14 
African Game Trails 
able trails along the banks of any stream in 
which they dwell; their short legs are wide 
apart, and so when they tread out a path 
they leave a ridge of high soil down the cen¬ 
tre. Where they have lived a long time, the 
rutted paths are worn deep into the soil, 
but always carry this distinguishing middle 
ridge. 
The full-jacketed Winchester bullet had 
gone straight into the 
brain; the jacket had' 
lodged in the cranium, 
but the lead went on, 
entering the neck and 
breaking the atlas ver¬ 
tebra. 
At Juja Farm many 
animals were kept in 
cages. They included 
a fairly friendly leop¬ 
ard, and five lions, two 
of which were anything 
but friendly. There 
were three cheetahs, 
nearly full-grown; 
these were continually 
taken out on leashes, 
Mrs. McMillan stroll¬ 
ing about 1 with them 
and leading them to the 
summer-house.. They 
were good-tempered, 
but they did not lead 
well. Cheetahs are in¬ 
teresting beasts; they 
are aberrant cats, 
standing very high on 
their legs, and with non-retractile claws like 
a dog. They are nearly the size of a leopard, 
but are not ordinarily anything like as fero¬ 
cious, and prey on the smaller antelope, 
occasionally taking something as big as a 
half-grown kongoni. For a short run, up 
to say a quarter of a mile, they are the swif¬ 
test animals on earth, and with a good start 
easily overtake the fastest antelope; but 
their bolt is soon shot, and on the open plain 
they can readily be galloped down with a 
horse. When they sit on their haunches 
their attitude is that neither of a dog nor of 
a cat so much as of a big monkey. On the 
whole, they are much more easily domesti¬ 
cated than most other cats, but, as with all 
highly developed wild creatures, they show 
great individual variability of character and 
disposition. They have a very curious note, 
a bird-like chirp, in uttering which they twist 
the upper lip as if whistling. When I first 
heard it I was sure that it was uttered by 
some bird, and looked about quite a time be¬ 
fore finding that it was the call of a cheetah. 
Then there was a tame wart-hog, very 
friendly, indeed, which usually wandered 
loose, and was as comical as pigs generally 
are, with its sudden starts and grunts. Fi¬ 
nally, there was a young 
Tommy buck and a 
Grant’s gazelle doe, 
both of which were on 
good terms with every 
one and needed aston¬ 
ishingly little looking 
after to prevent their 
straying. When I was 
returning to the house 
on the morning I killed 
the rhinoceros, I met 
the string of porters 
and the ox wagon'just 
after they had left the 
gate on their way to the 
carcass. The Grant doe 
had been attracted by 
the departure, and was 
following immediately 
behind the last porter; 
a wild-looking Masai 
warrior, to whom, as I 
learned, the especial 
care of the gazelle had 
ime Grant's gazelle at juja been intrusted for that 
aThoto^aph Hal LoriX day, was running as 
hard as he could after 
her from the gate; when he overtook her he 
ran in between her and the rearmost porter, 
and headed her for the farm gate, uttering 
what sounded like wild war-cries and brand¬ 
ishing his spear. They formed a really ab¬ 
surd couple, the little doe slowly and deco¬ 
rously walking back to the farm, quite 
unmoved by the clamor’and threats, while 
her guardian, the very image of what a sav¬ 
age warrior should look like when on the 
war-path, walked close behind, waving his 
spear and uttering deep-toned shouts, with 
what seemed a ludicrous disproportion of 
effort to the result needed. 
Antelopes speedily become very tame and 
recognize clearly their friends. Leslie Tarl- 
ton’s brother was keeping a couple of young 
kongoni and a partly grown Grant on his 
f arm just outside Nairobi. (The game comes 
