GOOD-BYE SERGOIT 257 



some hundreds of yards away, whereas he is probable 

 miles. When a lion calls really near, say within three 

 hundred yards of your tent, you are never likely to forget 

 it. You will agree with your men, who by that time 

 are likely to be looking you up, when they say, "He 

 makes the ropes shake." 



In hilly country I have heard lions quarrelling or calling 

 over a rhino carcass at seven miles distance on a still night. 



I agree with the Psalmist: "Roaring after their prey" 

 is the best description of the sound that they can make 

 when they so choose. 



A yellow light lingers long in a lion's eye after death; 

 much longer than I have seen light live in any other dead 

 animal's eye. I have wondered at the reason. 



Unwillingly at last I turn my face southward and 

 leave behind me the beautiful land over which I have 

 wandered for so long. I am back once more among the 

 forest edges of the Mau. 



When first I rode this trail it was springtime, or a 

 season that seemed to correspond in some important respect 

 to spring. The rains were just beginning and the whole 

 country was one green carpet of short, freshly springing 

 grass. We ate quantities of succulent mushrooms, immense 

 in size, and excellent in flavour. Springing flowers made 

 the veldt gay. 



Now the land is a rich ripe yellow, where creeping 

 grass fires have not blackened it. The vigorous growth 

 of leaf and twig has been checked by unbroken days of 

 dry heat. And all the flowers that cannot rear a sturdy 

 head above all the enclosing tides of high grass, have 

 disappeared long ago. 



The change is great between May and October, but 

 the borderland of the forest is very beautiful still, though 

 with a different beauty. 



The crowns of the trees in Africa are thicker and 



