208 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



intended to spend some time. The first two days were 

 easy travelling, the porters not being pressed and there 

 being plenty of time in the afternoons to pitch camp com- 

 fortably; then the wagons left us with their loads of hides 

 and skeletons and spare baggage. The third day we rose long 

 before dawn, breakfasted, broke camp, and were off just 

 at sunrise. There was no path; at one time we followed 

 game trails, at another the trails made by the Masai sheep 

 and cattle, and again we might make our own trail. We 

 had two Masai guides, tireless runners, as graceful and 

 sinewy as panthers; they helped us; but Cuninghame 

 had to do most of the pathfinding himself. It was a diffi- 

 cult country, passable only at certain points, which it was 

 hard to place with exactness. We had seen that each porter 

 had his water bottle full before starting; but, though will- 

 ing, good-humored fellows, strong as bulls, in forethought 

 they are of the grasshopper type; and all but a few ex- 

 hausted their supply by mid-afternoon. At this time we 

 were among bold mountain ridges, and here we struck 

 the kraal of some Masai, who watered their cattle at some 

 spring pools, three miles to one side, up a valley. It was too 

 far for the heavily laden porters; but we cantered our horses 

 thither and let them drink their fill; and then cantered along 

 the trail left by the safari until we overtook the rear men just 

 as they were going over the brink of the Mau escarpment. 

 The scenery was wild and beautiful; in the open places 

 the ground was starred with flowers of many colors; we 

 rode under vine-tangled archways through forests of strange 

 trees. 



Down the steep mountain side went the safari, and at 

 its foot struck off nearly parallel to the high ridge. On our 



