle oftener at long
+range. It was a marvellously effective weapon at close quarters; but I
+have an idea-but only a tentative idea-that above three hundred yards
+its velocity is so reduced by air resistance against the big blunt
+bullet as greatly to impair its hitting powers.
+
+
+We generally got back from our walks or rides just before dark to find
+the house gleaming with lights, a hot bath ready, and a tray of good
+wet drinks next the easy chairs. There, after changing our clothes, we
+sipped and read the papers-two months off the press, but fresh arrived
+for all that-until a white-robed, dignified figure appeared in the
+doorway to inform us that dinner was ready. Our ways were civilized and
+soft, then, until the morrow when once again, perhaps, we went forth
+into the African wilderness.
+
+Juja is a place of startling contrasts-of naked savages clipping formal
+hedges, of windows opening from a perfectly appointed brilliantly
+lighted dining-room to a night whence float the lost wails of hyenas or
+the deep grumbling of lions, of cushioned luxurious chairs in reach
+of many books, but looking out on hills where the game herds feed,
+of comfortable beds with fine linen and soft blankets where one lies
+listening to the voices of an African night, or the weirder minor house
+noises whose origin and nature no man could guess, of tennis courts and
+summer houses, of lawns and hammocks, of sundials and clipped hedges
+separated only by a few strands of woven wire from fields identical with
+those in which roamed the cave men of the Pleistocene. But to Billy was
+reserved the most ridiculous contrast of all. Her bedroom opened to a
+veranda a few feet above a formal garden. This was a very formal garden,
+with a sundial, gravelled walks, bordered flower beds, and clipped
+border hedges. One night she heard a noise outside. Slipping on a warm
+wrap and seizing her trusty revolver she stole out on the veranda to
+investigate. She looked over the veranda rail. There just below her,
+trampling the flower beds, tracking the gravel walks, endangering the
+sundial, stood a hippopotamus!
+
+We had neighbours six or seven miles away. At times they came down to
+spend the night and luxuriate in the comforts of civilization. They were
+a Lady A., and her nephew, and a young Scotch acquaintance the nephew
+had taken into partnership. They had built themselves circular houses
+of papyrus reeds with conical thatched roofs and earth floors, had
+purchased ox teams and gathered a dozen or so Kikuyus, and were engaged
+in breaking a farm in the wilderness. The life was rough and hard, and
+Lady A. and her nephew gently bred, but they seemed to be having quite
+cheerfully the time of their lives. The game furnished them meat, as it
+did all of us, and they hoped in time that their labours would make the
+land valuable and productive. Fascinating as was the life, it was also
+one of many deprivations. At Juja were a number of old copies of Life,
+the pretty girls in which so fascinated the young men that we broke the
+laws of propriety by presenting them, though they did not belong to us.
+C., the nephew, was of the finest type of young Englishman, clean
+cut, enthusiastic, good looking, with an air of engaging vitality
+and optimism. His partner, of his own age, was an insufferable youth.
+Brought up in some small Scottish valley, his outlook had never
+widened. Because he wanted to buy four oxen at a cheaper price, he tried
+desperately to abrogate quarantine regulations. If he had succeeded, he
+would have made a few rupees, but would have introduced disease in his
+neighbours' herds. This consideration did not affect him. He was much
+given to sneering at what he could not understand; and therefore, a
+great deal met with his disapproval. His reading had evidently brought
+him down only to about the middle sixties; and affairs at that date were
+to him still burning questions. Thus he would declaim vehemently over
+the Alabama claims.
+
+"I blush with shame," he would cry, "when I think of England's attitude
+in that matter."
+
+We pointed out that the dispute had been amicably settled by the best
+minds of the time, had passed between the covers of history, and had
+given way in immediate importance to several later topics.
+
+"This vacillating policy," he swept on, "annoys me. For my part, I
+should like to see so firm a stand taken on all questions that in any
+part of the world, whenever a man, and wherever a man, said 'I am an
+Englishman? everybody else would draw back!'"
+
+He was an incredible person. However, I was glad to see him; he and a
+few others of his kind have consoled me for a number of Americans I have
+met abroad. Lady A., with the tolerant philosophy of her class, seemed
+merely amused. I have often since wondered how this ill-assorted
+partnership turned out.
+
+Two other neighbours of ours dropped in once or twice-twenty-six miles
+on bicycles, on which they could ride only a portion of the distance.
+They had some sort of a ranch up in the Ithanga Hills; and were two of
+the nicest fellows one would want to meet, brimful of energy, game for
+anything, and had so good a time always that the grumpiest fever could
+not prevent every one else having a good time too. Once they rode
+on their bicycles forty miles to Nairobi, danced half the night at
+a Government House ball, rode back in the early morning, and did an
+afternoon's plowing! They explained this feat by pointing out most
+convincingly that the ground was just right for plowing, but they did
+not want to miss the ball!
+
+Occasionally a trim and dapper police official would drift in on
+horseback looking for native criminals; and once a safari came by.
+Twelve miles away was the famous Kamiti Farm of Heatly, where Roosevelt
+killed his buffalo; and once or twice Heatly himself, a fine chap, came
+to see us. Also just before I left with Duirs for a lion hunt on Kapiti,
+Lady Girouard, wife of the Governor, and her nephew and niece rode out
+for a hunt. In the African fashion, all these people brought their own
+personal servants. It makes entertaining easy. Nobody knows where all
+these boys sleep; but they manage to tuck away somewhere, and always
+show up after a mysterious system of their own whenever there is
+anything to be done.
