1 66 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



noon Cuninghame went out and shot at a hippo: we 

 need cooking fat badly. Of course we cannot teil un- 

 til to-morrow whether or not he landed.* 



Overheard the gunbearers discussing why it is that 

 game is always wild when you want meat, and tame 

 when you don't. Says Kongoni: ''When the bwana 

 goes out for nyumbo, then all the animals run and tell 

 all the nyumbo, and then the nyumbo are very fright- 

 ened, but the other animals are not frightened.'' 



Two donkeys died. We have now four survivors. 

 Rained hard in evening. 



Six hours ten minutes; i6 miles; elevation, 3,650; 

 morning, 60; noon, 92; night, 74. 



September 11. — Started out ahead of safari to look 

 for Cuninghame 's hippo. No hippo; but beautiful 

 early morning views of the soft folds of the mountains 

 over the way with their caps of forest and their canon- 

 fuls of dark woods. Along the river the gorgeous 

 flowering trees and bushes are coming out, red, yellow, 

 white, and purple. The air of morning is always very 

 clear after the evening's rain. There are also millions 

 of industrious, loud insects. 



After an hour the river bent away from us down 

 through a mysterious strange country of little blue 

 cones and craters rising singly from slate-gray distance, 

 and we turned sharp to the left along the steep side of 



* Although hippo trails proved that at some time these animals are very 

 abundant, there were at present almost none to be seen. I think at times 

 of flood they may drift down the whole length of the river to Lake Victoria. 



