A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



of us that day before reaching the banks of an indefinite stream 

 known as the Guaso Maru. 



On the trail we met many bands of Samburu coming to barter 

 with the natives whose territory we had recently left behind. 

 These parties consisted of long lines of boys, women, and old 

 men, loaded with bales of dried goat and sheep hides, and 

 guarded by an escort of armed and clay-daubed warriors. In 

 the afternoon we passed several fortified villages on kopjes. 

 The grassy slopes below were covered with grazing herds of 

 small, gray asses, fat-tailed sheep, and drooping-eared African 

 goats. The asses of this part of Africa, of which we had eighteen 

 in our caravan as pack-animals, are rather handsome beasts, 

 and are merely a domesticated form of the wild ass of northern 

 Africa. They are larger than the burro of western America, 

 and are short-haired and mouse-colored. However, the muzzle 

 is white, but the nose and lips are black, as well as the mane 

 and borders and tips of the ears. There is a distinct dorsal 

 black stripe and a broad transverse stripe at the shoulders. 

 A number of the asses we saw had more or less distinct black 

 striping, similar to the markings of the zebra, on the lower legs. 

 The ones which w^e used as beasts of burden on the expedition 

 were very docile, but exhibited all the stubbornness of the mule. 

 Unfortunately, they were not immune from the bite of the 

 tsetse fly, as were the zebras, which fact eventually resulted in 

 a number of our animals dying and the remainder becoming 

 too weak to carry loads. 



About four o'clock we reached the Guaso Maru, a narrow, 

 winding, and vegetation-choked stream bordered by tall, pict- 

 uresque palms. In the midst of a terrific downpour we pitched 

 camp on its western bank, several miles above where it poured 

 into a larger stream known as the Guaso Nyiro. About dark 

 the chief and elders of a collection of villages, which we had 

 passed during the afternoon, came into camp to pay homage 

 to the white men. They informed us that while the eastern 



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