236 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
It was hard work, but the forest was beautiful and interest¬ 
ing. Where fairly level, as on the ridges, the ground was 
tolerably open among the tall, straight tree-trunks ; but in the 
steep kloofs of the streams and numerous little boggy tributaries 
(all eventually joining a branch of the Seya) there was much 
undergrowth. Everywhere were signs of elephants frequenting 
the forest, but, except here and there a little rhino dung, of no 
other game. Pigeons were numerous, and the wings of the 
plantain-eaters lit up with flashes of crimson the sombre grey¬ 
beard moss with which many of the trees were draped, or 
streaked the green canopy of foliage as one looked down over 
ravines resounding with their noisy but pleasant cries. There 
was a long, heavy shower in the evening, and the night was 
cold and misty. 
I had been working pretty hard for some time now, with 
no success to stimulate me, on a not very wholesome nor 
nourishing diet (namely, beans and wild green stuff), and often 
getting insufficient sleep, so that I felt a bit slack ; and know¬ 
ing how this is apt to affect one’s nerves and through them 
spoil one’s shooting, I concluded that a day’s rest would do me 
no harm. So that the next day (11th October) I stayed in 
camp and pottered about in the forest, where there was plenty 
to interest one, catching butterflies or admiring beautiful little 
tree-frogs and rare birds; while Squareface and Baithai went 
out in one direction, and Juma with another Ndorobo in the 
opposite one, to look for spoor. 
In the afternoon I was strolling about in the forest not far 
from camp when I met Squareface returning laden with fresh 
elephant meat. As I had not fired a shot the day before, I 
wondered how he had procured it, until he explained that he 
had shot a small cow himself. He said that he had got in 
among a herd without knowing it, and that this one had 
charged him, and declared that he had only fired one shot. I 
knew the Swahili character better than to believe this yarn, 
and did not feel at all pleased, being sure that he must have 
