358 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



skinned we had seen a rhinoceros feeding near our line of 

 march campward, and had watched it until the light grew 

 dim. By the time the skin was ready night had fallen, and 

 we started under the brilliant moon. It lit up the entire 

 landscape; but moonlight is not sunlight, and there was the 

 chance of our stumbling on the rhino unawares, and of its 

 charging; so I rode at the head of the column with full- 

 jacketed bullets in my rifle. However, we never saw the 

 rhino, nor had we any other adventure; and the ride 

 through the moonlight, which softened all the harshness, and 

 gave a touch of magic and mystery, to the landscape, was 

 so pleasant that I was sorry when we caught the gleam of 

 the camp-fires. 



Next day we sent our porters to bring in the rest of the 

 giraffe meat and the ostrich eggs. The giraffe's heart was 

 good eating. There were many ticks on the giraffe, as on 

 all the game hereabouts, and they annoyed us a little also, 

 although very far from being the plague they were on the 

 Athi Plain. Among the flies which at times tormented the 

 horses and hung around the game, were big gadflies with 

 long wings folded longitudinally down the back, not in the 

 ordinary fly fashion; they were akin to the tsetse flies, one 

 species of which is fatal to domestic animals, and another, 

 the sleeping-sickness fly, to man himself. They produce 

 death by means of the fatal microbes introduced into the 

 blood by their bite; whereas another African fly, the seroot, 

 found more to the north, in the Nile countries, is a scourge 

 to man and beast merely because of its vicious bite, and 

 where it swarms may drive the tribes that own herds entirely 

 out of certain districts. 



One afternoon, while leading my horse because the 

 ground was a litter of sharp-edged stones, I came out on a 

 plain which was crawling with zebra. In every direction 

 there were herds of scores or of hundreds. They were all 

 of the common or small kind, except three individuals of 

 the big kangani, and were tame, letting me walk by within 

 easy shot. Other game was mixed in with them. Soon, 



