3o8 ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA en. xiii 



where he was kindly treated, to being enslaved. I afterwards 

 learned that there was another waif from the same expedition 

 living at Bumi, whom Mnyamiri claimed as a kinsman ; but he 

 would have nothing to say either to his would-be cousin or any 

 ol us, having become so thoroughly habituated to the savage 

 life that he had no desire to revert to one less wild. Indeed 

 he would not acknowledge that he was any different from the 

 natives of the place, nor was he distinguishable from them b}- 

 any one but Mnyamiri, who professed to know him by certain 

 marks, which he himself also carried, characteristic of a par- 

 ticular clan. 



I had recollected that this was New Year's Day, and thought 

 we were happy to have reached a place of rest on such a pro- 

 pitious date. I little knew what was in store for me ; for a 

 terrible event happened towards sundown. On my arrival here 

 about mid-day I had bathed in the river, standing up to my 

 waist in the water, which was deep close in to the bank, in spite 

 of the crocodiles to be seen in the middle ; for both I and the 

 men had been in the constant habit of performing our ablutions 

 in the lake, where these reptiles were in plenty, and so had 

 come almost to disregard them, though I never went out of my 

 depth, or even far from the bank. 



Late in the afternoon I went down for another bathe, with 

 Shebane fmy servant) as usual carrying my chair, towels, etc., 

 and did the same thing again. It is a large river and deep, 

 with a smooth surface and rather sluggish current ; its water, 

 dark-coloured and opaque, though hardly to be called muddy, 

 deepens rapidly, so that a step or two in is sufficient at this 

 point to bring it up to one's middle, while the bottom is black, 

 slimy mud. As we descended the bank towards the low 

 muddy shore, a native who was tending his crops said some- 

 thing to us, but knowing nothing of the language we could not 

 understand him. Having bathed and dried myself, I was 

 sitting on my chair, after putting on my clothes, by the water's 

 edge, lacing up my boots. The sun was just about to set 



