THE MAU FOEEST 195 



beautiful black-and-white Guereza monkey (Colohus) 

 in these forests. The only sign of its existence met 

 with was a skin brought me by a Swahili on the 

 Molo. 



One night we encamped on an " open " where just 

 previously Lord Hindlip had shot a buffalo bull whose 

 horns measured, between inside bends, 45 ins. "We 

 saw nothing beyond a single bushbuck ; but the grass 

 here, not having been burnt, was rank and coarse in the 

 extreme, most distasteful to game. The further west 

 we went, the worse this feature grew — the rankness of 

 the grass. At the furthest points reached, it looked 

 as though it had not been burnt for centuries, and 

 the total absence of spoor, old or other, showed 

 that no game frecpiented that district. We therefore 

 turned back towards the better-burnt " opens " near 

 Kishobo, where we had already proved the presence of 

 buffalo. 



On these farthest opens grew lovely lilies, " ever- 

 lastings," and foxgloves — though these are probably not 

 their correct names. 



Although the unburnt grass seemed to indicate a 

 total absence of humanity, even in its lowest forms, yet 

 on different occasions we met with evidence bespeaking 

 the proximity of savage neighbours. Twice we found 

 the forest-trail obstructed by trees purposely felled 

 athwart it ; and twice we fell in with native huts in 

 the jungle. More primitive human dwellings could not 

 be ; they consisted merely of withy boughs stuck round 

 in a circle, their supple tops bent across to meet over 

 the centre — wigwam style. A few leafy branches served 

 to cover in this frame — width 6 ft, height 3|- ft. 

 Also, while lying awaiting buffalo at dusk, we both 

 heard, or thought we heard, human voices, and w^e 

 certainly did see the wreathing smoke of fires. There 

 were savages of some sort in this otherwise lifeless 

 jungle — presumably Sotik or other nomad Wandorobo. 

 The Sotik tribe, it may be recalled, had broken out in 

 rebellion some few months previously, but only made a 



