88 AFRICA SPEAKS 



in the days gone past, and each saw before him a 

 dark future. 



Never had our actors been in higher spirits and each 

 seemed to vie with the others to show us what it 

 could do. One Koness proved to be an expert at jump- 

 ing and whenever another one started to cHmb the tree 

 she would jump into it first. They had a few spills, 

 with once a Hon faUing smack into the bunch grouped 

 under the tree. All were up in a flash and the fur 

 flew for a second until they discovered that it was 

 an accident. 



A most exciting time for me was when for the first 

 time I filmed them from a boma. Six hons grouped 

 themselves within twelve feet and one Koness, not be- 

 ing satisfied with such a long distance view of me, 

 came up to the peep hole and stuck her head in to 

 smell me at not more than six feet from nose to nose. 

 It took some time for my heart to slow down after 

 she backed away, and then I resumed the work in 

 hand, which was that of filming the troop of them as 

 they fought over pieces of meat. After the meal was 

 over, to show that no harm was meant, they would 

 rub against one another or Hck one another's faces, 

 purring the while Hke big house cats. 



After we had left the boma and were in the truck 

 ready to start for our camp, we watched the hons as 

 one by one they filed past the lens opening in the 

 bhnd, stood on their tiptoes and peeked in. They 

 knew we had left and were probably curious to see 

 what the place looked hke inside, or maybe they were 

 giving it the once over, with an idea of moving in. 



A shooting party from England, another from 

 America and then some old-time Africans from the 



