AN OUTCRY IN CAMP. 49 



wildebeests commenced filing past towards the ford ; 

 at dusk several parties of giraffes followed suit, mixed 

 with buffalo, till darkness prevented our determining 

 the varieties of game going to the water ; but, in 

 spite of night having set in, still the animals kept 

 coming. It was a beautiful moonlight night after 

 10 p.m. — such a night as only to be witnessed in the 

 tropics, so we sat late over the smouldering fire. 

 Our boys, as usual when they have plenty of meat, 

 made a night of it, and every now and again their 

 monotonous but plaintive chant would rise and fall 

 like the moaning of the autumnal wind through a 

 forest glade. But above all the noise their singing 

 made, there were other sounds that could distinctly 

 be heard. These principally emanated from the 

 river, and were doubtless produced by the hippos, 

 assisted by the crocodiles (for they have a call like 

 the snappish bark of an aggrieved dog), and numer- 

 ous elephants enjoying their bath. From the high 

 grounds, also, the voices of the lion, leopard, and 

 baboon reverberated, mixed up with the plaintive 

 wail of the hyaena and the merry, tittering yelp of 

 the jackal. While noting all these novel sounds, 

 and making our comments on each, there was a 

 sudden outcry in the camp, and every native sprung 

 to his legs and seized his assegai, then rushed from 

 the fire into the shade of the fence, where they 

 appeared to be engaged in an assault upon some- 

 thing, in which each was endeavouring to outdo his 



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