272 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



fun. One place seemed to have struck an umbrella 

 craze. Everybody, who was anybody, owned one, and 

 it was certainly very funny to see stark-naked people 

 under opened sunshades. In each village one or more 

 talked Swahili, and we conversed at length. Things 

 were always swept clean, with no filth. I liked the 

 people. One very polite person informed me, in an- 

 swer to a question: 



"I have two children alive, and one that has just 

 finished dying.'' This was a literal translation of what 

 he said. 



Rested in the heat of the day, and out again in the 

 same country in the afternoon. Had the good luck to 

 see three cob, and by a most careful (probably needlessly 

 careful) stalk got in range. Hit two of them badly 

 before they got off; and I got one, and Cuninghame 

 finished the other in the high grass. Dozens of Kavi- 

 rondo came running from everywhere at the sound of 

 the shots. We wanted the meat for ourselves, but 

 they took the entrails down to the very last bit. Glad 

 we have the beasts, as the double walk every day in 

 this climate is killing work. 



Eighteen and a half miles; morning, 58; noon, 96; 

 night, 69. 



October 19. — Went out alone with Kongoni on the 

 chance of seeing another cob. Blundered into a bush- 

 buck and killed it. It proved to have a whacking big 

 head — sixteen and a half inches as opposed to about 



