Buffalo 



what difficult and nasty job. The hole in the 

 skull being held up-stream, the water forces the 

 portions of brain out as it is mashed up with a 

 short stick. After the skins had been well 

 rubbed with alum and saltpetre, the thick lips 

 were sliced in order to let the preservative enter 

 the skin more freely. Chancing to go to the river, 

 I found some of my boys there also, indulging in 

 a wash. Instead of soap they used a concave piece 

 of burnt or charred wood, with which to scrub 

 their skins. I threw Cooe a lump of yellow soap, 

 which pleased him immensely, and in a few 

 minutes he was a white nigger externally. The 

 selfish rascal would not give a bit of it to any 

 of the other boys, so I doled them out a bar of 

 yellow soap between them on my return to camp, 

 an attention which cost little, but which was 

 most highly appreciated ! 



That night lions were roaring all round us, 

 and quite close, too close, in my opinion, to be 

 pleasant. . Weddell and I had just turned in 

 when some large animal must have run up 

 against one of the long guy ropes that were 

 fastened to the ridge and end-poles, shaking the 

 tent violently. " That's a lion! " said Weddell; 

 but on the other hand it might have been a 

 hyaena. It is incidents such as these that make 

 life stirring. These men who live among such 

 happenings take things as a matter of course; 

 they are so used to such episodes that familiarity 



"5 



