204 AFRICAN ADVENTURE STORIES 



We naturalists, with an eye to swelling our col- 

 lection, made at once for the open country and 

 occupied our time collecting specimens. These 

 were deposited in a large-mouthed pickle bottle, 

 filled with alcohol, that the steward of the Ham- 

 burg had generously donated to our cause. By 

 the time we had reached Kapiti Plains the bot- 

 tle was packed with lizards, snakes, frogs, toads, 

 snails, grasshoppers, beetles, worms, and other 

 curious creatures that would have made the 

 inventor of the "Fifty -Seven Varieties" blush 

 with shame. On entering my tent I placed the 

 bottle in one corner and thought no more about 

 it. Imagine our surprise, on seating ourselves 

 at the supper table that evening, to discover the 

 specimen bottle occupying a conspicuous posi- 

 tion with other delicacies in the centre of the 

 table. My tent boy, Tommy, had discovered it 

 and, assuming it to be another strange concoc- 

 tion of the white man, had promptly given it the 

 place of honour to which he thought it entitled. 

 The uncanny suggestion undoubtedly would 

 have spoiled the appetite of most people, but 

 with us it only proved the source of a hearty 

 laugh, in which even the colonel joined, much 

 to the embarrassment of the well-meaning boy, 



