^ Camping out on the Velt 



Even within my tent there are evidences of life. Rats 

 bestir themselves upon their daring enterprises, to meet 

 their end, here and there, in my traps. Emin Pasha has 

 told us how he experienced the same kind of thing. How 

 dormice and beautiful Sterkulien made their home in his 

 camp, gleefully climbing up and down the canvas of his 



A SIESTA IN CAMP. THE MIDDAY HOUR. 



tent during the night — doubtless gazing at the strange 

 white man with their great, dark, wide-open eyes, as they 

 did at me. . . . Save for these sounds there is complete 

 stillness, broken only by the voice of the night-jar, 

 mournful and monotonous, as it wings its eerie, noiseless 

 flight in and out of the firelight and round and round the 

 camp. 



625 



