156 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



They seized his cook as he lay by the fire, but fortunately 

 grabbed his red blanket, which they carried off, and the 

 terrified man escaped; and they killed a cow and a calf. 

 Ulyate's brother-in-law, Smith, had been rendered a hope- 

 less cripple for life, six months previously, by a lioness he 

 had wounded. Another settler while at one of our camping- 

 places lost two of his horses, which were killed although 

 within a boma. One night lions came within threatening 

 neighborhood of our ox wagons; and we often heard them 

 moaning in the early part of the night, roaring when full 

 fed toward morning; but we were not molested. 



The safari was in high feather, for the days were cool, 

 the work easy, and we shot enough game to give them 

 meat. When we broke camp after breakfast, the porters 

 would all stand ranged by their loads; then Tarlton would 

 whistle, and a chorus of whistles, horns, and tomtoms would 

 answer, as each porter lifted and adjusted his burden, fell 

 into his place, and then joined in some shrill or guttural 

 chorus as the long line swung off at its marching pace. 

 After nightfall the camp-fires blazed in the cool air, and 

 as we stood or sat around them each man had tales to 

 tell: Cuninghame and Tarlton of elephant-hunting in the 

 Congo, and of perilous adventures hunting lion and buffalo; 

 Mearns of long hikes and fierce fighting in the steaming 

 Philippine forests; Loring and Heller of hunting and col- 

 lecting in Alaska, in the Rockies, and among the deserts of 

 the Mexican border; and always our talk came back to 

 strange experiences with birds and beasts, both great and 

 small, and to the ways of the great game. The three 

 naturalists revelled in the teeming bird life, with its wealth 

 of beauty and color nor was the beauty only of color 