+
+We stayed at Juja a little over three weeks. Then most reluctantly said
+farewell and returned to Nairobi in preparation for a long trip to the
+south.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX. CHAPTER THE LAST
+
+With our return from Juja to Nairobi for a breathing space, this volume
+comes to a logical conclusion. In it I have tried to give a fairly
+comprehensive impression-it could hardly be a picture of so large a
+subject-of a portion of East Equatorial Africa, its animals, and its
+people. Those who are sufficiently interested will have an opportunity
+in a succeeding volume of wandering with us even farther afield. The
+low jungly coast region; the fierce desert of the Serengetti; the swift
+sullen rhinoceros-haunted stretches of the Tsavo; Nairobi, the strangest
+mixture of the twentieth centuries A.D. and B.C.; Mombasa with its wild,
+barbaric passionate ebb and flow of life, of colour, of throbbing sound,
+the great lions of the Kapiti Plains, the Thirst of the Loieta, the
+Masai spearmen, the long chase for the greater kudu; the wonderful, high
+unknown country beyond the Narossara and other affairs will there be
+detailed. If the reader of this volume happens to want more, there he
+will find it.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I
+
+Most people are very much interested in how hot it gets in such tropics
+as we traversed. Unfortunately it is very difficult to tell them.
+Temperature tables have very little to do with the matter, for humidity
+varies greatly. On the Serengetti at lower reaches of the Guaso Nyero
+I have seen it above 110 degrees. It was hot, to be sure, but not
+exhaustingly so. On the other hand, at 90 or 95 degrees the low coast
+belt I have had the sweat run from me literally in streams; so that a
+muddy spot formed wherever I stood still. In the highlands, moreover,
+the nights were often extremely cold. I have recorded night temperatures
+as low as 40 at 7000 feet of elevation; and noon temperatures as low 65.
+
+Of more importance than the actual or sensible temperature of the air
+is the power of the sun's rays. At all times of year this is practically
+constant; for the orb merely swings a few degrees north and south of
+the equator, and the extreme difference in time between its risings or
+settings is not more than twenty minutes. This power is also practically
+constant whatever the temperature of the air and is dangerous even on a
+cloudy day, when the heat waves are effectually screened off, but when
+the actinic rays are as active as ever. For this reason the protection
+of helmet and spine pad should never be omitted, no matter what the
+condition of the weather, between nine o'clock and four. A very brief
+exposure is likely to prove fatal. It should be added that some people
+stand these actinic rays better than others.
+
+Such being the case, mere temperature tables could have little interest
+to the general reader. I append a few statistics, selected from many,
+and illustrative of the different conditions.
+
+
+     Locality.     Elevation  6am   noon  8pm  Apparent conditions
+     Coast             ---     80    90   76   Very hot and sticky
+     Isiola River      2900    65    94   84   Hot but not exhausting
+     Tans River        3350    68    98   79   Hot but not exhausting
+     Near Meru         5450    62    80   70   Very pleasant
+     Serengetti Plains 2200    78   106   86   Hot and humid
+     Narossara River   5450    54    89   69   Very pleasant
+     Narossara Mts.    7400    42    80   50   Chilly
+     Narossara Mts.    6450    40    62   52   Cold
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX II
+
+GAME ANIMALS COLLECTED
+
+     Lion                 Bush pig         Grant's gazelle
+     Serval cat           Baboon           Thompson's gazelle
+     Cheetah              Colobus          Gerenuk gazelle
+     Black-backed jackal  Hippopotamus     Coke's hartebeests
+     Silver jackal        Rhinoceros       Jackson's hartebeests
+     Striped hyena        Crocodile        Neuman's hartebeests
+     Spotted hyena        Python           Chandler's reedbuck
+     Fennec fox           Ward's zebra     Bohur reedbuck
+     Honey badger         Grevy's zebra    Beisa ox
+     Aardewolf            Notata gazelle   Fringe-eared oryx
+     Wart-hog             Roberts' gazelle Duiker
+     Waterbuck            Klipspringer     Harvey's duiker
+     Sing-sing            Dik-dik          Greater kudu
+     Oribi (3 varieties)  Wildebeeste      Lesser kudu
+     Eland        Roosevelt's wildebeests  Sable antelope
+     Roan antelope        Buffalo
+     Bushbuck             Topi
+
+     Total, fifty-four kinds
+
+
+GAME BIRDS COLLECTED
+
+     Marabout        Gadwall            Lesser bustard
+     Egret           European stork     Guinea fowl
+     Glossy ibis     Quail              Giant guinea fowl
+     Egyptian goose  Sand grouse        Green pigeon
+     White goose     Francolin          Blue pigeon
+     English snipe   Spur fowl          Dove (2 species)
+     Mallard duck    Greater bustard
+
+     Total, twenty-two kinds
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX III
+
+For the benefit of the sportsman and gun crank who want plain facts and
+no flapdoodle, the following statistics are offered. To the lay reader
+this inclusion will be incomprehensible; but I know my gun crank as I am
+one myself!
