Scribner's Magazine 
VOL. XLVII JANUARY, 1910 NO. 1 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS* 
AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN 
HUNTER-NATURALIST 
BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
Illustrations from photographs by Kermit Roosevelt, W. N. McMillan, and other 
MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION 
IV.—JUJA FARM; HIPPO AND LEOPARD. 
SIT Juja Farm we were wel¬ 
comed with the most gen¬ 
erous hospitality by my fel¬ 
low-countryman and his 
wife, Mr. and Mrs. W. N. 
' McMillan. Selous had been 
staying with them, and one afternoon I had 
already ridden over from Sir Alfred’s ranch 
to take tea with them at their other house, 
on the beautiful Mua hills. 
Juja Farm lies on the edge of the Athi 
Plains, and the house stands near the junc¬ 
tion of the Nairobi and Rewero Rivers. The 
house, like almost all East African houses, 
was of one story, a broad, vine-shaded ve¬ 
randa running around it. There were nu¬ 
merous out-buildings of every kind; there 
were flocks and herds, cornfields, a vege¬ 
table garden, and, immediately in front of 
the house, a very pretty flower garden, care¬ 
fully tended by unsmiling Kikuyu savages. 
All day long these odd creatures worked at 
the grass and among the flower beds; ac¬ 
cording to the custom of their tribe their 
ears were slit so as to enable them to stretch 
the lobes to an almost unbelievable extent, 
and in these apertures they wore fantas¬ 
tically carved native ornaments. One of 
them had been attracted by the shining sur- 
* Copyright, ipoo, by -Charles Scribner's Sons, New 
York, U. S. A. _ Alf rights reserved^including that of trans¬ 
face of an empty tobacco can, and he wore 
this in one ear to match the curiously carved 
wooden drum he carried in the other. An¬ 
other, whose arms and legs were massive 
with copper and iron bracelets, had been 
given a blanket because he had no other 
garment; he got along quite well with the 
blanket excepting when he had to use the 
lawn mower, and then he would usually 
wrap the blanket around his neck and 
handle the lawn mower with the evident 
feeling that he had done all that the most 
exacting conventionalism could require. 
The house boys and gun-bearers, and 
most of the boys who took care of the horses, 
were Somalis, whereas the cattle keepers 
who tended the herds of cattle were Masai, 
and the men and women who worked in the 
fields were Kikuyus. The three races had 
nothing to do with one another, and the few 
Indians had nothing to do with any of 
them. The Kikuyus lived in their beehive 
huts scattered in small groups; the Somalis 
all dwelt in their own little village on one 
side of the farm; and half a mile off the 
Masai dwelt in their village. Both the So¬ 
malis and Masai were fine, daring fellows; 
the Somalis were Mohammedans and horse¬ 
men ; the Masai were cattle herders, who did 
their work as they did their fighting, on foot, 
and were wild heathen of the most martial 
Special Notice. —These articles are fully protected under the new copyright law in effect July ist, 1909, which imposes 
a severe penalty for infringement. 
Copyright, 1909, by Charles Scribner’s Sons. All rights reserved. 
VOL. XLVII.—I 
