IX 



TRAVELS m EASTERN AFRICA 



393 



tenant von Hohnel at Seran, having no food or water, 

 he wandered five whole days, until at length he fell 

 in with his people. While on his journey, he had 

 found water in holes ; but food he had none, with the 

 exception of a few berries which he picked from 

 bushes on the desert. 



At this point we rested one day, and there I watched 

 a party of Wanderobbo hunters preparing to set out 

 in search of meat. They had with them two donkeys, 

 one of which they had painted with white stripes, 

 in order to have it resemble a zebra. To the head 

 of the other donkey they had affixed a pair of oryx 

 horns, as a decoy for oryx beisa, in case they fell in 

 with any. Before starting, all the hunters took a dip 

 in the river, and then smeared their wet bodies with 

 mud and sand, in order to give themselves as much 

 as possible the colour of the earth. They must be 

 excellent hunters. I learned from my experiences 

 that the game in that part of the country was very 

 shy, owing to the continued hunting of the Wande- 

 robbo ; yet, notwithstanding this shyness of game, 

 they were able to get close enough to an antelope 

 to kill it with one of their small arrows. 



We had but one other event before reaching Daitcho 

 of sufficient interest to relate. After marching a long 

 distance, we had camped near one of the small afflu- 

 ents of the Mackenzie River. As darkness had set 

 in before we reached camp, we were unable to build a 

 zeriba of any sort, and for the first half-hour or so 

 all the men were busied 2fatherino^ wood for fires. 

 Just as the fires were made, and Lieutenant von 

 Hohnel's tent was pitched, two lions began to roar 