+
+Army Springfield, model 1903 to take the 1906 cartridge, shooting the
+Spitzer sharp point bullet. Stocked to suit me by Ludwig Wundhammer,
+and fitted with Sheard gold bead front sight and Lyman aperture
+receiver sight. With this I did most my shooting, as the trajectory was
+remarkably good, and the killing power remarkable. Tried out both the
+old-fashioned soft point bullets and the sharp Spitzer bullets, but find
+the latter far the more effective. In fact the paralyzing shock given
+by the Spitzer is almost beyond belief. African animals are notably
+tenacious of life; but the Springfield dropped nearly half the animals
+dead with one shot; a most unusual record, as every sportsman will
+recognize. The bullets seemed on impact always to flatten slightly at
+the base, the point remaining intact-to spin widely on the axis, and
+to plunge off at an angle. This action of course depended on the high
+velocity. The requisite velocity, however seemed to keep up within all
+shooting ranges. A kongoni I killed at 638 paces (measured), and another
+at 566 paces both exhibited this action of the bullet. I mention these
+ranges because I have seen the statement in print that the remaining
+velocity beyond 350 yards would not be sufficient in this arm to prevent
+the bullet passing through cleanly. I should also hasten to add that I
+do not habitually shoot at game at the above ranges; but did so in these
+two instances for the precise purpose of testing the arm. Metal fouling
+did not bother me at all, though I had been led to expect trouble from
+it. The weapon was always cleaned with water so boiling hot that the
+heat of the barrel dried it. When occasionally flakes of metal fouling
+became visible a Marble brush always sufficed to remove enough of it. It
+was my habit to smear the bullets with mobilubricant before placing
+them in the magazine. This was not as much of a nuisance as it sounds. A
+small tin box about the size of a pill box lasted me the whole trip; and
+only once did I completely empty the magazine at one time. On my return
+I tested the rifle very thoroughly for accuracy. In spite of careful
+cleaning the barrel was in several places slightly corroded. For this
+the climate was responsible. The few small pittings, however, did not
+seem in any way to have affected the accuracy, as the rifle shot the
+following groups: 3-1/2 inches at 200 yards; 7-1/4 inches at 300 yards;
+and 11-1/2 inches at 500 yards.*
+
+     * It shot one five-shot 1-2/3 inch group at 200 yds., and
+     several others at all distances less than the figures given,
+     but I am convinced these must have been largely accidental.
+
+
+These groups were not made from a machine rest, however; as none was
+available. The complete record with this arm for my whole stay in Africa
+was 307 hits out of 395 cartridges fired, representing 185 head of game
+killed. Most of this shooting was for meat and represented also all
+sorts of "varmints" as well.
+
+The 405 Winchester. This weapon was sighted like the Springfield, and
+was constantly in the field as my second gun. For lions it could not be
+beaten; as it was very accurate, delivered a hard blow, and held
+five cartridges. Beyond 125 to 150 yards one had to begin to guess at
+distance, so for ordinary shooting I preferred the Springfield. In
+thick brush country, however, where one was likely to come suddenly
+on rhinoceroes, but where one wanted to be ready always for desirable
+smaller game, the Winchester was just the thing. It was short, handy,
+and reliable. One experience with a zebra 300-350 yards has made me
+question whether at long (hunting) ranges the remaining velocity of the
+big blunt nosed bullet is not seriously reduced; but as to that I have
+not enough data for a final conclusion. I have no doubt, however, that
+at such ranges, and beyond, the little Springfield has more shocking
+power. Of course at closer ranges the Winchester is by far the more
+powerful. I killed one rhinoceros with the 405, one buffalo and one
+hippo; but should consider it too light for an emergency gun against
+the larger dangerous animals, such as buffalo and rhinoceros. If one has
+time for extreme accuracy, and can pick the shot, it is plenty big; but
+I refer now to close quarters in a hurry. I had no trouble whatever with
+the mechanism of this arm; nor have I ever had trouble with any of the
+lever actions, although I have used them for many years. As regards
+speed of fire the controversy between the lever and bolt action
+advocates seems to me foolish in the extreme. Either action can be fired
+faster than it should be fired in the presence of game. It is my belief
+that any man, no matter how practised or how cool, can stampede himself
+beyond his best accuracy by pumping out his shots too rapidly. This is
+especially true in the face of charging dangerous game. So firmly do I
+believe this that I generally take the rifle from my shoulder between
+each shot. Even aimed rapid fire is of no great value as compared with
+better aimed slower fire. The first bullet delivers to an animal's
+nervous system about all the shock it can absorb. If the beast is not
+thereby knocked down and held down, subsequent shots can accomplish that
+desirable result only by reaching a vital spot or by tearing tissue.
+As an example of this I might instance a waterbuck into which I saw
+my companion empty five heavy 465 and double 500 bullets from cordite
+rifles before it fell! Thus if the game gets to its feet after the first
+shock, it is true that the hunter will often empty into it six or seven
+more bullets without apparent result, unless he aims carefully for a
+centrally vital point. It follows that therefore a second shot aimed
+with enough care to land it in that point is worth a lot more than a
+half dozen delivered in three or four seconds with only the accuracy
+necessary to group decently at very short range, even if all of them
+hit the beast. I am perfectly aware that this view will probably
+be disputed; but it is the result of considerable experience, close
+observation and real interest in the game. The whole record of the
+Winchester was 56 hits out of 70 cartridges fired; representing 27 head
+of game.
+
+The 465 Holland & Holland double cordite rifle. This beautiful weapon,
+built and balanced like a fine hammerless shotgun, was fitted with open
+sights. It was of course essentially a close range emergency gun, but
+was capable of accurate work at a distance. I killed one buffalo dead
+with it, across a wide canyon, with the 300-yard leaf up on the
+back sight. Its game list however was limited to rhinoceroses,
+hippopotamuses, buffaloes and crocodiles. The recoil in spite of its
+weight of twelve and one half pounds, was tremendous; but unnoticeable
+when I was shooting at any of these brutes. Its total record was 31
+cartridges fired with 29 hits representing 13 head of game.
