438 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



seen, it. Its long hoofs enable it to go over the most treach- 

 erous ground, and it swims well; in many of its haunts, in 

 the thick papyrus, the water is waist deep on a man. 

 Through the papyrus, and the reeds and marsh grass, it 

 makes well-beaten paths. Where it is in any danger of 

 molestation it is never seen abroad in the daytime, vent- 

 uring from the safe cover of the high reeds only at night; 

 but fifty miles inland, in the marsh grass on the edge of a 

 big papyrus swamp, Kermit caught a glimpse of half a 

 dozen feeding in the open, knee-deep in water, long after 

 sunrise. On the hunt in question a patch of marsh was 

 driven by a hundred natives, while the guns were strung 

 along the likely passes which led to another patch of marsh. 

 A fine situtunga buck came to Kermit's post, and he killed 

 it as it bolted away. It had stolen up so quietly through 

 the long marsh grass that he only saw it when it was 

 directly on him. Its stomach contained not grass, but 

 the leaves and twig tips of a shrub which grows in and 

 alongside of the marshes. 



The day after this hunt our safari started on its march 

 north-westward to Lake Albert Nyanza. We had taken 

 with us from East Africa our gun-bearers, tent boys, and 

 the men whom the naturalists had trained as skinners. The 

 porters were men of Uganda; the askaris were from the 

 constabulary, and widely different races were represented 

 among them, but all had been drilled into soldierly uniform- 

 ity. The porters were well-clad, well-behaved, fine-looking 

 men, and did their work better than the "shenzis," the wild 

 Mem of Kikuyu tribesmen, whom we had occasionally em- 

 ployed in East Africa; but they were not the equals of 

 the regular East African porters. I think this was largely 

 because of their inferior food, for they ate chiefly yams 

 and plantains; in other words inferior sweet-potatoes and 

 bananas. They were quite as fond of singing as the East 

 African porters, and in addition were cheered on the march 

 by drum and fife; several men had fifes, and one carried 

 nothing but one of the big Uganda drums, which he usually 



