266 THE LAND OF THE LION 



a change into something strange and new. That smooth- 

 limbed Wanyamwazi who saunters off to get wood for 

 your night fire knows he has done his day's stint. Once 

 that is finished, this wood-carrying business is a leisurely 

 matter and so with beautiful carriage of head and shoulder 

 he strolls along, restfulness in every movement of him; 

 to hurry him would be an outrage. Before the quickly 

 fading twilight has vanished, he will come as gracefully, 

 as leisurely back, poising on broad shoulder a mighty log 

 of the very best burning wood in the world; and this 

 should go far to convince even American restlessness that 

 in this old new land, at least, efficiency and leisure are 

 not incompatible. The African wilderness is very restful 

 to the over-tired man. 



At the northern end of the swamp your trail bears 

 away from the river for a few miles, and you will most 

 probably next camp on its banks at Laikipia Boma. 



Here the Guasi Narok runs strong and clear till it 

 enters, just below the Boma, one of the finest swamps 

 to be seen anywhere in B. E. A. I use the word fine with 

 a purpose, for swamps usually are in no way beautiful, 

 in this or other countries. But the borders of this great 

 Papyrus garden have a distinct beauty of their own. The 

 ground in Africa is often hard, far harder than any earth 

 I have seen. Even after rain there are large tracts, not 

 by any means stony, where the earth itself is so compressed 

 that a mule's hoofmark would easily escape an untrained 

 eye. And a two-ton rhino can pass and leave only a 

 spoor that takes pains and skill to follow at all. Well, 

 the soil round this great fourteen-mile swamp that swallows 

 up for that distance the Guasi Narok, has this African 

 property. On it springs grass soft, green and level as 

 can be seen anywhere, but as you ride over it you can 

 with difficulty make out even the heavy four-toe foot- 

 marks of the great hippos whose nightly browsing keeps 



