BRITISH EAST AFRICA 191 



One day in particular I had three prize idiots to 

 follow me. They declared on starting that they per- 

 fectly understood my instructions. Half-an-hour after 

 the start they were exactly three yards behind. 

 Hassan acted as an expurgating filter. Half-an-hour 

 later I looked round again. Not a porter in sight. 

 Back I went and herded them up. They were a 

 villainous-looking lot, with two and a half eyes 

 between them ; the half being a swivelled orbit, as 

 George Graves would say. They had heard me shout- 

 ing, but for some reason best known to themselves 

 thought I wanted them to go slowly. 



Then I saw some giraffe ; there were twenty-two, 

 swinging over the sky-line with their stilted lounging 

 gait. A few minutes afterwards I looked back to 

 see how my collection was getting on. There they 

 were, waving, gesticulating, brandishing their sticks 

 and pointing. However, as the giraffe were about a 

 mile off, I had seen them for some ten minutes pre- 

 vious to this exhibition, and did not in any case want 

 to shoot one, it didn't much matter. 



A family party of rhino and a herd of about forty 

 oryx, with some ostriches and zebra, next made their 

 appearance. I heard what I took to be a dog barking. 

 It was exactly like a collie, and I asked Hassan what 

 animal made such a noise. 



" Zebra ! " he replied, and sure enough it was, 

 though it took me some time to realise it. 



By-and-by, crossing a slope covered with bush my 

 Kamba gun-bearer pointed to something red among 



