354 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
We started immediately after breakfast. Kirke, Skally, 
Mouton, Jordaan, Mr. and Mrs. Corbett, Captain Chap¬ 
man, and our party, were on horseback; of course we car¬ 
ried our rifles, but our duty was merely to round up the 
lion and hold him, if he went off so far in advance that even 
the Nandi runners could not overtake him. We intended 
to beat the country toward some shallow, swampy valleys 
twelve miles distant. 
In an hour we overtook the Nandi warriors, who were 
advancing across the rolling, grassy plains in a long line, 
with intervals of six or eight yards between the men. They 
were splendid savages, stark naked, lithe as panthers, the 
muscles rippling under their smooth dark skins; all their 
lives they had lived on nothing but animal food, milk, 
blood, and flesh, and they were fit for any fatigue or danger. 
Their faces were proud, cruel, fearless; as they ran they 
moved with long springy strides. Their head-dresses were 
fantastic; they carried ox-hide shields painted with strange 
devices; and each bore in his right hand the formidable 
war spear, used both for stabbing and for throwing at close 
quarters. The narrow spear heads of soft iron were bur¬ 
nished till they shone like silver; they were four feet long, 
and the point and edges were razor sharp. The wooden 
haft appeared for but a few inches; the long butt was also 
of iron, ending in a spike, so that the spear looked almost 
solid metal. Yet each sinewy warrior carried his heavy 
weapon as if it were a toy, twirling it till it glinted in the sun 
rays. Herds of game, red hartebeests and striped zebra and 
wild swine, fled right and left before the advance of the line. 
It was noon before we reached a wide, shallow valley, 
with beds of rushes here and there in the middle, and on 
