46 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



with a red blanket, a throwing stick, copper wire round his 

 legs and arms, and perhaps a feather stuck in his hair. 



There were a number of ranches in the neighborhood- 

 using "neighborhood" in the large Western sense, for they 

 were many miles apart. The Hills, Clifford and Harold, 

 were Africanders; they knew the country, and were work- 





Percival and his oxen starting off for the giraffes 

 From a ptiatograph by Kermit Roosevelt 



ing hard and doing well; and in the midst of their work 

 they spared the time to do their full part in insuring a suc- 

 cessful hunt to me, an entire stranger. All the settlers I 

 met treated me with the same large and thoughtful courtesy 

 and what fine fellows they were! And their wives even 

 finer. At Bondoni was Percival, a tall sinewy man, a fine 

 rider and shot; like so many other men whom I met, he 

 wore merely a helmet, a flannel shirt, short breeches or 

 trunks, and puttees and boots, leaving the knee entirely 

 bare. I shall not soon forget seeing him one day, as he 

 walked beside his twelve-ox team, cracking his long whip, 

 while in the big wagon sat pretty Mrs. Percival with a puppy, 

 and a little cheetah cub, which we had found and presented 



