438 THE GIANT ELAND [ch. xv 
ample payment was given for what was brought in; 
and in the only two cases where the natives thought 
themselves aggrieved by the soldiers they at once 
brought the matter before us. One soldier had taken 
a big gourd of water when very thirsty; another, a 
knife from a man who was misbehaving himself. On 
careful inquiry, and delivering judgment in the spirit 
of Solomon, we decided that both soldiers had been 
justified by the provocation received ; but as we were 
dealing with the misdeeds of mere big children, we gave 
the gourd back to its owner with a reprimand for having 
refused the water, and permitted the owner of the 
knife, whose offence had been more serious, to ransom 
his property by bringing in a chicken to the soldier who 
had it. 
The natives lived in the usual pointed beehive huts in 
unfenced villages, with shambas lying about them ; and 
they kept goats, chickens, and a few cattle. Our per¬ 
manent camp was near such a village. It was interesting 
to pass through it at sunrise or sunset, when starting on 
or returning from a hunt. The hard, bare earth was 
swept clean. The doors in the low mud walls of the 
huts were but a couple of feet high and had to be 
entered on all-fours; black pickaninnies scuttled into 
them in wild alarm as we passed. Skinny, haggard old 
men and women, almost naked, sat by the fires smoking 
long pipes ; the younger men and women laughed and 
jested as they moved among the houses. One day, in 
the course of a long and fruitless hunt, we stopped to 
rest near such a village, at about two in the afternoon, 
having been walking hard since dawn. We—my gun- 
bearer, a black askari, and I, a couple of porters, and a 
native guide—sat down under a big tree a hundred 
yards from the village. Soon the chief and several of 
