312 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 



mouthfuls, between times nervously raising its head and 

 looking in every direction, nostrils and ears twitching. 

 They were not looking for crocodiles, but for land foes, 

 lions or leopards. Each in turn drank, skipping up to 

 the top of the bank after a few mouthfuls, and then 

 returning to the water. The bull followed with rather 

 less caution, and before he had finished drinking the 

 cows scurried hurriedly back to the thorn-trees and the 

 open country. We had plenty of meat in camp, and I 

 had completed my series of this species of waterbuck 

 for the Museum ; and I was glad there was no need to 

 molest them. 



The porters were enjoying the rest and the abundance 

 of meat. They were lying about camp, or were scattered 

 up and down stream fishing. When, walking back, I 

 came to the outskirts of camp, I was attracted by the 

 buzzing and twanging of the harp ; there was the 

 harper and two friends, all three singing to his accom- 

 paniment. I called " Yambo !" (greeting), and they 

 giinned and stood up, shouting " Yambo !" in return. 

 In camp a dozen men were still at work at the giraffe 

 skin, and they were all singing loudly, under the lead of 

 my gun-bearer, Gouvimali, who always acted as chanty 

 man, or improvisatore, on such occasions. 



For a week we now trekked steadily south across the 

 Equator, heel-and-toe marching, to Neri. Our first 

 day's journey took us to a gorge riven in the dry 

 mountain. Halfway up it, in a side pocket, was a 

 deep pool, at the foot of a sloping sheet of rock, down 

 which a broad, shallow dent showed where the torrents 

 swept during the rains. In the trees around the pool 

 black drongo shrikes called in bell-like tones, and pied 

 hornbills flirted their long tails as they bleated and 

 croaked. The water was foul ; but in a dry country 



