234 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



soon got a kob, however, and then Mastaba, in eager 

 excitement, ran up to me and murmured " nama- 

 nama," the Hausa word for animal. I looked, but could 

 see nothing but hummocks of thick grass and scrub 

 stretching away to where a tangle of bush denoted 

 swampy ground. Mastaba pointed eagerly to a tiny 

 tree, and suddenly my eye was arrested by a patch 

 of bright red beneath it, and I recognised no less an 

 animal than the mysterious red deer. I hesitated, to 

 see if it could be driven up the line to Mr Talbot, but 

 that second lost me my chance. Had it remained 

 motionless I might have hit it, but it started running 

 just as I fired. I missed, and a steady gloom fell upon 

 me, undissipated by any further chance. We came 

 upon the skull and one horn of a Senegal hartebeeste, 

 and saw bariwa, which brought up the number of 

 different species of animals that we had either seen 

 or of which we had seen the tracks to nine. We 

 longed to follow into the marsh, but even had it 

 proved penetrable, we could not afford to give the 

 time to it. There were large numbers of birds, par- 

 ticularly egrets and crown-cranes, and many others 

 which were new to us. This island was an exception, 

 for otherwise we saw surprisingly little bird-life, — no 

 doubt they remain in the islands of the north and 

 east. 



Again we "lived for water" for three days and two 

 nights — eating and sleeping ravenously in the healthy, 

 bracing air, and enjoying the pure, cold, delicious 

 water, which has little tiny lumps of yellow natron- 

 looking stuff floating on its surface. 



On the afternoon of the third day we neared the 

 Northern Nigerian shore at Saiorum — a name that 



