XIX FIELD-RA TS 207 



except those I have been tortiinale enough to bring 

 back. This was the first time I had seen these beasts ; 

 they are most amusing to watch, wlien liunting. Ihe 

 rats, wliich are brown, with short tails, live in big 

 colonies and dart from burrow to burrow, whili- the 

 cuberovv stands motionless till one of them shows, when 

 he makes a pounce for it. If he is unsuccessful, he seems 

 to lose his temper, and starts digging violently ; but 

 this is only lost labour, as the ground is honeycombed 

 with holes, and every rat is yards away before he has 

 thrown ujj a pawful. 



I did not reach camp till five that evening. During 

 the da\- we crossed a steep ridge and three wide grassy 

 valleys. In the evening two men, whom I had left behind 

 at Jarso to buy mules and donkeys, turned up with only 

 a couple of the latter, having, they said, missed me in 

 some way. 



