CHAP. Ill 



TRAVELS IN EASTERN AFRICA 



95 



noceros I took my field-glasses and swept the surround- 

 ing country. At a point about 600 yards distant I saw 

 what I supposed to be a black-and-white ox, standing 

 behind some rocks. After examination, Lieutenant 

 von Hohnel concluded that what we saw was two 

 native women. We both came to the conclusion that, 

 whether cattle or women, it was a happy sign that 

 natives were in the vicinity. I moved off silently 

 in that direction ; when my ox and Lieutenant von 

 Hohnel's native women, upon close inspection, proved 

 to be four marabout storks. These stately birds were 

 nearly four feet in height, and on the plain (oddly 

 enough) the greater the distance from which they 

 were viewed, the larger they seemed to be. 



After the rhinoceros meat was cut up and divided 

 among the men, we set out on our journey. Soon the 

 bush closed around us again, and we were forced labo- 

 riously to cut our way through it. At length, about 

 3 P.M., the aspect of the country changed as though by 

 magic. Before us, stretching to the foot of the moun- 

 tains, lay a beautiful grassy plain, thousands of acres in 

 extent, and marked here and there by strips of green 

 foliage, outlining the course of streams tributary to the 

 Mackenzie. Scattered over the plain were groves of 

 tall and graceful dhum palms, and clumps of a well- 

 rounded, close-growing bush, with glazed leaves similar 

 in appearance to the holly. It resembled a vast park. 

 My men gave forth a cheer upon realizing that the hard 

 work incident to forcing passage through the thick bush 

 was at an end, at least for a time, and that easy march- 

 ing lay before tliem. However, the way was not so 

 smooth as it at first appeared to the eye, for beneath 