+
+The conditions militating against marksmanship are often severe. Hard
+work in the tropics is not the most steadying regime in the world, and
+outside a man's nerves, he is often bothered by queer lights, and the
+effects of the mirage that swirls from the sun-heated plain. The ranges,
+too, are rather long. I took the trouble to pace out about every kill,
+and find that antelope in the plains averaged 245 yards; with a maximum
+of 638 yards, while antelope in covered country averaged 148 yards, with
+a maximum of 311.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX IV. THE AMERICAN IN AFRICA
+
+IN WHICH HE APPEARS AS DIFFERENT FROM THE ENGLISHMAN
+
+It is always interesting to play the other fellow's game his way, and
+then, in light of experience, to see wherein our way and his way modify
+each other.
+
+The above proposition here refers to camping. We do considerable of it
+in our country, especially in our North and West. After we have been
+at it for some time, we evolve a method of our own. The basis of that
+method is to do without; to GO LIGHT. At first even the best of us will
+carry too much plunder, but ten years of philosophy and rainstorms,
+trails and trials, will bring us to an irreducible minimum. A party of
+three will get along with two pack horses, say; or, on a harder trip,
+each will carry the necessities on his own back. To take just as little
+as is consistent with comfort is to play the game skilfully. Any article
+must pay in use for its transportation.
+
+With this ideal deeply ingrained by the test of experience, the American
+camper is appalled by the caravan his British cousins consider necessary
+for a trip into the African back country. His said cousin has, perhaps,
+very kindly offered to have his outfit ready for him when he arrives.
+He does arrive to find from one hundred to one hundred and fifty men
+gathered as his personal attendants.
+
+"Great Scot!" he cries, "I want to go camping; I don't want to invade
+anybody's territory. Why the army?"
+
+He discovers that these are porters, to carry his effects.
+
+"What effects?" he demands, bewildered. As far as he knows, he has
+two guns, some ammunition, and a black tin box, bought in London, and
+half-filled with extra clothes, a few medicines, a thermometer, and
+some little personal knick-knacks. He has been wondering what else he
+is going to put in to keep things from rattling about. Of course he
+expected besides these to take along a little plain grub, and some
+blankets, and a frying pan and kettle or so.
+
+The English friend has known several Americans, so he explains
+patiently.
+
+"I know this seems foolish to you," he says, "but you must remember you
+are under the equator and you must do things differently here. As long
+as you keep fit you are safe; but if you get run down a bit you'll go.
+You've got to do yourself well, down here, rather better than you have
+to in any other climate. You need all the comfort you can get; and you
+want to save yourself all you can."
+
+This has a reasonable sound and the American does not yet know the game.
+Recovering from his first shock, he begins to look things over. There
+is a double tent, folding camp chair, folding easy chair, folding table,
+wash basin, bath tub, cot, mosquito curtains, clothes hangers; there are
+oil lanterns, oil carriers, two loads of mysterious cooking utensils and
+cook camp stuff; there is an open fly, which his friend explains is his
+dining tent; and there are from a dozen to twenty boxes standing in a
+row, each with its padlock. "I didn't go in for luxury," apologizes the
+English friend. "Of course we can easily add anything you want but I
+remember you wrote me that you wanted to travel light."
+
+"What are those?" our American inquires, pointing to the locked boxes.
+
+He learns that they are chop boxes, containing food and supplies. At
+this he rises on his hind legs and paws the air.
+
+"Food!" he shrieks. "Why, man alive, I'm alone, and I am only going to
+be out three months! I can carry all I'll ever eat in three months in
+one of those boxes."
+
+But the Englishman patiently explains. You cannot live on "bacon and
+beans" in this country, so to speak. You must do yourself rather well,
+you know, to keep in condition. And you cannot pack food in bags,
+it must be tinned. And then, of course, such things as your sparklet
+siphons and lime juice require careful packing-and your champagne.
+
+"Champagne," breathes the American in awestricken tones.
+
+"Exactly, dear boy, an absolute necessity. After a touch of sun there's
+nothing picks you up better than a mouthful of fizz. It's used as a
+medicine, not a drink, you understand."
+
+The American reflects again that this is the other fellow's game, and
+that the other fellow has been playing it for some time, and that he
+ought to know. But he cannot yet see why the one hundred and fifty men.
+Again the Englishman explains. There is the Headman to run the show.
+Correct: we need him. Then there are four askaris. What are they? Native
+soldiers. No, you won't be fighting anything; but they keep the men
+going, and act as sort of sub-foremen in bossing the complicated work.
+Next is your cook, and your own valet and that of your horse. Also your
+two gunbearers.
+
+"Hold on!" cries our friend. "I have only two guns, and I'm going to
+carry one myself."
+
+But this, he learns, is quite impossible. It is never done. It is
+absolutely necessary, in this climate, to avoid all work.
+
+That makes how many? Ten already, and there seem to be three tent
+loads, one bed load, one chair and table load, one lantern load, two
+miscellaneous loads, two cook loads, one personal box, and fifteen chop
+boxes-total twenty-six, plus the staff, as above, thirty-six. Why all
+the rest of the army?
+
+Very simple: these thirty-six men have, according to regulation, seven
+tents, and certain personal effects, and they must have "potio" or a
+ration of one and a half pounds per diem. These things must be carried
+by more men.
+
+"I see," murmurs the American, crushed, "and these more men have more
+tents and more potio, which must also be carried. It's like the House
+that Jack Built."
+
+So our American concludes still once again that the other fellow knows
+his own game, and starts out. He learns he has what is called a "modest
+safari"; and spares a fleeting wonder as to what a really elaborate
+safari must be. The procession takes the field. He soon sees the value
+of the four askaris-the necessity of whom he has secretly doubted.
