g6 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



two or three o'clock in the morning we hear the Hons go down to the river-bed 

 for their drink and then come up again. Soon after this we rise to graze again, 

 for we have been lying down for a while close huddled together. Then just 

 before dawn we go off to the salt-lick. 



This is a place trampled with the hoofmarks of many kinds of game. It has 

 steep banks undermined and burrowed into by the generations of game that 

 have come there for the salt earth. It is crowded this morning, and animals 

 are J^usy pawing and digging with hoof and horn to loosen the earth, whilst 

 others just lick up and down a smooth surface of grey earth bank. The place is 

 cut^deep with ravines and recesses, all made by animals either wild or domestic, 

 and deepened by the surface drainage of water after heavy rains. By night this 

 spot belongs to the wild animals, but by day the Masai bring their cattle and 

 sheep at regular intervals to lick there. 



Leaving the animated scene at the salt-lick we wander down to the pools 

 again, as dawn is slowly redding in the east. The lions are roaring over the 

 plain, as they settle down in their quarters, and day breaks once more, the birds 

 come forth and sing, all is bright again, and the dangers of the chilly night are 

 as things of another world. So the round of twenty-four hours starts once more, 

 always much the same ; a little danger, much eating, some sleeping, courting, 

 and drinking, with no cares or troubles or worries. The dangers are the dangers 

 of a moment and quickly forgotten. The joys are the joys of repletion and the 

 delight in living, both fairly continuous. There are the seasons of the green 

 grass and the dead grass, the bush-fires and the rains. When the bush-fires 

 have burnt much of the grass, grazing must be sought a little farther afield, but 

 the season of the green grass is then near. 



The daily round of animals covers^ as a rule, but a small area, perhaps only 

 a few square miles, and they may be found in exactly the same place for weeks 

 on end, moving only farther afield for water. 



There is a very prevalent idea that these plain-dwellers, where lion are 

 plentiful, lead a miserable, hunted, and harassed existence. Nothing could be 

 farther from the truth. Man is the only animal which hunts and worries them to 

 excess. They seem to be aware that he is their worst enemy, for they tolerate 

 the lion and. let it walk in their midst as one of themselves, whereas even the 

 distant sight of a man makes them feel uneasy. Their apprehensions are well 

 grounded, for man will never rest till he has exterminated them utterly from the 

 face of the plains. The lion may live with them for all time, yet never diminish 

 their numbers. The lion and even primitive man seem unable to upset the balance of 



