438 THE GIANT ELAND [ch. xv 



ample payment was given for what was brought in ; 

 and in the only two cases where the natives thought 

 themselves aggrieved by the soldiers they at once 

 brought the matter before us. One soldier had taken 

 a big gourd of water when very thirsty ; another, a 

 knife from a man who was misbehaving himself. On 

 careful inquiry, and delivering judgment in the spirit 

 of Solomon, we decided that both soldiers had been 

 justified by the provocation received ; but as we were 

 dealing with the misdeeds of mere big children, we gave 

 the gourd back to its owner with a reprimand for having 

 refused the water, and permitted the owner of the 

 knife, whose offence had been more serious, to ransom 

 his property by bringing in a chicken to the soldier who 

 had it. 



The natives lived in the usual pointed beehive huts in 

 unfenced villages, with shambas lying about them ; and 

 they kept goats, chickens, and a few cattle. Our pA'- 

 manent camp was near such a village. It was interesting 

 to pass through it at sunrise or sunset, when starting on 

 or returning from a hunt. The hard, bare earth was 

 swept clean. The doors in the low mud walls of the 

 huts were but a couple of feet high and had to be 

 entc; ed on all-fours ; black pickaninnies scuttled into 

 them in wild alarm as we passed. Skinny, haggard old 

 men and women, almost naked, sat by the fires smoking 

 long pipes ; tlie younger men and women laughed and 

 jested as they moved among the houses. One day, in 

 the course of a long and fruitless hunt, we stopped to 

 rest near such a village, at about two in the afternoon, 

 having been walking hard since dawn. We — my gun- 

 bearer, a black askari, and I, a couple of porters, and a 

 native guide — sat down under a big tree a hundred 

 yards from the village. Soon the chief and several of 



