208 WANDERINGS AND MEMORIES 



when a herd of Topi came within 200 yards of the 

 camp, and I dropped a good bull with seventeen-inch 

 horns almost from the tent door. Then I saw a 

 Zebra just in the right place to drop a " kill," and 

 hit him rather low with a long shot. He took me 

 some little distance from camp and then stood 

 under a thorn-tree. By making a circuit I got 

 within 150 yards, and lay down to give him a 

 finishing shot, when I felt suddenly as if a pair of 

 pincers had nipped me in the chest. Almost 

 immediately I was on my feet, tearing at my shirt, 

 for twenty devils of some sort were biting me all 

 over. I had lain down amongst a swarm of the 

 big black driver ants. I do not know when I have 

 been so sore as I was during the next five minutes, 

 when I had removed all my clothes except boots and 

 puttees to rid myself of the enemy. These ferocious 

 insects, four times the size of our ants, bite so 

 fiercely and with such strength as must be realised 

 to be appreciated. So intense is their attack that 

 as you pull their bodies off their heads and nippers 

 remain embedded in the flesh, and the skin is sore 

 for a day or two afterwards. 



The Zebra meanwhile had moved on another few 

 hundred yards ere I resumed my clothes, and then 

 after another stalk (this time I looked carefully 

 at the ground before I lay down) I gave him a 

 shoulder shot that finished him. 



Moving to the south, I passed an old Masai kraal 

 recently deserted by those nomads, and shortly 

 afterwards met a Masai warrior stalking along with 

 his long spear, followed by two women bearing 

 heavy loads, and three donkeys even more heavily 

 laden. The man returned my salutation, but passed 



