A GIRAFFE-HUNT IN THE LOLDEIGA HILLS 



Over our after-dinner pipes we discussed the next day's 

 campaign against the big game, and decided that my friend 

 would hunt in the direction of Mount Kenia while I explored 

 the country to the west for signs of game. Then we had a 

 sound sleep until that damp chilliness which often precedes the 

 dawn in the higher altitudes of Eastern Africa conspired with 

 unnecessary disturbance habitually made by African servants 

 in the preparation of a meal to rouse us again. Accompanied 

 by my Swahili gun-bearer (Faki by name), two porters, and a 

 Kikuyu savage who passed as a guide, and whose wardrobe 

 consisted of an elaborate head-dress, his weapons, and a con- 

 tinual smile, I forded the cold waters of the stream before sun- 

 rise, while the country was yet wrapped in the early morning 

 mists. Wading to the knees in the current and following the 

 rank and dripping growth along the course of the river, chilled 

 a person thoroughly; but as soon as the powerful African sun 

 appeared over Mount Kenia, clothing and vegetation were 

 dried almost immediately in a cloud of thin vapor. 



About a mile down the stream we had a momentary glimpse 

 of a fine male waterbuck, as it splashed across the shallow creek 

 and plunged into the thick growth on the opposite side. Farther 

 on a female of the same species was visible for a few brief mo- 

 ments, while several times small duikers bounded from the 

 grass at our feet and disappeared as gray streaks in the thickets 

 that bordered the river. Francolin and the diminutive African 

 quail were continually rising, singly and in pairs, from the grass 

 ahead of us. Meanwhile from all sides resounded the metallic, 

 grating call of guinea-fowl. In one small opening we came 

 across a flock of about fifty of these helmeted guinea-fowl, which 

 dodged ahead of us in the grass for some time, and then arose 

 by twos and threes in noisy and laborious flight. Small tropical 

 birds twittered and sang in the thickets, a flock of half a dozen 

 green parrots flew overhead among the tree- tops, and once a 

 a couple of grayish monkeys romped through the top branches 



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