172 A BOOK-LOVER'S HOLIDAYS 



voted personal attendants. Where the game 

 swarmed and no human beings existed for many 

 leagues round about we built circular fences of 

 thorns to keep out beasts of prey. The porters, 

 chanting a monotonous refrain, brought in 

 wood to keep the watch-fires going all night. 

 Supper was cooked and eaten. Then we sat 

 and hstened to the fierce and eager life that 

 went on in the darkness outside. Hoofs thun- 

 dered now and then, there were snortings and 

 gruntings, occasional bellowings or roarings, or 

 angry whinings, of fear or of cruel hunger or of 

 savage love-making; ever there was a skipping 

 and running of beasts unseen; for out there in 

 the darkness a game as old as the world was 

 being played, a game without any rules, where 

 the forfeit was death. 



Generally the wild creatures were not so 

 close even at these lonely camps, and we did 

 not have to guard against attack, although 

 there were always sentries and watch-fires, and 

 we always slept with our loaded rifles beside 

 us. After dinner the tent-boys and gun-bearers 

 would talk and laugh, or tell stories, or hsten 

 while one of their number, Kermit's first gun- 

 bearer, a huge, absolutely honest, coal-black 

 negro from south of the Victorian Lake, 

 strummed on an odd Httle native harp; and 



