CH. I] KITANGA 29 



sped after it. By the time I had reached my horse 

 Pease was out of sight ; but, riding hard for some miles, 

 I overtook him, Just before the sun went down, standing 

 by the cow, which he had ridden down and slain. It 

 was long after nightfall before we reached camp, ready 

 for a hot bath and a good supper. As always thereafter 

 with anything we shot, we used the meat for food, and 

 preserved the skins for the National Museum. Both 

 the cow and the bull were fat and in fine condition ; 

 but they were covered with ticks, especially wherever 

 the skin was bare. Around the eyes the loathsome 

 creatures swarmed so as to make complete rims, like 

 spectacles ; and in the armpits and the grohi they were 

 massed so that they looked like barnacles on an old boat. 

 It is astonishing that the game should mind them so 

 little ; the wildebeest evidently dreaded far more the 

 biting flies which hung around them, and the maggots 

 of the bot-flies in their nostrils must have been a sore 

 torment. Nature is merciless indeed. 



The next day we rode some sixteen miles to the 

 beautiful hills of Kitanga, and for over a fortnight were 

 either Pease's guests at his farm — ranch, as we should 

 call it in the West — or were on safari under his 

 guidance. 



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