290 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA chap. 



trouble, as the wind and sun were again together, the former 

 pretty strong and blowing the brim of my flabby old hat 

 constantly into my eyes) ; and then, after a good deal of 

 manoeuvring and dodging, succeeded in getting a shot at a 

 " topi." She (it was a cow) ran some distance, notwithstanding 

 that she had got the bullet fairly in the ribs, and disappeared 

 among some bushes. But I could tell by her flurried scamper 

 off that she would drop, and soon found her lying dead. She 

 was very fat indeed. All hands got meat again and were 

 happy. The topi, when in good condition (and nearly every 

 one I shot in this country was fat), furnishes splendid meat, 

 and is one of the very best of the larger antelopes for the 

 table ; thus resembling, in this respect as well as in appearance, 

 the " bastard hartebeeste " (though, for the matter of that, all 

 the hartebeestes are good eating). 



The guinea-fowls here are of the species having a stumpy 

 horn and short thick beak with a little brush over its base. 

 A little farther south I had met with both the common horned 

 kind of East Africa and the vulturine guinea-fowl, also near 

 the lake. Flocks of crowned cranes frequent the cultivated 

 strip fringing the lake shore in this and the adjoining districts. 

 Their loud and rather musically plaintive note, while reminding 

 one strongly of the South African species, differs sufficiently 

 from the latter's cry to proclaim them distinct even before the 

 divergence in appearance is noticed. 



While out hunting I came across a rather disagreeably 

 suggestive sight ; numbers of bleached and grinning human 

 skulls were scattered about over the ground, betokening some 

 bygone fight or slaughter. One account I heard attributed 

 these to a Swahili caravan, said to have been massacred by 

 natives ; but whether that was the true version, or whether they 

 marked some battle of the inhabitants with raiding Bworanas, 

 I am not sure. 



I, as usual, made the acquaintance of the owner of the 

 kraal near which we had camped. He was one of the tribe 



