THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



men with me. After a little over thirty minutes of half- 

 walking, half-rmining, the Wandorobo stopped and asked 

 me to let the bulk of the men wait there, while he and I 

 with only one gun bearer should sneak up to the buffaloes, 

 which were now only some six to seven hundred yards 

 away. An order to sit down and wait was always obeyed 

 with much satisfaction, and as a fairly strong wind was 

 blowing in our faces from the direction of the herd, we 

 soon caught their wind, noticing more and more their 

 peculiar strong odor. 



With the utmost caution, we followed the naked Wan- 

 dorobo, who penetrated the dense bush like an eel through 

 the water, without making the slightest noise, while my 

 gun bearer and I were not quite so successful in avoiding 

 dry twigs on the ground, and the noise of the scraping 

 of branches against our clothes. To make it easier for me 

 to move on quietly I had already left my big sun helmet 

 behind with the men, and had donned a small, soft, green 

 cap. I could do this with safety, for the jungle here was 

 so dense that hardly a ray of equatorial sun could pene- 

 trate to our heads. 



After a while my guide stopped again and, pointing 

 forward, whispered in my ear : " Huko nyati mkubwa, 

 chini ya miti mkubwa." (The big buffalo is there, under 

 the big tree. ) The tree to which he pointed with his spear 

 was only about fifty yards away, and right in front of us. 

 I took up some dry, fine sand, which I always used to 

 carry in my pocket, lifted it up and let it fall to the ground 

 to see if the wind was still right. To my dismay, the 

 sand fell down as straight as it could, showing that at the 

 time there was no wind at all. Here I left even the gun 



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