HARTEBEESTE AND WATER-BUCK 



sundry for many miles around to see the " Msungu " 

 (white man) ? 



Great big fellows of thirty years and over walked 

 up to the camp, hand in hand like children, and after 

 respectfully saluting by holding their bows aloft, and 

 shaking hands, they would mix with the happy laughing 

 throng, many of whom were by this time on excellent 

 terms with the " Pagazis " (porters) and exchanging 

 mtama for salt and calico. Singooma, the village head- 

 man, had obtained some salt from the cook in exchange 

 for chickens, and now sat on the ground close to me 

 licking the palm of his hand, his beaming countenance 

 shining with the greatest delight at the taste of salt. 

 My syce stood in the centre of an admiring group giving 

 an exhibition of drill as carried out by the Askaris ; 

 another of the villagers had traded the lid of an empty 

 biscuit tin in exchange for some fifty large potatoes, and 

 was admiring his reflection in the mirror. The mule was 

 taken by some to be a lion and spoken of as " simba," so 

 Salem informed me ; certain it is that it caused the 

 greatest consternation by grazing among a herd of goats, 

 and the two little boys in charge clambered up a friendly 

 tree and yelled like fury. Yes ! every one regarded the 

 mule with awe, as, all unconscious of the role he was 

 playing, he continued to graze away quietly until I sent the 

 syce to get him into camp lest some of these people might 

 take it into their heads to put an arrow into him. At length 

 the sun fell and one by one the people crept back to their 

 huts tired out with the excitement of the day. 



That evening the great branches of the tree overhung 

 the dancing flames of the camp fires, mosquitoes in millions 

 swarmed around, the heavens were ablaze with stars. 

 Now and again the night birds sighed overhead, the 

 guttural snort of the hippopotamus; as it crashed through 

 the grass by the river; sounded as though in the camp 

 instead of a half-mile away. 



" 81 G 



