3°8 
ELEPHANT-HUNTING IN EAST AFRICA 
CH. XIII 
where he was kindly treated, to being enslaved. I afterwards 
learned that there was another waif from the same expedition 
living at Bumi, whom Mnyamiri claimed as a kinsman ; but he 
would have nothing to say either to his would-be cousin or any 
of us, having become so thoroughly habituated to the savage 
life that he had no desire to revert to one less wild. Indeed 
he would not acknowledge that he was any different from the 
natives of the place, nor was he distinguishable from them by 
any one but Mnyamiri, who professed to know him by certain 
marks, which he himself also carried, characteristic of a par¬ 
ticular clan. 
I had recollected that this was New Year’s Day, and thought 
we were happy to have reached a place of rest on such a pro¬ 
pitious date. I little knew what was in store for me ; for a 
terrible event happened towards sundown. On my arrival here 
about mid-day I had bathed in the river, standing up to my 
waist in the water, which was deep close in to the bank, in spite 
of the crocodiles to be seen in the middle ; for both I and the 
men had been in the constant habit of performing our ablutions 
in the lake, where v Hhese reptiles were in plenty, and so had 
come almost to disregard them, though I never went out of my 
depth, or even far from the bank. 
Late in the afternoon I went down for another bathe, with 
Shebane (my servant) as usual carrying my chair, towels, etc., 
and did the same thing again. It is a large river and deep, 
with a smooth surface and rather sluggish current ; its water, 
dark-coloured and opaque, though hardly to be called muddy, 
deepens rapidly, so that a step or two in is sufficient at this 
point to bring it up to one’s middle, while the bottom is black, 
slimy mud. As we descended the bank towards the low 
muddy shore, a native who was tending his crops said some¬ 
thing to us, but knowing nothing of the language we could not 
understand him. Having bathed and dried myself, I was 
sitting on my chair, after putting on my clothes, by the water’s 
edge, lacing up my boots. The sun was just about to set 
