266 THE LAND OFsTHE LION 
a change into something strange and new. ‘That smooth- 
limbed Wanyamwazi who saunters off to get wood for 
your night fire knows he has done his day’s stint. Once 
that is finished, this wood-carrying business is a leisurely 
matter and so with beautiful carriage of head and shoulder 
he strolls along, restfulness in every movement of him; 
to hurry him would be an outrage. Before the quickly 
fading twilight has vanished, he will come as gracefully, 
as leisurely back, poising on broad shoulder a mighty log 
of the very best burning wood in the world; and this 
should go far to convince even American restlessness that 
in this old new land, at least, efficiency and leisure are 
not incompatible. The African wilderness is very restful 
to the over-tired man. 
At the northern end of the swamp your trail bears 
away from the river for a few miles, and you will most 
probably next camp on its banks at Laikipia Boma. 
Here the Guasi Narok runs strong and clear till it 
enters, just below the Boma, one of the finest swamps 
to be seen anywhere in B. E. A. I use the word fine with 
a purpose, for swamps usually are in no way beautiful, 
in this or other countries. But the borders of this great 
Papyrus garden have a distinct beauty of their own. The 
ground in Africa is often hard, far harder than any earth 
I have seen. Even after rain there are large tracts, not 
by any means stony, where the earth itself is so compressed 
that a mule’s hoofmark would easily escape an untrained 
eye. And a two-ton rhino can pass and leave only a 
spoor that takes pains and skill to follow at all. Well, 
the soil round this great fourteen-mile swamp that swallows 
up for that distance the Guasi Narok, has this African 
property. On it springs grass soft, green and level as 
can be seen anywhere, but as you ride over it you can 
with difficulty make out even the heavy four-toe foot- 
marks of the great hippos whose nightly browsing keeps 
