3 o6 THE LAND OF THE LION 



I took my rifle'quickly from my gunboy. What could it be ? 

 Had a family of lions cornered a herd of zebra on the other 

 side of the rocks ? and was the hideous outcry the shrill 

 death-cry of the zebra and the fierce growling of the lion 

 echoed back by the rocky walls ? It was simply the angry 

 protest of a large band of baboons against our intrusion. I 

 had often seen baboons before, in large troops too, but had 

 never heard their war-cry. It was truly a dreadful cry. I 

 can think of nothing to liken it to but a fire in a madhouse, 

 when the flames might reach men, women and children at 

 once. The simile is a horrid one, I admit, but the half human 

 outcry was worse than anything I ever heard in my life. 



As I get nearer still to the densely wooded country that 

 lies before me, the masses of rock gradually soften the 

 outline and merge themselves in higher and more regular 

 hills and ridges, always covered with greenery that rise up 

 and up till they meet the great flanks of Kenia. The sun 

 was by now high in the heavens, yet the vapours still clung 

 among these purple-blue foothills. In other lands you see 

 the clouds rise up slowly, steadily from the woodland. 

 Here sometimes they have a way of rising all their own; 

 the breeze bids them be going; but they linger and cling 

 to their home of the night that is over. I am not pressing 

 too far a mere fancy; I am stating a literal fact. The clouds 

 seem to drop cloudy anchor lines that from some miles' 

 distance look as though they were twisted around the very 

 tree-tops. The snowy feathery mass of them yields to the 

 light air and floats away. But each separate cloud has its 

 trailers behind it that bind it to the forest tops. The effect 

 when the sun shines full on forest and mountain is very 

 wonderful. It is as though a mighty army were camped 

 on the great woodland, and that hidden among the trees 

 ten thousand campfires were sending up columns of silver 

 smoke. I have seen the same effect in early morning also 

 on the slopes of Mt. Elgon. 



