A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



the Kikuyus it is the custom for the women to shave their 

 heads, while those of the men are adorned with an elaborate 

 coiffure held together by grease and red clay. These savages 

 spend a great deal of time plaiting this head-dress, and to pro- 

 tect it from the constant rains of this region they usually carry 

 with them light coverings made from the dried stomachs and 

 bladders of animals. With these they shield their heads during 

 storms. Several years previous an enterprising Swahili trader 

 had brought a supply of cheap green cotton umbrellas to this 

 region, and must have amassed a small fortune by this venture. 

 Although there was not a cloud in the sky this bright morning, 

 several of the naked and venerable natives travelled through 

 the grass with one of these green umbrellas tucked under one 

 arm and a double-edged, eight-foot spear resting in the hollow 

 of the other. 



Shortly after starting we jumped a herd of eight impala, 

 including a good buck, which bounded along a grassy hillside 

 in the graceful leaps characteristic of this antelope, until they 

 disappeared in the bush half a mile distant. On reaching the 

 locality where the buffalo had last been seen we found only 

 old signs of these animals, and followed the palm-bordered 

 stream for several miles without sighting game. Several miles 

 distant across the flat, acacia-covered plain w^as visible an iso- 

 lated and prominent mountain, and under the rays of the hot 

 midday sun we started toward it. In crossing a small, grassy 

 plain among the acacias we disturbed a mammal which is very 

 rarely seen in eastern Africa — the African porcupine {Hystrix 

 africcB australis). This animal differed in color from the Cana- 

 dian porcupine, the quills being yellow^ and white, but was 

 about the same in size and appearance; and when annoyed by 

 the sticks of the savages, adopted the same tactics of defence 

 as its relative in Maine or British Columbia. 



Scanning the grassy slopes of the mountain with the glasses 

 we discovered a herd of about a dozen giraffes moving around 



170 



