184 
ON SAFARI 
colonising even such savage remnants of mother-earth 
as British East Africa. We were dining at the Dak 
bungalow, when two squatters—“ new chums ”—came 
in and joined us. They had, so they informed us, 
walked in from a “ farm ” they were holding some 
twelve miles out—that is (if we understood aright), they 
were, and had been for a fortnight, “ personally occupy¬ 
ing/’ within the meaning of the Act, a stretch of land 
that had been allotted to an absent buyer. Let us hope 
that that absentee was not a land-speculator, a species 
which, in these new colonies, should be absolutely 
debarred from taking root. Well, the first yarn these 
two new chums told us, with self-evident veracity, was 
that during their march-in some object lying on a 
hillock had attracted their attention. On cautiously 
approaching this, they had discovered from an adjoining 
bluff that the mysterious object was a lion, asleep, and 
not over forty yards distant—a sort of “ soft chance ” 
that systematic hunters travel hundreds of miles, often 
in vain search, to fall in with. Our friends, however, 
after full consultation, decided to withdraw, not being 
sure of their weapons. “ Will a Snider kill a lion ? ” was 
their question—the answer to which could only depend 
upon the man behind the Snider. Probably their prudent 
decision was justifiable. 
During dinner one of the pair, a big powerful young 
fellow “ fra’ Glasgie,” rather amused us by a woebegone 
description of his life on the veld, and of the miseries 
he had endured from the nightly serenade of wild beasts. 
They had no house, only a tent: and not once, according 
to his account, had he dared during a whole fortnight 
to close an eye. For a time, naturally, we thought he 
was romancing—making a good story of it—but soon 
enough the vividness of his complaints brought home to 
us all the state of abject funk to which he had brought 
himself. As his partner tersely put it, “ The fear of death 
was on the man.” 
We were, nevertheless, surprised enough the next 
morning when his pal (Lindsay) came along to our camp 
