ON THE MARCH 



impressed with the busyness of the world sur- 

 rounding him; every bird or beast, the hunter and 

 the hunted, is the centre of many important affairs. 

 The world swarms. 



And then, some miles away a lion roars, the earth 

 and air vibrating to the sheer power of the sound. 

 The world falls to a blank dead silence. For a full 

 minute every living creature of the jungle or of the 

 veldt holds its breath. Their lord has spoken. 



After dinner we sat in our canvas chairs, smoking. 

 The guard fire in front of our tent had been lit. On 

 the other side of it stood one of our askaris leaning 

 on his musket. He and his three companions, turn 

 about, keep the flames bright against the fiercer 

 creatures. 



After a time we grew sleepy. I called Saa-sita 

 and entrusted to him my watch. On the crystal of 

 this I had pasted a small piece of surgeon's plaster. 

 When the hour hand reached the surgeon's plaster, 

 he must wake us up. Saa-sita was a very conscien- 

 tious and careful man. One day I took some time 

 hitching my pedometer properly to his belt: I could 

 not wear it effectively myself because I was on horse- 

 back. At the end of the ten-hour march it regis- 

 tered a mile and a fraction. Saa-sita explained that 

 he wished to take especial care of it, so he had wrap- 

 ped it in a cloth and carried it all day in his hand! 



87 



