276 
African Game Trails 
and women, and the lowing and bleating pounds weight. The features of the men 
of the pent-up herds and flocks. We hailed were bold and clear-cut, and their bearing 
loudly, explaining our needs. At first they warlike and self-reliant; as the flame of the 
were very suspicious. They told us we fire glanced over them, and brought their 
could not bring the lion within, because it faces and bronze figures into lurid relief 
would frighten the cattle, but after some against the darkness, the likeness was strik- 
parley consented to our building a fire out- ing, not to the West Coast negroes, but to 
side, and skinning the animal. They passed the engravings on the tombs, temples, and 
two brands over the thorn fence, and our palaces of ancient Egypt; they might have 
men speedily kindled a blaze, and drew the been soldiers in the armies of Thothmes or 
An impalla ram. 
lioness beside it. By this time the Masai 
were reassured, and a score of their war¬ 
riors, followed soon by half a dozen women, 
came out through a small opening in the 
fence, and crowded close around the fire, 
with boisterous, noisy good humor. They 
showed a tendency to chaff our porters. 
One, the humorist of the crowd, excited 
much merriment by describing, with pan¬ 
tomimic accompaniment of gestures, how 
when the white man shot a lion it might bite 
a swahili, who thereupon would call for his 
mother. But they were entirely friendly, 
and offered me calabashes of milk. The 
men were tall, finely shaped savages, their 
hair plastered with red mud, and drawn out 
into longish ringlets; they were naked ex¬ 
cept for a blanket worn, not round the 
loins, but over the shoulders; their ears 
were slit, and from them bone and wooden 
ornaments hung; they wore metal brace¬ 
lets and anklets, and chains which passed 
around their necks, or else over one side 
of the neck and under the opposite arm. 
The women had pleasant faces, and were 
laden with metal ornaments—chiefly wire 
anklets, bracelets, and necklaces—of many 
Rameses. They stood resting on their long 
staffs, and looked at me as I leaned on my 
rifle; and they laughed and jested with 
their women, who felt the lion’s teeth and 
claws and laughed back at the men; our 
gun-bearers worked at the skinning, and 
answered the jests of their warlike friends 
with the freedom of men who themselves 
followed a dangerous trade; the two horses 
stood quiet just outside the circle; and over 
all the firelight played and leaped. 
It was after ten when we reached camp, 
and I enjoyed a hot bath and a shave be¬ 
fore sitting down to a supper of eland veni¬ 
son and broiled spur-fowl; and surely no 
supper ever tasted more delicious. 
Next day we broke camp. My bag for 
the five days illustrates ordinary African 
shooting in this part of the continent. Of 
course I could have killed many other 
things; but I shot nothing that was not 
absolutely needed, both for scientific pur¬ 
poses and for food; the skin of every animal 
I shot was preserved for the National 
Museum. The bag included fourteen ani¬ 
mals, of ten different species: one lioness, 
one hyena, one warthog boar, two zebra, 