+Without their vigorous seconding the headman would have a hard time
+indeed. Also, when he observes the labour of tent-making, packing,
+washing, and general service performed by his tent boy, he abandons the
+notion that that individual could just as well take care of the horse as
+well, especially as the horse has to have all his grass cut and brought
+to him. At evening our friend has a hot bath, a long cool fizzly drink
+of lime juice and soda; he puts on the clean clothes laid out for him,
+assumes soft mosquito boots, and sits down to dinner. This is served
+to him in courses, and on enamel ware. Each course has its proper-sized
+plate and cutlery. He starts with soup, goes down through tinned
+whitebait or other fish, an entree, a roast, perhaps a curry, a sweet,
+and small coffee. He is certainly being "done well," and he enjoys the
+comfort of it.
+
+There comes a time when he begins to wonder a little. It is all very
+pleasant, of course, and perhaps very necessary; they all tell him it
+is. But, after all, it is a little galling to the average man to think
+that of him. Your Englishman doesn't mind that; he enjoys being taken
+care of: but the sportsman of American training likes to stand on his
+own feet as far as he is able and conditions permit. Besides, it is
+expensive. Besides that, it is a confounded nuisance, especially when
+potio gives out and more must be sought, near or far. Then, if he is
+wise, he begins to do a little figuring on his own account.
+
+My experience was very much as above. Three of us went out for eleven
+weeks with what was considered a very "modest" safari indeed. It
+comprised one hundred and eighteen men. My fifth and last trip, also
+with two companions, was for three months. Our personnel consisted, all
+told, forty men.
+
+In essentials the Englishman is absolutely right. One cannot camp in
+Africa as one would at home. The experimenter would be dead in a month.
+In his application of that principle, however, he seems to the American
+point of view to overshoot. Let us examine his proposition in terms of
+the essentials-food, clothing, shelter. There is no doubt but that a man
+must keep in top condition as far as possible; and that, to do so, he
+must have plenty of good food. He can never do as we do on very hard
+trips at home: take a little tea, sugar, coffee, flour, salt, oatmeal.
+But on the other hand, he certainly does not need a five-course dinner
+every night, nor a complete battery of cutlery, napery and table ware to
+eat it from. Flour, sugar, oatmeal, tea and coffee, rice, beans, onions,
+curry, dried fruits, a little bacon, and some dehydrated vegetables
+will do him very well indeed-with what he can shoot. These will pack in
+waterproof bags very comfortably. In addition to feeding himself well,
+he finds he must not sleep next to the ground, he must have a hot bath
+every day, but never a cold one, and he must shelter himself with a
+double tent against the sun.
+
+Those are the absolute necessities of the climate. In other words, if
+he carries a double tent, a cot, a folding bath; and gives a little
+attention to a properly balanced food supply, he has met the situation.
+
+If, in addition, he takes canned goods, soda siphons, lime juice, easy
+chairs and all the rest of the paraphernalia, he is merely using a basic
+principle as an excuse to include sheer luxuries. In further extenuation
+of this he is apt to argue that porters are cheap, and that it costs
+but little more to carry these extra comforts. Against this argument, of
+course, I have nothing to say. It is the inalienable right of every
+man to carry all the luxuries he wants. My point is that the average
+American sportsman does not want them, and only takes them because he is
+overpersuaded that these things are not luxuries, but necessities. For,
+mark you, he could take the same things into the Sierras or the North-by
+paying; but he doesn't.
+
+I repeat, it is the inalienable right of any man to travel as
+luxuriously as he pleases. But by the same token it is not his right to
+pretend that luxuries are necessities. That is to put himself into the
+same category with the man who always finds some other excuse for taking
+a drink than the simple one that he wants it.
+
+The Englishman's point of view is that he objects to "pigging it," as
+he says. "Pigging it" means changing your home habits in any way. If you
+have been accustomed to eating your sardines after a meal, and somebody
+offers them to you first, that is "pigging it." In other words, as
+nearly as I can make out, "pigging it" does not so much mean doing
+things in an inadequate fashion as DOING THEM DIFFERENTLY. Therefore,
+the Englishman in the field likes to approximate as closely as may be
+his life in town, even if it takes one hundred and fifty men to do it.
+Which reduces the "pigging it" argument to an attempt at condemnation by
+calling names.
+
+The American temperament, on the contrary, being more experimental
+and independent, prefers to build anew upon its essentials. Where the
+Englishman covers the situation blanket-wise with his old institutions,
+the American prefers to construct new institutions on the necessities of
+the case. He objects strongly to being taken care of too completely. He
+objects strongly to losing the keen enjoyment of overcoming difficulties
+and enduring hardships. The Englishman by habit and training has no such
+objections. He likes to be taken care of, financially, personally, and
+everlastingly. That is his ideal of life. If he can be taken care of
+better by employing three hundred porters and packing eight tin trunks
+of personal effects-as I have seen it done-he will so employ and take.
+That is all right: he likes it.
+
+But the American does not like it. A good deal of the fun for him is in
+going light, in matching himself against his environment. It is no
+fun to him to carry his complete little civilization along with him,
+laboriously. If he must have cotton wool, let it be as little cotton
+wool as possible. He likes to be comfortable; but he likes to be
+comfortable with the minimum of means. Striking just the proper balance
+somehow adds to his interest in the game. And how he DOES object to
+that ever-recurring thought-that he is such a helpless mollusc that it
+requires a small regiment to get him safely around the country!
