A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



ment of Mutari's domains, and where natives worked in the 

 fields, and the wood smoke ascended from many huts. We 

 forded an unusually swollen stream, passed through the fields, 

 and struggled upward through half a mile of bush to the hut 

 of the chief of this settlement, which was located on an isolated 

 hill. This chief, who ruled \inder Mutari, was a very black 

 and very wide-awake native, with a merry twinkle in his eye and 

 a keen sense of humor. In hunting with us he wore only a 

 straw girdle around his loins and carried a small bow with a 

 quiver full of poisoned arrows, which he used to shoot birds and 

 monkeys. He was much delighted when presented by me with 

 a brilliant blue scarf, which he wore around his neck, as he had 

 seen me do. When we arrived he was engaged in welding a 

 bracelet on the arm of a plump young wife whom he had re- 

 cently bought, but immediately gave up this occupation to 

 show Mutari the whereabouts of the elephants, which were 

 reported just beyond the village. 



As I was somewhat doubtful of the proximity of these ani- 

 mals, I had one of my men build a fire, and proceeded to dry 

 my clothing and cook some mutton before a critical audience 

 of the chief's numerous wives and children. Mutari returning 

 almost immediately, I followed him through tangled under- 

 growth for several hundred yards to the top branches of a small 

 fruit-tree, from which I viewed a monotonous panorama of 

 country, covered with a sea of yellow elephant-grass ten feet in 

 height. The natives claimed that the elephants had moved out 

 of sight in a distant depression. Somewhat sceptically I fol- 

 lowed them through the grass for two tiresome hours, occasional- 

 ly fording small, swampy streams bordered with a growth of 

 tropical palms. As I struggled through these thickets I often 

 stumbled, and once, grasping the branch of a bush for support, 

 was given a nervous moment by feeling and seeing a slender, 

 green snake which had been lying along the branch, and which 

 writhed out from under my hand to disappear in the foliage. 



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