XIII 
A SOJOURN A T RE SHI A T AND KERB 
3i5 
proved nice and fat and was welcome, giving my men a fine 
feast, which they evidently appreciated, as shown by the noise 
they made in the evening. But Bawdo, who had patiently 
ferried it all over, together with the porters, in his canoe, to 
my surprise turned up his nose at it, though he asked for a 
skin. It seemed the people of the Kere tribe proper do not 
eat game, though the El Gume, of whom there were plenty too 
here living in small communities in villages of their own side 
by side with them, eat anything and everything. The latter 
keep donkeys, a large herd of which I had seen to-day, for the 
sake of both their meat and milk. Prizing them highly as food, 
they cannot be induced to sell any, being indifferent to trade 
goods. 
I was now able to set a gun for the hyena which had made 
itself a nuisance, and hoped even to get the leopard, as I 
have often caught this animal too by such means. The latter, 
however, never came ; but while I was having my evening 
smoke in bed, bang went the gun, and I went, accompanied by 
several excited volunteers, to see the result. It was our friend 
the “ fisi.” For a wonder he was not quite dead, and, though 
unable to run away, was still on his legs—as we could make 
out, on getting close up, by the light of a wisp of dry grass 
used as a torch—and staggering about in the gloom. I had 
brought my revolver in my hand on the chance of a weapon 
being needed, and soon despatched him with a couple of shots 
from it, and the men dragged him out and made merry over his 
corpse in camp, after I had put a fresh cartridge in the set gun. 
It was worth the trouble of setting it even to give the men 
so much amusement. I now went to bed and to sleep, and 
slept till about 3 A.M., when I was awoke by the gun going off 
again. But I did not turn out till it got light, and then, on 
going to see, found it was another “ fisi,” this one dead on the 
spot, as is usually the case when a gun has been properly set. 
I chaffed Mnyamiri a bit, telling him my charm was more 
powerful than his. It is exemplary of the different methods of 
