TO THE UASIN GISHU 423 



but it proved to be only half grown. Even the 'Ndorobo 

 now thought it useless to follow the herd; but Kermit 

 took one of them and started in pursuit. After a couple 

 of hours' trailing the herd was again overtaken, and again 

 Kermit got a glimpse of the animals. He hit two; and 

 selecting the trail with most blood they followed it for three 

 or four miles, until Kermit overtook and finished off the 

 wounded bongo, a fine cow. 



Kermit always found them lying up during the middle 

 of the day and feeding in the morning and afternoon; other- 

 wise his observations of their habits coincided with mine. 



The next ten days Kermit spent in a trip to the coast, 

 near Mombasa, for sable the most beautiful antelope next 

 to the koodoo. The cows and bulls are red, the very old 

 bulls (of the typical form) jet black, all with white bellies; 

 like the roan, both sexes carry scimitar-shaped horns, but 

 longer than the roans. He w r as alone with his two gun- 

 bearers, and some Swahili porters; he acted as headman 

 himself. They marched from Mombasa, being ferried 

 across the harbor of Kilindini in a dhow, and then going 

 some fifteen miles south. Next day they marched about ten 

 miles to a Nyika village, where they arrived just in the mid- 

 dle of a funeral dance which was being held in honor of a 

 chief's son who had died. Kermit was much amused to find 

 that this death dance had more life and go to it than any 

 dance he had yet seen, and the music the dirge music had 

 such swing and vivacity that it almost reminded him of a 

 comic opera. The dancers wore tied round their legs queer 

 little wicker-work baskets, with beans inside, which rattled in 

 the rhythm of their dancing. Camp was pitched under a 

 huge baobab-tree, in sight of the Indian Ocean; but in the 

 middle of the night the ants swarmed in and drove every- 

 body out; and next day, while Kermit was hunting, camp 

 was shifted on about an hour's march to a little grove of 

 trees by a brook. It was a well-watered country, very hilly, 

 with palm-bordered streams in each valley. These wild 

 palms bore ivory nuts, the fruit tasting something like an 



