84 RHINO AND GIRAFFES [ch. iv 



In the next line were the cook tent, the provision tent, 

 the store tent, the skinning tent, and the hke ; and then 

 came the hnes of small white tents for the porters. 

 Between each row of tents was a broad street. In front 

 of our own tents, in the first line, an askari was always 

 pacing to and fro ; and when night fell we would kindle 

 a camp-fire and sit around it under the stars. Before 

 each of the porters' tents was a little fire, and beside it 

 stood the pots and pans in which the porters did their 

 cooking. Here and there were larger fires, around which 

 the gun-bearers or a group of askaris or of saises might 

 gather. After nightfall the multitude of fires lit up the 

 darkness and showed the tents in shadowy outline ; and 

 around them squatted the porters, their faces flickering 

 from dusk to ruddy light, as they chatted together or 

 suddenly started some snatch of wild African melody in 

 which all their neighbours might join. After a while 

 the talk and laughter and singing would gradually die 

 away, and as we white men sat around our fire the 

 silence would be unbroken except by the queer cry of 

 a hyena, or much more rarely by a sound that always 

 demanded attention — the yawning grunt of a questing 

 lion. 



If we wished to make an early start we would break- 

 fast by dawn, and then we often returned to camp for 

 lunch. Otherwise we would usually be absent all day, 

 carrying our lunch with us. We might get in before 

 sunset or we might be out till long after nightfall ; and 

 then the gleam of the lit fires was a welcome sight as 

 we stumbled toward them through the darkness. Once 

 in, each went to his tent to take a hot bath ; and 

 then, clean and refreshed, we sat down to a comfortable 

 dinner, with game of some sort as the principal dish. 

 On the first march after leaving our lion camp at 