+
+Both means are perfectly legitimate, of course; and neither view is
+open to criticism. All either man is justified in saying is that he,
+personally, wouldn't get much fun out of doing it the other way. As a
+matter of fact, human nature generally goes beyond its justifications
+and is prone to criticise. The Englishman waxes a trifle caustic on the
+subject of "pigging it"; and the American indulges in more than a bit
+of sarcasm on the subject of "being led about Africa like a dog on a
+string."
+
+By some such roundabout mental process as the above the American comes
+to the conclusion that he need not necessarily adopt the other fellow's
+method of playing this game. His own method needs modification, but it
+will do. He ventures to leave out the tables and easy chair, takes a
+camp stool and eats off a chop box. To the best of his belief his health
+does not suffer from this. He gets on with a camper's allowance of
+plate, cup and cutlery, and so cuts out a load and a half of assorted
+kitchen utensils and table ware. He even does without a tablecloth and
+napkins! He discards the lime juice and siphons, and purchases a
+canvas evaporation bag to cool the water. He fires one gunbearer, and
+undertakes the formidable physical feat of carrying one of his rifles
+himself. And, above all, he modifies that grub list. The purchase of
+waterproof bags gets rid of a lot of tin: the staple groceries do quite
+as well as London fancy stuff. Golden syrup takes the place of all the
+miscellaneous jams, marmalades and other sweets. The canned goods go
+by the board. He lays in a stock of dried fruit. At the end, he is
+possessed of a grub list but little different from that of his Rocky
+Mountain trips. Some few items he has cut down; and some he has
+substituted; but bulk and weight are the same. For his three months'
+trip he has four or five chop boxes all told.
+
+And then suddenly he finds that thus he has made a reduction all along
+the line. Tent load, two men; grub and kitchen, five men; personal, one
+man; bed, one man; miscellaneous, one or two. There is now no need for
+headmen and askaris to handle this little lot. Twenty more to carry food
+for the men-he is off with a quarter of the number of his first "modest
+safari."
+
+You who are sportsmen and are not going to Africa, as is the case with
+most, will perhaps read this, because we are always interested in how
+the other fellow does it. To the few who are intending an exploration
+of the dark continent this concentration of a year's experience may be
+valuable. Remember to sleep off the ground, not to starve yourself,
+to protect yourself from the sun, to let negroes do all hard work
+but marching and hunting. Do these things your own way, using your
+common-sense on how to get at it. You'll be all right.
+
+That, I conceive, covers the case. The remainder of your equipment has
+to do with camp affairs, and merely needs listing. The question here is
+not of the sort to get, but of what to take. The tents, cooking affairs,
+etc., are well adapted to the country. In selecting your tent, however,
+you will do very well to pick out one whose veranda fly reaches fairly
+to the ground, instead of stopping halfway.
+
+     1 tent and ground sheet
+     1 folding cot and cork mattress,
+     1 pillow, 3 single blankets
+     1 combined folding bath and ashstand ("X" brand)
+     1 camp stool
+     3 folding candle lanterns
+     1 gallon turpentine
+     3 lbs. alum
+     1 river rope
+     Sail needles and twine
+     3 pangas (native tools for chopping and digging)
+     Cook outfit (select these yourself, and cut out the extras)
+     2 axes (small)
+     Plenty laundry soap
+     Evaporation bag
+     2 pails
+     10 yards cotton cloth ("Mericani")
+
+These things, your food, your porters' outfits and what trade goods you
+may need are quite sufficient. You will have all you want, and not too
+much. If you take care of yourself, you ought to keep in good health.
+Your small outfit permits greater mobility than does that of the English
+cousin, infinitely less nuisance and expense. Furthermore, you feel that
+once more you are "next to things," instead of "being led about Africa
+like a dog on a string."
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX V. THE AMERICAN IN AFRICA
+
+WHAT HE SHOULD TAKE
+
+Before going to Africa I read as many books as I could get hold of on
+the subject, some of them by Americans. In every case the authors have
+given a chapter detailing the necessary outfit. Invariably they have
+followed the Englishman's ideas almost absolutely. Nobody has ventured
+to modify those ideas in any essential manner. Some have deprecatingly
+ventured to remark that it is as well to leave out the tinned carfare-if
+you do not like carfare; but that is as far as they care to go. The
+lists are those of the firms who make a business of equipping caravans.
+The heads of such firms are generally old African travellers. They
+furnish the equipment their customers demand; and as English sportsmen
+generally all demand the same thing, the firms end by issuing a printed
+list of essentials for shooting parties in Africa, including carfare.
+Travellers follow the lists blindly, and later copy them verbatim into
+their books. Not one has thought to empty out the whole bag of tricks,
+to examine them in the light of reason, and to pick out what a man of
+American habits, as contrasted to one of English habits, would like to
+have. This cannot be done a priori; it requires the test of experience
+to determine how to meet, in our own way, the unusual demands of climate
+and conditions.
+
+And please note, when the heads of these equipment firms, these old
+African travellers, take the field for themselves, they pay no attention
+whatever to their own printed lists of "essentials."
+
+Now, premising that the English sportsman has, by many years'
+experience, worked out just what he likes to take into the field; and
+assuring you solemnly that his ideas are not in the least the ideas of
+American sportsman, let us see if we cannot do something for ourselves.
+
+At present the American has either to take over in toto the English
+idea, which is not adapted to him, and is-TO HIM-a nuisance, or to go it
+blind, without experience except that acquired in a temperate climate,
+which is dangerous. I am not going to copy out the English list again,
+even for comparison. I have not the space; and if curious enough, you
+can find it in any book on modern African travel. Of course I realize
+well that few Americans go to Africa; but I also realize well that
+the sportsman is a crank, a wild and eager enthusiast over items of
+equipment anywhere. He-and I am thinking emphatically of him-would
+avidly devour the details of the proper outfit for the gentle art of
+hunting the totally extinct whiffenpoof.
