WILD HUNTING COMPANIONS 171 



sessed a sympathetic insight into the shenzi 

 mind — led us to the spot and caught the of- 

 fender, and a party of the villagers, red-handed. 

 Kongoni and GouvimaU pounced on the faithless 

 guide, while the others scattered; and the sais, 

 unable to resist having something to do with 

 the fray, handed the led mule to a small naked 

 boy, rushed forward, gave the captive a thump, 

 and then returned to his mule. The offender 

 was brought to camp and put under guard — 

 evidently horribly afraid we would eat him in- 

 stead of the now far-gone roan. Next day 

 Kermit got home from his hunt before I did. 

 When I reached camp I found Kermit sitting 

 with a book and his pipe under a great tree, m 

 his camp-chair. The captive was tied with a 

 string to the huge tree trunk. He sat on the 

 ground and uttered hollow groans whenever he 

 thought they would be effective. At nightfall 

 we released him, keeping his knife, which we 

 required him to redeem with a chicken; and 

 when he returned with the chicken we bade 

 him give it to Kongoni, to whom we owed the 

 discovery of the roan. 



In some of the wilder and more lonely camps 

 these body-servants were my only companions, 

 together with some shenzi porters; at others 

 Kermit was with me, also with his tail of de- 



