134 THE AFRICAN BUFFALO. 



Ijraced every opportunity to halt and take some rest. Such an occasion was 

 the visit the chief of the war-hke Wakamba tribe, accompanied by his 

 warriors, made to the camp. These savages still adhere to their primitive 

 custom of bringing presents to visitors, expecting, of course, more valuable 

 ones in return. The Wakamba is the only native tribe that has succeeded 

 in maintaining its independence against their neighbors, the ferocious Masai 

 people, whose territory extends to the Mt. Kenia region, only two days' march 

 from the beautiful Juja farm, wdiere Mr. Roosevelt was so hospitably enter- 

 tained by his American friend, Mr. McMillan and his family. Our illustration 

 shows a company of Aiasai camping at the foot of the mountain. These w^ar- 

 like savages subsist only upon milk and blood of their herds of cattle. When 

 a caravan is on safari in the neighborhood the Masai women will come down 

 at sunrise to fetch fresh milk for the camp and sing to the whole power of 

 their beings the same sort of a good-wish song, for all which presents are 

 usually expected. 



While the name by which the animal is generally know^n is buffalo, the cor- 

 rect name is l^ison. but the name buffalo has been in vogue for so long that it 

 will no doubt continue to l)e used, while there are any of the animals left. 



We now proceed to give our readers some further interesting details as 

 to the habits and nature of the buffalo. 



Of all the quadrupeds that have ever lived upon the earth, probably no 

 other species has ever marshaled such innumerable hosts as those of the Ameri- 

 can buffalo. It would have been as easy to count or to estimate the number 

 of leaves in a forest as to calculate the number of buffalo' living at any given 

 time during the history of the species previous to^ 1870. Even in South Central 

 Africa, which has been exceedingly prolific in great herds of game, it is prob- 

 able that all its quadrupeds taken together on an equal area w^ould never have 

 more than equaled the total number of buffalc' in this country forty years ago. 

 As an instance of these enormous numbers, it appears that, in the early part 

 of the year 1871, Col, Dodge, when passing through the great herd 00 the 

 Arkansas, and reckoning that there were some fifteen or twenty individuals to 

 the acre, states from his own observation that it w'as not less than twenty-five 

 miles wide and fifty miles deep. This, however, was the last of the great 

 herds, and the number of individuals comprising it could not be reckoned at 

 less than four millions. Many writers at and about the date mentioned speak 

 of the plains being absolutely black with buffalo as far as the eye could reach. 

 One man passed through a herd for a distance of upwards of one hundred and 

 tw^enty miles right on end, in traveling on the Kansas Pacific railroad. Fre- 



