I30 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



steinbuck lay crouched down close, its ears folded back 

 just like those of a dog that considers himself especially 

 virtuous. In grass the little antelope would have been 

 perfectly concealed. Evidently it considered the fact 

 that the grass had been burned as an extraneous de- 

 tail for which it could in no manner be held responsible, 

 for it held its position as rigidly as though it had been 

 completely hidden. As a matter of fact it was in plain 

 sight. To such lengths will habit carry the conven- 

 tional-minded ! 



We reached and examined the rocky outcrop. Then 

 quite idly we turned down the vaUey in which we 

 stood. Along the centre of the vaUey ran a shallow 

 dry watercourse in the bottom of which grew various 

 sorts of brush. This brush strip varied in width from 

 nothing to loo feet. Memba Sasa and I took one 

 side of it, while Sanguiki and the two carriers took the 

 other. We had no very definite ideas. 



For it is great fun quietly thus to follow one of these 

 little brushy ravines. You never know what will pop 

 out next. It is no good to raise a row and yell and 

 throw stones. If you do that, everything gets out far 

 ahead. But if you just sneak quietly along, perhaps 

 occasionally tossing a pebble into the likely looking 

 thick places, you will have lots of fun. In the first 

 place, a cloud of little birds are always rising, strange 

 little birds, with only the satiny sound of rushing 

 wings in common. Some of them are brown and sober- 



