A TERRIBLE DAY'S MARCH 



every village has detached outposts hiding in the grass 

 and prowling around with their spears and arrows, 

 ostensibly for the purpose of hunting game, but really 

 watching the movements of the surrounding communities, 

 of whom they are in constant fear and dread lest they 

 should make a sudden attack. These outposts and scouts 

 are likely to try their skill of arms on any strangers who 

 may unwarily be trespassing on their domains, and 

 although the boys are comparatively safe so long as they 

 are accompanied by a white man with a gun, it is risky 

 to let your carriers go far from the camp unattended. 



For two days I was prostrate with fever, and lay 

 thinking of civilization and all its attendant comforts 

 when one is sick. There I was alone, and without any 

 one to speak to, for the native boys are of little use when 

 you are laid low. On the morning of the third day, 

 although far from well, I was fit for the road again. The 

 villagers all swarmed round as we drew up near their 

 huts. The headman of the village, a tall, sinewy creature 

 with a huge shock of hair decorated with crane's feathers 

 and red earth, naked but for a piece of dried beaten 

 bark that served as an apron, came forward smiling and 

 offered to show me where the other white man had 



camped a few days since. I knew that P had a 



'350 with him, and I noticed this fellow was wearing two 

 empty cartridge cases round his neck, and on questioning 

 him as to where he had obtained them, he informed me 

 that the white man had made death of " nyama " (meat). 



" Yes ! the white man with a head like you " — and 

 he pointed to my helmet — " had his big stick and held 

 it so Pe, Pe," and imitated the action of firing a gun. 



By this time we had walked some little distance from 

 the huts, and were approaching a clump of trees. 



" See here," he cried, and pointed to a little pile of 

 ashes on the ground. Close by from a branch was 

 suspended a pair of antelope horns. My interest in the 



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