THE NDOROBO COUNTRY 



87 



eke out the half rations of my own men, it was ahvays 

 a windfall to these unthrifty but pleasant savages ; as, for 

 instance, one day when I was lucky enough to kill a bull 

 and cow giraffe, right and left, and gave them the former 

 (which measured 16 feet ^ in height), while the cow pro- 

 vided me and my men with an ample supply of good meat, 

 besides giving me the luxury of fresh milk, they bringing me 

 presents of exquisite honey in acknowledgment. One is some- 

 times almost tempted to believe that these people possess some 



AUTHOR'S Dining-Table in Bower. 



peculiar faculty enabling them to divine the presence of meat 

 in camp. No sooner is game killed than they begin dropping 

 in, for all the world like vultures. It is not merely that the}- 

 follow those birds (though they do so), for vultures under an}- 

 circumstances are never absent from around the camp. I have 

 noticed the same thing amongst natives in South Africa. 



Although there were elephants about and I went after them 



' In my experience this is tlio hcigiit of a full-grown bull, whether in Central or 

 Southern Africa ; 14 feet being the average of adult females. I have read of 18 feet for 

 a male, but have never seen one of such dimensions. 



