"WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



pass. Hark! What kind of a sound is this? A long- 

 drawn - out, mournful note, beginning low and ending 

 high; then, after a short pause, a cry resembhng the 

 laugh of a maniac. There is no mistaking the animal. 

 It is a hyena, and it cannot be farther away than 

 thirty feet. My men, too, are w4de-awake and horror- 

 struck by the cry of the "fissi." I raise my repeating- 

 rifle to fire in the direction of the invisible visitor, but 

 remember in time that I have only four cartridges left 

 which I may need in defence against more dangerous 

 beasts. So we keep the hyena off by shouting and by 

 throwing pieces of the buffalo skull into the thicket. 

 For quite a while we have to keep up this duet between 

 man and beast. How easily might the stealthy leopard 

 and the lion prey upon us! My imagination pictures 

 to me the possibilities of such an encounter. But more 

 intense than fear is the feeling of unquenched thirst. 

 My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth, my pulses 

 throb violently, and I begin to feel dizzy and drowsy. 

 Already my mind begins to wander, but above all the 

 confusion of grewsome and of gladsome images and 

 noises, the reality of the torturing thirst asserts itself, 

 and I cry, in thought, for water, water! The sky withal 

 is clouded and starless, the air is murky and humid, 

 the very ground exhales the heat which it has absorbed 

 during the day. 



Listen! I hear it again and again. Is it a hallucina- 

 tion of my exhausted brain or is it real? It must be 



.350 



