AND THE RUDOLP BASIN 



19 



(here called Xyuki;i and Tigvik Rivers. They are surrounded by belts of 

 tall trees, mainly acacias, some of which must be considerably over a 

 hundred feet in height, with green boughs and trunks and ever-present 

 flaky films of pinnated foliage. In the rainy time of the year these trees 

 are loaded with tiny golden balls of flowers, like tassels of floss silk, which 

 exhale a most delicious perfume of honey. In the plains between the 

 villages Grevy's zebra and a few oryx antelopes scamper about, while 

 golden and black-backed jackals hunt for small prey in broad daylight 

 with a constant whimpering. Enormous baboons sit in the brandies of 

 the huge trees, ready to rifle the native crops at the least lack of vigilance 

 on the part of the boy guardians. Large herds of cattle and troops of 

 isabella-coloured donkeys, with broad black shoulder-stripes, go out in the 

 morning to graze, and return through a faint cloud of dust, which is 

 turned golden bv the setting sun in the mellow evening, the cattle 

 lowing and occasionally fighting, the asses kicking, plunging, and biting 

 one another. After sunset, as the dusk rapidly thickens into night, forms 

 like misshapen, ghostly wolves will come from no one knows where, and 

 trot about the waste outside the village trees. They are the spotted 

 hya?nas, tolerated by the Masai because they are the living sepulchres 







lll-WEST COKNEK OF JiAKIX(;0 



of their dead relations. When man, woman, or child dies amongst the 

 Masai, agricultural or pastoral, the corpse is placed in the outskirts of the 

 settlement for the liyttnas to devour at nights. The cry of the hy*na is 



