TREKKING THROUGH THE THIRST 169 



by describing, with pantomimic accompaniment of gest- 

 ures, how when the white man shot a lion it might bite 

 a swahili, who thereupon would call for his mother. But 

 they were entirely friendly, and offered me calabashes of 

 milk. The men were tall, finely shaped savages, their 

 hair plastered with red mud, and drawn out into longish 

 ringlets; they were naked except for a blanket worn, not 

 round the loins, but over the shoulders; their ears were slit, 

 and from them hung bone and wooden ornaments; they 

 wore metal bracelets and anklets, and chains which passed 

 around their necks, or else over one side of the neck and 

 under the opposite arm. The women had pleasant faces, 

 and were laden with metal ornaments chiefly wire ank- 

 lets, bracelets, and necklaces of many pounds weight. 

 The features of the men were bold and clear-cut, and their 

 bearing warlike and self-reliant; as the flame of the fire 

 glanced over them, and brought their faces and bronze 

 figures into lurid relief against the darkness, the likeness 

 was striking, not to the West Coast negroes, but to the en- 

 gravings on the tombs, temples, and palaces of ancient 

 Egypt; they might have been soldiers in the armies of 

 Thothmes or Rameses. They stood resting on their long 

 staffs, and looked at me as I leaned on my rifle; and they 

 laughed and jested with their women, who felt the lion's 

 teeth and claws and laughed back at the men; our gun- 

 bearers worked at the skinning, and answered the jests of 

 their warlike friends with the freedom of men who them- 

 selves followed a dangerous trade; the two horses stood 

 quiet just outside the circle; and over all the firelight 

 played and leaped. 



It was after ten when we reached camp, and I enjoyed 



