and just before sundown we left the koppie. 
At its foot was a deserted Masai cattle kraal 
and a mile from this was a shallow, muddy 
pool, fouled by the countless herds of game 
that drank thereat. Toward this we went, 
so that the thirsty horses and men might 
drink their full. As we came near we saw 
three rhinoceros leaving the pool. It was 
already too dusk for good shooting, and we 
were rather relieved when, after some in¬ 
spection, they trotted off and stood at a 
little distance in the plain. Our men and 
horses drank, and then we began our ten 
miles march through the darkness to camp. 
One of Kermit’s gun bearers saw a puff 
adder (among the most deadly of all 
snakes); with delightful nonchalance he 
stepped on its head, and then held it up for 
me to put my knife through its brain and 
neck. I slipped it into my saddle pocket, 
where its blood stained the pigskin cover of 
the little pocket Nibelungenlied which that 
day I happened to carry. Immediately 
afterward there was a fresh alarm from our 
friends the three rhinos; dismounting, and 
crouching down, we caught the loom of 
their bulky bodies against the horizon; but 
a shot in the ground seemed to make them 
hesitate, and they finally concluded not to 
charge. So, with the lion skin swinging 
behind between two porters, a moribund 
puff adder in my saddle pocket, and three 
402 
rhinos threatening us in the darkness to one 
side, we marched campward through the 
African night. 
Next day we shifted camp to a rush- 
fringed pool by a grove of tall, flat-topped 
acacias at the foot of a range of low, steep 
mountains. Before us the plain stretched, 
and in front of our tents it was dotted by 
huge candelabra euphorbias. I shot a 
buck for the table just as we pitched camp. 
There were Masai kraals and cattle herds 
near by, and tall warriors, pleasant and 
friendly, strolled among our tents, their 
huge razor-edged spears tipped with furry 
caps to protect the points. Kermit was 
off all day with Tarlton, and killed a mag¬ 
nificent lioness. In the morning, on some 
high hills, he obtained a good impalla ram, 
after persevering hours of climbing and 
running—for only one of the gun bearers 
and none of the whites could keep up with 
him on foot unless he went hard. In the 
afternoon at four he and Tarlton saw the 
lioness. She was followed by three three- 
parts grown young lions, doubtless her 
cubs, and, without any concealment, was 
walking across the open plain toward a 
pool by which lay the body of a wildebeest 
bull she had killed the preceding night. 
The smaller lions saw the hunters and 
shrank back, but the old lioness never no¬ 
ticed them until they were within a hundred 