+
+Let us begin, first of all, with:
+
+Personal Equipment Clothes. On the top of your head you must have a sun
+helmet. Get it of cork, not of pith. The latter has a habit of melting
+unobtrusively about your ears when it rains. A helmet in brush is the
+next noisiest thing to a circus band, so it is always well to have,
+also, a double terai. This is not something to eat. It is a wide
+felt hat, and then another wide felt hat on top of that. The
+vertical-rays-of-the-tropical-sun (pronounced as one word to save time
+after you have heard and said it a thousand times) are supposed to get
+tangled and lost somewhere between the two hats. It is not, however, a
+good contraption to go in all day when the sun is strong.
+
+As underwear you want the lightest Jaeger wool. Doesn't sound well for
+tropics, but it is an essential. You will sweat enough anyway, even if
+you get down to a brass wire costume like the natives. It is when you
+stop in the shade, or the breeze, or the dusk of evening, that the
+trouble comes. A chill means trouble, SURE. Two extra suits are all you
+want. There is no earthly sense in bringing more. Your tent boy washes
+them out whenever he can lay hands on them-it is one of his harmless
+manias.
+
+Your shirt should be of the thinnest brown flannel. Leather the
+shoulders, and part way down the upper arm, with chamois. This is to
+protect your precious garment against the thorns when you dive through
+them. On the back you have buttons sewed wherewith to attach a spine
+pad. Before I went to Africa I searched eagerly for information or
+illustration of a spine pad. I guessed what it must be for, and to an
+extent what it must be like, but all writers maintained a conservative
+reticence as to the thing itself. Here is the first authorized
+description. A spine pad is a quilted affair in consistency like the
+things you are supposed to lift hot flat-irons with. On the outside it
+is brown flannel, like the shirt; on the inside it is a gaudy orange
+colour. The latter is not for aesthetic effect, but to intercept actinic
+rays. It is eight or ten inches wide, is shaped to button close up under
+your collar, and extends halfway down your back. In addition it is well
+to wear a silk handkerchief around the neck; as the spine and back of
+the head seem to be the most vulnerable to the sun.
+
+For breeches, suit yourself as to material. It will have to be very
+tough, and of fast colour. The best cut is the "semi-riding," loose
+at the knees, which should be well faced with soft leather, both for
+crawling, and to save the cloth in grass and low brush. One pair ought
+to last four months, roughly speaking. You will find a thin pair of
+ordinary khaki trousers very comfortable as a change for wear about
+camp. In passing I would call your attention to "shorts." Shorts are
+loose, bobbed off khaki breeches, like knee drawers. With them are worn
+puttees or leather leggings, and low boots. The knees are bare. They are
+much affected by young Englishmen. I observed them carefully at every
+opportunity, and my private opinion is that man has rarely managed to
+invent as idiotically unfitted a contraption for the purpose in hand.
+In a country teeming with poisonous insects, ticks, fever-bearing
+mosquitoes; in a country where vegetation is unusually well armed with
+thorns, spines and hooks, mostly poisonous; in a country where, oftener
+than in any other a man is called upon to get down on his hands and
+knees and crawl a few assorted abrading miles, it would seem an obvious
+necessity to protect one's bare skin as much as possible. The only
+reason given for these astonishing garments is that they are cooler and
+freer to walk in. That I can believe. But they allow ticks and other
+insects to crawl up, mosquitoes to bite, thorns to tear, and assorted
+troubles to enter. And I can vouch by experience that ordinary breeches
+are not uncomfortably hot or tight. Indeed, one does not get especially
+hot in the legs anyway. I noticed that none of the old-time hunters like
+Cuninghame or Judd wore shorts. The real reason is not that they are
+cool, but that they are picturesque. Common belief to the contrary, your
+average practical, matter-of-fact Englishman loves to dress up. I knew
+one engaged in farming-picturesque farming-in our own West, who used
+to appear at afternoon tea in a clean suit of blue overalls! It is a
+harmless amusement. Our own youths do it, also, substituting chaps for
+shorts, perhaps. I am not criticising the spirit in them; but merely
+trying to keep mistaken shorts off you.
+
+For leg gear I found that nothing could beat our American combination of
+high-laced boots and heavy knit socks. Leather leggings are noisy, and
+the rolled puttees hot and binding. Have your boots ten or twelve inches
+high, with a flap to buckle over the tie of the laces, with soles of the
+mercury-impregnated leather called "elk hide," and with small Hungarian
+hobs. Your tent boy will grease these every day with "dubbin," of
+which you want a good supply. It is not my intention to offer free
+advertisements generally, but I wore one pair of boots all the time I
+was in Africa, through wet, heat, and long, long walking. They were
+in good condition when I gave them away finally, and had not started a
+stitch. They were made by that excellent craftsman, A. A. Cutter, of
+Eau Claire, Wis., and he deserves and is entirely welcome to this puff.
+Needless to remark, I have received no especial favours from Mr. Cutter.
+
+Six pairs of woollen socks, knit by hand, if possible-will be enough.
+For evening, when you come in, I know nothing better than a pair of very
+high moosehide moccasins. They should, however, be provided with thin
+soles against the stray thorn, and should reach well above the ankle by
+way of defence against the fever mosquito. That festive insect carries
+on a surreptitious guerrilla warfare low down. The English "mosquito
+boot" is simply an affair like a riding boot, made of suede leather,
+with thin soles. It is most comfortable. My objection is that it
+is unsubstantial and goes to pieces in a very brief time even under
+ordinary evening wear about camp.
