AN UNKNOWN ANIMAL ON THE UASINGISHU 125 
spoor to follow, and though we sought for it for some time we 
never saw it again. 
Some weeks later we showed the boy who was with us a 
book containing illustrations of the animals of various countries 
and told him to say when he found anything at all resembling 
what he had seen. After some time he came to the picture 
of a brown bear and at once stopped and said that that was 
the animal. 
Since then I have learnt that it is known amongst the 
Nandi as ‘ Chemosit,’ and their description tallies with mine. 
A few days ago a friend of mine brought down one of my old 
Nandi boys to Nairobi and I showed him some large illustrations 
to the Jungle Book, asking if he saw anything there which was 
like ‘ Chemosit.’ He picked out the picture of Baloo, the 
Indian bear, at once. 
I have also heard of the same thing in the Kakumega 
country near Kabras, and was twice warned by the people not 
to sleep with my tent door open for fear of the ‘ Shivuverre,’ 
which they described as a nocturnal beast something like a 
hyaena only infinitely larger and very savage. It was not, they 
said, the least like a lion or leopard. I heard of a skin in 
Kabras and tried very hard to obtain it; but could not do so. 
The Nandi say that they once killed one years ago owing 
to its having climbed up on the roof of a hut and broken 
through. 
It killed the people in the hut, but others burnt the place 
down with the animal inside. They say the reason it is never 
killed is because it is entirely nocturnal, is very rare, and only 
attacks solitary people, who never return to tell the tale. 
When I saw it, it was quite early in the morning, and the 
Nandi account for its being about at that hour by the fact that 
the mist prevented its realising the approach of daylight. 
I might add that the beast was not the least like either a 
baboon or an ant-bear, of this I am quite certain. 
