TO THE UASIN GISHU 367 



bulls (of the typical form) jet black, all with white bellies; 

 like the roan, both sexes carry scimitar-shaped horns, but 

 longer than the roans. He was alone with his two gun- 

 bearers, and some Swahili porters; he acted as headman 

 himself. They marched from Mombasa, being ferried 

 across the harbor of Kilindini in a dhow, and then going 

 some fifteen miles south. Next day they marched about ten 

 miles to a Nyika village, where they arrived just in the mid- 

 dle of a funeral dance which was being held in honor of a 

 chief's son who had died. Kermit was much amused to find 

 that this death dance had more life and go to it than any 

 dance he had yet seen, and the music the dirge music had 

 such swing and vivacity that it almost reminded him of a 

 comic opera. The dancers wore tied round their legs queer 

 little wickerwork baskets, with beans inside, which rattled in 

 the rhythm of their dancing. Camp was pitched under a 

 huge baobab-tree, in sight of the Indian Ocean; but in the 

 middle of the night the ants swarmed in and drove every- 

 body out; and next day, while Kermit was hunting, camp 

 was shifted on about an hour's march to a little grove of 

 trees by a brook. It was a well-watered country, very hilly, 

 with palm-bordered streams in each valley. These wild 

 palms bore ivory nuts, the fruit tasting something like an 

 apple. Each village had a grove of cocoanut palms, and 

 Kermit found the cool cocoanut milk delicious after the 

 return from a long day's hunting. 



Each morning he was off before daylight, and rarely 

 returned until after nightfall; and tired though he was he 

 enjoyed to the full the walks campward in the bright moon- 

 light among the palm groves beside the rushing streams, 

 while the cicadas cried like katydids at home. The grass 



