HUNTING IN THE SOTIK 189 



that day I happened to carry. Immediately afterward 

 there was a fresh alarm from our friends the three rhinos; 

 dismounting, and crouching down, we caught the loom of 

 their bulky bodies against the horizon; but a shot in the 

 ground seemed to make them hesitate, and they finally con- 

 cluded not to charge. So, with the lion skin swinging be- 

 hind between two porters, a moribund puff adder in my 

 saddle pocket, and three rhinos threatening us in the dark- 

 ness to one side, we marched campward through the African 

 night. 



Next day we shifted camp to a rush-fringed pool by a 

 grove of tall, flat-topped acacias at the foot of a range of 

 low, steep mountains. Before us the plain stretched, and 

 in front of our tents it was dotted by huge candelabra 

 euphorbias. I shot a buck for the table just as we pitched 

 camp. There were Masai kraals and cattle herds near by, 

 and tall warriors, pleasant and friendly, strolled among 

 our tents, their huge razor-edged spears tipped with furry 

 caps to protect the points. Kermit was off all day with 

 Tarlton, and killed a magnificent lioness. In the morning, 

 on some high hills, he obtained a good impalla ram, after 

 persevering hours of climbing and running for only one 

 of the gun-bearers and none of the whites could keep up 

 with him on foot when he went hard. In the afternoon 

 at four he and Tarlton saw the lioness. She was followed 

 by three three-parts grown young lions, doubtless her cubs, 

 and, without any concealment, was walking across the 

 open plain toward a pool by which lay the body of a wilde- 

 beest bull she had killed the preceding night. The smaller 

 lions saw the hunters and shrank back, but the old lioness 

 never noticed them until they were within a hundred and 



