236 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



It was hard work, but the forest was beautiful and interest- 

 ing. Where fairly level, as on the ridges, the ground was 

 tolerably open among the tall, straight tree-trunks ; but in the 

 steep kloofs of the streams and numerous little boggy tributaries 

 (all eventually joining a branch of the Seya) there was much 

 undergrowth. Everywhere were signs of elephants frequenting 

 the forest, but, except here and there a little rhino dung, of no 

 other game. Pigeons were numerous, and the wings of the 

 plantain-eaters lit up with flashes of crimson the sombre grey- 

 beard moss with which many of the trees were draped, or 

 streaked the green canopy of foliage as one looked down over 

 ravines resounding with their noisy but pleasant cries. There 

 was a long, heavy shower in the evening, and the night was 

 cold and misty. 



I had been working pretty hard for some time now, with 

 no success to stimulate me, on a not very wholesome nor 

 nourishing diet (namely, beans and wild green stuff), and often 

 getting insufficient sleep, so that I felt a bit slack ; and know- 

 ing how this is apt to affect one's nerves and through them 

 spoil one's shooting, I concluded that a day's rest would do me 

 no harm. So that the next day ( 1 1 th October) I stayed in 

 camp and pottered about in the forest, where there was plenty 

 to interest one, catching butterflies or admiring beautiful little 

 tree-frogs and rare birds ; while Squareface and Baithai went 

 out in one direction, and Juma with another Ndorobo in the 

 opposite one, to look for spoor. 



In the afternoon I was strolling about in the forest not far 

 from camp when I met Squareface returning laden with fresh 

 elephant meat. As I had not fired a shot the day before, I 

 wondered how he had procured it, until he explained that he 

 had shot a small cow himself He said that he had got in 

 among a herd without knowing it, and that this one had 

 charged him, and declared that he had only fired one shot. I 

 knew the Sv/ahili character better than to believe this yarn, 

 and did not feel at all pleased, being sure that he must have 



