CH. xii] FLOWERS OF AFRICA 331 



its floM^ers. Most of these bushes were in full bloom, 

 as they had been six months before on the Athi and 

 three months before near Kenia ; some bore berries, of 

 which it is said that the wild elephant herds are fond. 



It is hard to lay down general rules as to the l)lossom- 

 ing times of plants or breeding times of animals in 

 equatorial Africa. 15efore we left the I'asin Gishu 

 tableland some of the hartebeest cows appeared witli 

 new-born calves. Some of tlie acacias had put forth 

 their siiiall, globular, yellow blossoms, just as the 

 acacias on the Athi plains were doing in the previous 

 May. The blue lupins were flowering, for it is a cool, 

 pleasant country. 



Our camp here was attractive, and Kermit and I took 

 advantage of our leisure to fill out the series of speci- 

 mens of the big hartebeest and the oribi which Heller 

 needed for the National JNIuseum. The flesh of tlie 

 oribis was reserved for our own table ; that of the 

 kanganis — which iiad been dulyhal-lallcd by the Moslems 

 among our gun-bearers — was turned over to what might 

 be called the officers' mess of the safari proper, the head- 

 men, cooks, tent-boys, gun-bearers, and saises ; while, of 

 course, the skinners and porters who happened to be out 

 with us when any animal was slain got their share of the 

 meat. We also killed two more hyenas ; one, a dog, 

 weighed one hundred and twenty pounds, being smaller 

 than those Heller had trapped while skinning the first 

 bull elephant I shot in the Kenia forest. 



Good Ali, my tent-boy, kept bowls of the sweet- 

 scented jessamine on our dining-table. Now that there 

 were four of us together again we used the dining-tent, 

 which T had discarded on the Guaso Nyero trip. Bak- 

 hari had been rather worn down by the work on the 

 Guaso Nyero, and in his place 1 had taken Kongoni, a 