+
+You will also want a coat. In American camping I have always maintained
+the coat is a useless garment. There one does his own work to a large
+extent. When at work or travel the coat is in the way. When in camp
+the sweater or buckskin shirt is handier, and more easily carried. In
+Africa, however, where the other fellow does most of the work, a coat
+is often very handy. Do not make the mistake of getting an unlined
+light-weight garment. When you want it at all, you want it warm and
+substantial. Stick on all the pockets possible, and have them button
+securely.
+
+For wet weather there is nothing to equal a long and voluminous cape.
+Straps crossing the chest and around the waist permit one to throw it
+off the shoulders to shoot. It covers the hands, the rifle-most of the
+little horses or mules one gets out there. One can sleep in or on it,
+and it is a most effective garment against heavy winds. One suit of
+pajamas is enough, considering your tent boy's commendable mania for
+laundry work. Add handkerchiefs and you are fixed.
+
+You will wear most of the above, and put what remains in your "officer's
+box." This is a thin steel, air-tight affair with a wooden bottom, and
+is the ticket for African work.
+
+Sporting. Pick out your guns to suit yourself. You want a light one and
+a heavy one.
+
+When I came to send out my ammunition, I was forced again to take the
+other fellow's experience. I was told by everybody that I should bring
+plenty, that it was better to have too much than too little, etc. I
+rather thought so myself, and accordingly shipped a trifle over 1,500
+rounds of small bore cartridges. Unfortunately, I never got into the
+field with any of my numerous advisers on this point, so cannot state
+their methods from first-hand information. Inductive reasoning leads me
+to believe that they consider it unsportsmanlike to shoot at a standing
+animal at all, or at one running nearer than 250 yards. Furthermore, it
+is etiquette to continue firing until the last cloud of dust has died
+down on the distant horizon. Only thus can I conceive of getting rid
+of that amount of ammunition. In eight months of steady shooting,
+for example-shooting for trophies, as well as to feed a safari of
+fluctuating numbers, counting jackals, marabout and such small trash-I
+got away with 395 rounds of small bore ammunition and about 100 of
+large. This accounted for 225 kills. That should give one an idea.
+Figure out how many animals you are likely to want for ANY purpose,
+multiply by three, and bring that many cartridges.
+
+To carry these cartridges I should adopt the English system of a stout
+leather belt on which you slip various sized pockets and loops to suit
+the occasion. Each unit has loops for ten cartridges. You rarely want
+more than that; and if you do, your gunbearer is supplied. In addition
+to the loops, you have leather pockets to carry your watch; your money,
+your matches and tobacco, your compass-anything you please. They
+are handy and safe. The tropical climate is too "sticky" to get much
+comfort, or anything else, out of ordinary pockets.
+
+In addition, you supply your gunbearer with a cartridge belt, a leather
+or canvas carrying bag, water bottle for him and for yourself, a sheath
+knife and a whetstone. In the bag are your camera, tape line, the
+whetstone, field cleaners and lunch. You personally carry your field
+glasses, sun glasses, a knife, compass, matches, police whistle and
+notebook. The field glasses should not be more than six power; and if
+possible you should get the sort with detachable prisms. The prisms
+are apt to cloud in a tropical climate, and the non-detachable sort are
+almost impossible for a layman to clean. Hang these glasses around your
+neck by a strap only just long enough to permit you to raise them to
+your eyes. The best notebook is the "loose-leaf" sort. By means of this
+you can keep always a fresh leaf on top; and at night can transfer your
+day's notes to safe keeping in your tin box. The sun glasses should not
+be smoked or dark-you can do nothing with them-but of the new amberol,
+the sort that excludes the ultra-violet rays, but otherwise makes the
+world brighter and gayer. Spectacle frames of non-corrosive white metal,
+not steel, are the proper sort.
+
+To clean your guns you must supply plenty of oil, and then some more.
+The East African gunbearer has a quite proper and gratifying, but most
+astonishing horror for a suspicion of rust; and to use oil any faster he
+would have to drink it.
+
+Other Equipment. All this has taken much time to tell about, it has not
+done much toward filling up that tin box. Dump in your toilet effects
+and a bath towel, two or three scalpels for taxidermy, a ball of string,
+some safety-pins, a small tool kit, sewing materials, a flask of brandy,
+kodak films packed in tin, a boxed thermometer, an aneroid (if you are
+curious as to elevations), journal, tags for labelling trophies, a few
+yards of gun cloth, and the medicine kit.
+
+The latter divides into two classes: for your men and for yourself.
+The men will suffer from certain well defined troubles: "tumbo,"
+or overeating; diarrhaea, bronchial colds, fever and various small
+injuries. For "tumbo" you want a liberal supply of Epsom's salts; for
+diarrhaea you need chlorodyne; any good expectorant for the colds;
+quinine for the fever; permanganate and plenty of bandages for the
+injuries. With this lot you can do wonders. For yourself you need,
+or may need, in addition, a more elaborate lot: Laxative, quinine,
+phenacetin, bismuth and soda, bromide of ammonium, morphia, camphor-ice,
+and aspirin. A clinical thermometer for whites and one for blacks should
+be included. A tin of malted milk is not a bad thing to take as an
+emergency ration after fever.
+
+By this time your tin box is fairly well provided. You may turn to
+general supplies.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Land of Footprints, by Stewart Edward White
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