164 After Big Game in Central Africa 



hunters in the villages, or professional assistant 

 hunters, and all recognised a track very well. More- 

 over, as the same men visited the same pool each 

 day, they saw all the better the changes which had 

 happened during the night. If there were some- 

 thing extraordinary they had orders to come back post- 

 haste and awaken me. 1 Apart from this contingency, 

 they returned to camp, some about ten o'clock, others 

 about noon, according to the distance they had to 

 come. Upon waking I summoned them before me, 

 and sometimes there were contradictory reports. 



" Well, what fresh ? " 



First group " The small rhinoceros drank last 

 night. There is nothing else. The lion did not 

 come." 



Second group " He came to us, and the small 

 rhinoceros also." 



First group " Impossible, since he went in an 

 opposite direction to you, and we followed him as far 

 as the hills." 



Second group " He came notwithstanding, and 

 we recognised him distinctly." (Sceptical smiles and 

 chuckles on the part of the first group.) 



I intervene by saying, " Where are the straws ? " 



" Here they are." 



I compare them, and find that the measurements 

 are of the same animal. 



Second group, triumphantly " Ah ! now you see. 



1 For example, if elephants had visited the pool late enough at 

 night to give one a fair chance of overtaking them, or if my 

 emissaries made some discovery, such as a lion sleeping in the shade, 

 the retreat of a rhinoceros, etc. 



