CHAPTER VI 



WILDERNESS FOLK 



/^NE of the ways I used to while away the tedium 

 ^^ of my long hours at the waterholes was to make 

 notes on the creatures which came down to drink. 

 The more wild animals I come in contact with, the 

 more human they seem to me. The camel is a 

 peevish old woman; the elephant a scholarly gentle- 

 man; the giraffe a bom aristocrat; the lion a sports- 

 man; zebras are just plain rowdies; the ostrich is 

 a bully; the leopard an assassin, and so on. I re- 

 member one camel which used to be the leader in 

 our column on safari. I suppose the old fellow I have 

 in mind was past his prime. But for a camel he was 

 in good health and well treated. He had food and 

 water when he needed them, and he had no sores or 

 disease. 



Yet he used to start the day with a long 

 lamentation. He would chew his cud between 

 wheezy cries; then suddenly stop and make a sharp 

 noise between a whinny and a sneeze. 



When his native keeper came along to load him up 

 he invariably snapped at the man. When the load 



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