THE LAND OF FOOTPRINTS 



ice in Africa : never believe a word the jungle and veldt 

 people tell you! 



These two — the impalla and the waterbuck — 

 were the principal buck we would see close to the 

 river. Occasionally, however, we came on a few 

 oryx, down for a drink, beautiful big antelope, with 

 white and black faces, roached manes, and straight, 

 nearly parallel, rapier horns upward of three feet 

 long. A herd of these creatures, the light gleaming 

 on their weapons, held all at the same slant, was like a 

 regiment of bayonets in the sun. And there were also 

 the rhinoceroses to be carefully espied and avoided. 

 They lay obliterated beneath the shade of bushes, 

 and arose with a mighty blow-oif of steam. Where- 

 upon we withdrew silently, for we wanted to shoot 

 no more rhinos, unless we had to. 



Beneath all these obvious and startling things, 

 a thousand other interesting matters were afoot. In 

 the m^ass and texture of the jungle grew many strange 

 trees and shrubs. One most scrubby, fat and leaf- 

 less tree, looking as though it were just about to 

 give up a discouraged existence, surprised us by put- 

 ting forth, apparently directly from its bloated wood, 

 the most wonderful red blossoms. Another other- 

 wise self-respecting tree hung itself all over with 

 plump bologna sausages about two feet long and 

 five inches thick. A curious vine hung like a rope, 



96 



