SPEAR AND SHIELD 173 



native and white, the wait-a-while plea of its terrain, 

 its swamps and rivers, bush, jungle, and veldt. With 

 an ever-growing but impotent rage it was borne in 

 upon me that in Africa no one is disposed to do today 

 what can be put off until next week — or longer — 

 and that through the slow symphony of African life 

 runs the insistent leitmotif of bardo kidogo, dominat- 

 ing the race and even, it seemed to me, Nature herself. 



Even Tanganyika rains must come to an end, so 

 after what seemed ages, the downpour ceased, but 

 frequent clouds still obscured the sun for varying 

 periods. The uncertainty of the sunhght and the fact 

 that the ground was much too soft for fast moving, 

 necessitated more patient waiting, for I knew that 

 when a lion had been surrounded and the war chant 

 started, neither the lion nor the Nandi would care 

 whether the sun was shining or not, nor if the camera 

 car succeeded in moving or remained stuck in the mud. 

 But these things were very important to me, so I 

 continued my best efforts to keep everybody in good 

 spirits until conditions were favorable. 



While waiting for the weather to clear up, we were 

 joined by the Lieurance party, the Americans whom I 

 had invited out while in Nairobi. Their camp was 

 pitched alongside of ours and when my crew went out 

 that day to keep tab on the Hon population, young 

 Bill Lieurance went along. After dusk they returned, 

 bringing two Hon cubs about three months old. While 

 circling a donga they had found these cunning young- 

 sters, captured them and were just getting into the 

 truck when a very angry honess came charging out of 

 the bush. Ted managed to get the truck running in 

 time to evade her; otherwise, there would have been 



