290 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CHAP. 
trouble, as the wind and sun were again together, the former 
pretty strong and blowing the brim of my flabby old hat 
constantly into my eyes) ; and then, after a good deal of 
manoeuvring and dodging, succeeded in getting a shot at a 
“ topi.” She (it was a cow) ran some distance, notwithstanding 
that she had got the bullet fairly in the ribs, and disappeared 
among some bushes. But I could tell by her flurried scamper 
off that she would drop, and soon found her lying dead. She 
was very fat indeed. All hands got meat again and were 
happy. The topi, when in good condition (and nearly every 
one I shot in this country was fat), furnishes splendid meat, 
and is one of the very best of the larger antelopes for the 
table ; thus resembling, in this respect as well as in appearance, 
the “ bastard hartebeeste ” (though, for the matter of that, all 
the hartebeestes are good eating). 
The guinea-fowls here are of the species having a stumpy 
horn and short thick beak with a little brush over its base. 
A little farther south I had met with both the common horned 
kind of East Africa and the vulturine guinea-fowl, also near 
the lake. Flocks of crowned cranes frequent the cultivated 
strip fringing the lake shore in this and the adjoining districts. 
Their loud and rather musically plaintive note, while reminding 
one strongly of the South African species, differs sufficiently 
from the latter’s cry to proclaim them distinct even before the 
divergence in appearance is noticed. 
While out hunting I came across a rather disagreeably 
suggestive sight ; numbers of bleached and grinning human 
skulls were scattered about over the ground, betokening some 
bygone fight or slaughter. One account I heard attributed 
these to a Swahili caravan, said to have been massacred by 
natives ; but whether that was the true version, or whether they 
marked some battle of the inhabitants with raiding Bworanas, 
I am not sure. 
I, as usual, made the acquaintance of the owner of the 
kraal near which we had camped. He was one of the tribe 
