130 AFRICAN CAMP FIRES. 



learns quickly enough, and of course the zebra 

 and the giraffe are unmistakable ; but the 

 smaller gazelles are legitimate subjects for dis- 

 cussion. The wonder of the extraordinary abun- 

 dance of these wild animals mounts as the hours 

 slip by. At the stops for water or for orders the 

 passengers gather from their different compart- 

 ments to detail excitedly to each other what they 

 have seen. There is always an honest super- 

 enthusiast who believes he has seen rhinoceroses, 

 lions, or leopards. He is looked upon with envy 

 by the credulous, and with exasperation by all 

 others. 



So the little train puffs and tugs along. Sud- 

 denly it happens on a barbed wire fence, and 

 immediately after enters the town of Nairobi. 

 The game has persisted right up to that barbed 

 wire fence. 



The station platform is thronged with a hetero- 

 geneous multitude of people. The hands of a 

 dozen raggetty black boys are stretched out for 

 luggage. The newcomer sees with delight a sav- 

 age with a tin can in his stretched ear lobe ; an- 

 other with a set of wooden skewers set fanwise 

 around the edge of the ear ; he catches a. glimpse 

 of a beautiful naked creature very proud, very dec- 

 orated with beads and heavy polished wire. Then 



