XIII A SOJOURN AT RESHIAT AND KERE 315 



proved nice and fat and was welcome, giving my men a fine 

 feast, which they evidently appreciated, as shown by the noise 

 they made in the evening. But Bawdo, who had patiently 

 ferried it all over, together with the porters, in his canoe, to 

 my surprise turned up his nose at it, though he asked for a 

 skin. It seemed the people of the Kere tribe proper do not 

 eat game, though the El Gume, of whom there were plenty too 

 here living in small communities in villages of their own side 

 by side with them, eat anything and everything. The latter 

 keep donkeys, a large herd of which I had seen to-day, for the 

 sake of both their meat and milk. Prizing them highly as food, 

 they cannot be induced to sell any, being indifferent to trade 

 goods. 



I was now able to set a gun for the hyena which had made 

 itself a nuisance, and hoped even to get the leopard, as I 

 have often caught this animal too by such means. The latter, 

 however, never came ; but while I was having my evening 

 smoke in bed, bang went the gun, and I went, accompanied by 

 several excited volunteers, to see the result. It was our friend 

 the " fisi." For a wonder he was not quite dead, and, though 

 unable to run away, was still on his legs — as we could make 

 out, on getting close up, by the light of a wisp of dry grass 

 used as a torch — and staggering about in the gloom. I had 

 brought my revolver in my hand on the chance of a weapon 

 being needed, and soon despatched him with a couple of shots 

 from it, and the men dragged him out and made merry over his 

 corpse in camp, after I had put a fresh cartridge in the set gun. 

 It was worth the trouble of setting it even to give the men 

 so much amusement. I now went to bed and to sleep, and 

 slept till about 3 A.M., when I was awoke by the gun going off 

 again. But I did not turn out till it got light, and then, on 

 going to see, found it was another " fisi," this one dead on the 

 spot, as is usually the case when a gun has been properly set. 

 I chaffed Mnyamiri a bit, telling him my charm was more 

 powerful than his. It is exemplary of the different methods of 



