CH. xi] HORSE FLIES 200 



the column with tiill-jacketed bullets in my rifle. How- 

 ever, we never saw the rhino, nor had we any other 

 adventure ; and the ride through the moonlight, which 

 softened all the harshness, and gave a touch of magic 

 and mystery to the landscape, was so pleasant that 

 I was sorry when we caught the gleam of the camp- 

 fires. 



Next day we sent our porters to bring in the rest of 

 the giraffe meat and the ostrich eggs. The giraffe's 

 heart was good eating. There were many ticks on tiie 

 giraffe, as on all the game hereabouts, and they annoyed 

 us a little also, although very far from being the ])lague 

 they were on the Athi plain. Among the flies which 

 at times tormented the horses and hung around the 

 game were big gadflies with long wings folded longi- 

 tudinally down the back, not in the ordinary fly fashion ; 

 they were akin to the tsetse flies, one species of which 

 is fatal to domestic animals, and another, the sleeping- 

 sickness fly, to man himself They produce death by 

 means of the fatal microbes introduced into the blood 

 by their bite ; wliereas another African fly, the seroot, 

 found more to the north, in the Nile countries, is a 

 scourge to man and beast merely because of its vicious 

 bite, and, where it swarms, may drive the tribes that 

 own herds entirely out of certain districts. 



One afternoon, while leading my horse because the 

 ground was a litter of sharp-edged stones, I came out 

 on a plain which was crawling with zebra. In every 

 direction there were herds of scores or of liundreds. 

 The}^ were all of the common or small kind, except 

 three individuals of the big kangani, and were tame, 

 letting me walk by within easy shot. Other game was 

 mixed in with them. Soon, walking over a little ridge 

 of rocks, we saw a rhino sixty yards of}'. To walk 



