THE STORY OF AN OUTING 



as our base of supplies, and we only saw them about four 

 times during the whole trip. I might say here that only four 

 of the thirty-two oxen came back alive, owing to the tsetse- 

 fly's fondness for fresh beef. Unfortunately I ran into the 

 owner of the oxen on niy return to Nairobi, and in a few 

 minutes' conversation discovered that his sense of humor 

 had been badly sprained by the loss. We rode mules instead 

 of horses, as part of the country into which we were going 

 was sure death for the latter. It did not take me long to 

 discover that my animal was to be the bane of my existence, 

 and I became converted to the belief in the transmigration of 

 souls, and to the theory that the devil himself once lived on 

 earth and after death reappeared in the form of that mule. 

 He was not content with bucking until my saddle slipped off, 

 and I with it, but when I was firmly planted on earth he 

 would stand over me, with one ear cocked forward, the other 

 backward, a sinister sneer in his satanic eye, and carefully 

 contemplate whether this time he would use his hoofs or his 

 teeth on me before I could roll out of the way. Jack, Lloyd, 

 and Outram fared better in the mule proposition, but my beast 

 furnished a lot of amusement, largely at my expense, and 

 exercised our ingenuity in inventing means to check his non- 

 parlor tricks. We found a twitch operated from the saddle 

 to be the best remedy, but I fear the mule could not quite 

 look at it from our point of view. He never became quite 

 reconciled to said twitch. 



In general, our route was southwest from Kijabe, across the 

 southern Guasinyero to the border of German East Africa, 

 then along the border in a southeasterly direction to a point 

 about south of Nairobi, then north across Lake Magadi (a 

 caustic soda lake) through the game reserve to Nairobi. 

 The nature of the country was quite different from that 

 which I judge you found. The altitude varied from about 

 seven thousand feet above the sea-level to nine hundred feet 

 above. We found comparatively few open plains, and the 

 country consisted for the most part of jungle, thick bush 

 country, long grass, and occasionally dried-up, rolling plains. 

 This nature of the country accounts for the method of lion- 



