I 



-^ The Lonely Wonder-world of the Nyika 



with the disturber of their peace ! It is not so often that 

 their strange ways and doings concern a human being, 

 but it comes to pass to-day. The watchful observer 

 takes delight not only in the sound of these strange 

 musical instruments, but also in the thought that they 

 give shelter to a little world of their own, a peculiarly 

 organised little state made up of living beings, just as the 

 wide endless wilderness below them is a state with the 

 various larger wild animals for its inhabitants. 



My diary records yet another kind of natural observa- 

 tory, a giant tree uprooted on a wooded river-bank. Here, 

 as it were, in the gallery of the wood, the huge trunk 

 felled by the storm-wind offered me an inviting seat among 

 its branches, and thence I enjoyed many a sight of the 

 animal world around. 



There 1 had a view of the river close at hand, and 

 farther away many clearings of the wood, which at this 

 time of the year showed a rich display of animal life. The 

 ripening forest fruits had attracted into this neighbourhood 

 large packs of baboons. It was good to watch their busy 

 activity as I looked down from my observatory, where I 

 sat hidden by a thick growth of creeper. Great herds 

 of antelopes, and especially waterbuck and Grant's 

 gazelles, are regularly to be found in these wide clearings 

 of the woods. I remember some hours of the afternoon 

 when the life of the forest displayed itself here in a way 

 that suggested Paradise. I saw at the same time a large 

 drove of the 'graceful, wonderful pallahs, and, grazing 

 in their immediate neighbourhood, some twenty Grant's 

 gazelle bucks which had joined together to form a great 



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