THE ISLAND OF MOMBASA 87 



gazelles, Thompson's gazelles, impalla, giraffes, 

 wildebeests, and many other antelope species can- 

 tered off and stood to watch the train as it swept 

 past them. It was a wonderful ride, perhaps the 

 most novel railway ride to be found any place in 

 the world. On each side of the Uganda Railroad 

 there is a strip of land, narrow on the north and 

 wide on the south, in which game is protected from 

 the sportsman, and consequently the animals have 

 learned to regard these strips as sanctuary. There 

 were many tales of lions as we rode along, and the 

 imagination pictured a slinking lion in every patch 

 of reeds along the way. I heard one lion story that 

 makes the man-eaters of Tsavo seem like vege- 

 tarians. It was told to me by a gentleman high in 

 the government service a man of unimpeachable 

 veracity. He says the story is absolutely true, but 

 refused to swear to it. 



Once upon a time, so the story goes, there was a 

 caravan of slaves moving through the jungles of 

 Africa. The slave-drivers were cruel and they 

 chained the poor savages together in bunches of 

 ten. Each slave wore an iron ring around his neck 

 and the chain passed through this ring and on to 

 the rest of the ten. For days and weeks and months 

 they marched along, their chains clanking and their 

 shoulders bending beneath the heavy weight. From 

 time to time the slave-drivers would jog them along 

 with a few lashes from a four-cornered "hippo" 

 hide kiboko, or whip. Quite naturally the life 

 was far from pleasant to the chain-gang and they 



