320 TO THE UASIN GISHU [ch. xii 



was Captain Douglas Pennant, of the British Army. 

 When we went north to Kenia he went south to the 

 Sotik. 'Jliere he made a fine bag of hons ; but, liaving 

 wounded a leopard and followed it into cover, it sud- 

 denly sprang on him, apparently from a tree. His life 

 was saved by his Somali gun-bearer, who blew out the 

 leopard's brains as it bore him to the ground, so that it 

 had time to make only one bite ; but this bite just 

 missed crushing in the skull, broke the jaw, tore off one 

 ear, and caused ghastly wreck. He spent some weeks 

 in the hospital at Nairobi, and then went for further 

 treatment to England, his place in tlie hospital being 

 taken by another man who had been injured by a 

 leopard. 



There had been quite a plague of wild beasts in 

 Nairobi itself. One family had been waked at midnight 

 by a leopard springing on the roof of the house, and 

 thence to an adjacent shed. It finally spent a couple 

 of hours on the veranda. A lion had repeatedly 

 wandered at night through the outlying (the residen- 

 tial) portion of the town. Dr. Milne, the head of the 

 (rovernment Medical Department, had nearly run into 

 it on his bicycle, and, as a measure of precaution, guests 

 going out to dinner usually carried spears or rifles. One 

 night I dined with the Provincial Commissioner, Mr. 

 Hobley, and the next Math the town clerk. Captain 

 Sanderson. In each case the hostess, the host, and the 

 house were all delightful, and the evening, just like a 

 very pleasant evening spent anywhere in civilization. 

 The houses were only half a mile apart ; and yet on the 

 road between them a fortnight previously a lady on a 

 bicycle, wheeling down to a rehearsal of '■ Trial by 

 Jury," had been run into and upset by a herd of 

 frightened zebras. One of my friends, Captain Smith, 



