184 ON SAFARI 



colonising even sucli savage remnants of motlier-earth 

 as British East Africa. We were dining at the Dak 

 bungalow, when two squatters — " new chums " — came 

 in and joined us. They had, so they informed us, 

 walked in from a " farm " they w^ere holding some 

 twelve miles out — that is (if we understood aright), they 

 were, and had been for a fortnight, " personally occupy- 

 ing," within the meaning of the Act, a stretch of land 

 that had been allotted to an absent buyer. Let us hope 

 that that absentee was not a land-speculator, a species 

 which, in these new colonies, should be absolutely 

 debarred from taking root. AVell, the first yarn these 

 two new chums told us, with self-evident veracity, was 

 that during their march-in some object lying on a 

 hillock had attracted their attention. On cautiously 

 approaching this, they had discovered from an adjoining 

 bluff that the mysterious object was a lion, asleep, and 

 not over forty yards distant — a sort of " soft chance " 

 that systematic hunters travel hundreds of miles, often 

 in vain search, to fall in with. Our friends, however, 

 after full consultation, decided to withdraw, not being 

 sure of their weapons. " Will a Snider kill a lion ? " was 

 their question — the answer to which could only depend 

 upon the man behind the Snider. Probably their prudent 

 decision was justifiable. 



During dinner one of the pair, a big powerful young 

 fellow " fra' Glasgie," rather amused us by a woebegone 

 description of his life on the veld, and of the miseries 

 he had endured from the nightly serenade of wild beasts. 

 They had no house, only a tent : and not once, according 

 to his account, had he dared during; a whole fortniorht 

 to close an eye. For a time, naturally, we thought he 

 was romancing — making a good story of it — but soon 

 enough the vividness of his complaints brought home to 

 us all the state of abject funk to which he had brought 

 himself. As his partner tersely put it, " The fear of death 

 was on the man." 



We were, nevertheless, surprised enough the next 

 morning when his pal (Lindsay) came along to our camp 



