ch. xi] HORSE FLIES 299 
the column with full-jacketed bullets in my rifle. How¬ 
ever, we never saw the rhino, nor had we any other 
adventure ; and the ride through the moonlight, which 
softened all the harshness, and gave a touch of magic 
and mystery to the landscape, was so pleasant that 
I was sorry when we caught the gleam of the camp¬ 
fires. 
Next day we sent our porters to bring in the rest of 
the giraffe meat and the ostrich eggs. The giraffe’s 
heart was good eating. There were many ticks on the 
giraffe, as on all the game hereabouts, and they annoyed 
us a little also, although very far from being the plague 
they were on the Athi plain. Among the flies which 
at times tormented the horses and hung around the 
game were big gadflies with long wings folded longi¬ 
tudinally down the back, not in the ordinary fly fashion ; 
they were akin to the tsetse flies, one species of which 
is fatal to domestic animals, and another, the sleeping- 
sickness fly, to man himself. They produce death by 
means of the fatal microbes introduced into the blood 
by their bite; whereas another African fly, the seroot, 
found more to the north, in the Nile countries, is a 
scourge to man and beast merely because of its vicious 
bite, and, where it swarms, may drive the tribes that 
own herds entirely out of certain districts. 
One afternoon, while leading my horse because the 
ground was a litter of sharp-edged stones, I came out 
on a plain which was crawling with zebra. In every 
direction there were herds of scores or of hundreds. 
They were all of the common or small kind, except 
three individuals of the big kangani, and were tame, 
letting me walk by within easy shot. Other game was 
mixed in with them. Soon, walking over a little ridge 
of rocks, we saw a rhino sixty yards off. To walk 
