A BUFFALO-HUNT BY THE KAMITI 143 



us. They gazed at us for quite a time, and then walked 

 slowly in our direction for at least a couple of hundred yards. 

 For a moment I was even doubtful whether they did not in- 

 tend to come toward us and charge. But it was only cu- 

 riosity on their part, and after having gazed their fill, they 

 sauntered back to the swamp and disappeared. There 

 was no chance to get at them, and moreover darkness was 

 rapidly falling. 



Next morning we broke camp. The porters, strapping 

 grown-up children that they were, felt as much pleasure 

 and excitement over breaking camp after a few days' rest 

 as over reaching camp after a fifteen-mile march. On this 

 occasion, after they had made up their loads, they danced 

 in a ring for half an hour, two tin cans being beaten as 

 tomtoms. Then off they strode in a long line with their 

 burdens, following one another in Indian file, each greet- 

 ing me with a smile and a deep "Yambo, Bwana!" as 

 he passed. I had grown attached to them, and of course 

 especially to my tent boys, gun-bearers, and saises, who quite 

 touched me by their evident pleasure in coming to see me 

 and greet me if I happened to be away from them for two 

 or three days. 



Kermit and I rode off with Heatley to pass the night at 

 his house. This was at the other end of his farm, in a 

 totally different kind of country, a country of wooded hills, 

 with glades and dells and long green grass in the valleys. 

 It did not in the least resemble what one would naturally 

 expect in equatorial Africa. On the contrary it reminded 

 me of the beautiful rolling wooded country of middle Wis- 

 consin. But of course everything was really different. There 

 were monkeys and leopards in the forests, and we saw 





