i?2 LIFE WITH THE HAM RAN ARABS. 



when a hippo is found floating. It is said that when 

 the maariff was first found by Baker, he asked an Arab 

 what he called it, and the man replied something to that 

 effect, and it was named by Baker accordingly ; but as 

 the Arabic for ' I don't know ' is ' ana maarafshi,' l it has 

 been suggested that, however good the name, the 

 Arab's answer had this meaning. Whoever gave it this 

 name, however, it is certain that Essafi was quite 

 familiar with it. Just before dinner our hunters peti- 

 tioned us to shoot some guinea-fowl for their supper, as 

 of late years, they said, they had given up their custom 

 of not eating them ; so Vivian, taking his ten-bore 

 loaded with shot cartridges, very quickly complied with 

 their request, and those which survived sufficiently long to 

 have their throats cut were soon feathered with the as- 

 sistance of hot water, cut up, and put into a pot to stew 

 with elephant's fat, and of all the varieties of fat the 

 Arabs carefully collect that of the elephant is by far the 

 most prized 



Feb. 24. Since our departure from the Settite we 

 had lost the music of the night, so pleasant to the 

 hunter's ear the lion's roar until last night, when at an 

 early hour it was heard close to our encampment. Essafi 

 and Mohamed came to us at once, and off we started in 

 pursuit, the rising moon giving enough light to guide 

 us on our way to a pool, towards which the lion was 



1 Gabriel Sacroug. 



