290 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 



although neither the rocks nor the rotten soil seemed 

 to hamper the movements of the game. Here and 

 there were treeless stretches. Elsewhere there were 

 occasional palms, and trees thirty or forty feet high, 

 seemingly cactus or aloes, which looked even more like 

 candelabra than the euphorbia which is thus named ; 

 and a scattered growth of thorn-trees and bushes. The 

 thorn-trees were of many kinds. One bore only a few 

 leathery leaves, the place of foliage being taken by the 

 mass of poisonous-looking, fleshy spines which, together 

 with the ends of the branches, were bright green. The 

 camel-thorn was completely armed with little, sharply 

 hooked thorns which tore whatever they touched, 

 whether flesh or clotlies. Then there were the mimosas, 

 with long, straight thorn spikes ; they are so plentiful 

 in certain places along the Guaso Nyero that almost all 

 tlie lions have festering sores in their paws because of 

 the spikes that have broken off in them. In these 

 thorn-trees the weaver birds had built multitudes of 

 their straw nests, each with its bottle-shaped mouth 

 towards the north, away from the direction of the 

 prevailing wind. 



Each morning we were up at dawn, and saw the 

 heavens redden and the sun flame over the rim of the 

 world. All day long we rode and walked across the 

 endless flats, save that at noon, when the sky was like 

 molten brass, we might rest under the thin half-shade 

 of some thorn-tree. As the shadows lengthened and 

 the harsh, pitiless glare softened, we might turn camp- 

 ward ; or we might hunt until the sun went down, and 

 the mountains in the far-off west, and the sky above 

 them, grew faint and dim with the hues of fairyland. 

 Then we would ride back through the soft, warm 

 beauty of the tropic night, the stars blazing overhead 



