370 



OUR STAY AT NDOEO 



unwelcome warriors to go awa}^ again and to leave our native 

 friends in peace, but it was too late ; the mischief was done ; 

 none of the Wakikuyu dared enter the camp without the escort 

 of some of our people, and for the next few days no provisions 

 were brought in at all. 



Although we still had a o-ood deal of rain, it was not so 

 continuous or so heavy as it had been, and we were anxious 

 for dry weather now, our camp being converted into a swamj), 

 causing much suffering to our animals, especially to the goats, 

 who are very sensitive to damp. 



An incidental and fortunate result of the wet weather was 

 that the wild animals, instead of collecting about tlie watering 

 places, were now dispersed over the whole country, eagerly 

 cropping the fresh young grass. Now and then some of them 

 approached our camp, and one afternoon a little herd of zebras 

 came so near that I was able to fire at them quite easily. I 

 wounded three, one of which fell, whilst the other two went 

 off. Of these two, one had a hind leg broken, and as I was too 

 weak to go after it, I told the Somal to follow it and despatch 

 it with the knife. Although the Somal were very fleet of foot, 

 the wounded animal seemed likely to escape them, springing 

 off with apparently renewed vigour whenever they thought 

 they could catch it, and presently the chase was joined by 

 three hyenas, who also followed the game, snapping at its 

 throat and nostrils, apparently determined to wrest it from its 

 human enemies. However, in the end it was our men who 

 gave it its death-stroke and brought it home. Early the next 

 morning we were woke by the unusual sound of the howling 

 of a number of hyenas, and witnessed at a distance of some 800 

 paces from the camp, a struggle going on between a wounded 

 zebra, probably the third of those I had hit the day before, 

 a,nd some thirty hyenas. The end of tlie struggle was not 

 doubtful, but we did not actually see it. 



