African Game Trails 
“Antelope,” as I have said, is a very loose 
term, meaning simply any hollow-horned 
ruminant that isn’t an ox, a sheep, or a goat. 
The eland is one of the group of tragelaphs, 
which are as different from the true an¬ 
telopes, such as the gazelles, as they are 
from the oxen. One of its kinsfolk is the 
handsome little bushbuck, about as big as 
a white-tail deer; a buck of which Kermit 
had killed two specimens. The bushbuck 
is a wicked fighter, no other buck of its size 
being as dangerous; which makes the help¬ 
lessness and timidity of its hugh relative all 
the more striking. 
I had kept four Kikuyu with me to ac¬ 
company me on my hunts and carry in the 
skins and meat. They were with me on 
this occasion; and it was amusing to see 
how my four regular attendants, Bakhari 
and Gouvimali the gunbearers, Simba the 
sais, and Kiboko the skinner, looked down 
on their wild and totally uncivilized breth¬ 
ren. They would not associate with the 
“shenzis,” as they called 
them; that is, savages or 
bush people. But the 
“shenzis” always amused 
and interested me; and this 
was especially true on the 
afternoon in question. 
Soon after we had started 
camp-wards with the skin 
and meat of the oryx, we 
encountered a succession of 
thunder-storms. The rain 
came down in a deluge, so 
that the water stood ankle 
deep on the flats, the light¬ 
ning flashed continuously 
on every side, and the ter¬ 
rific peals of thunder made 
one continuous roll. At first 
it maddened my horse; but 
the uninterrupted blaze and 
roar, just because uninter¬ 
rupted, ended by making 
him feel that there was 
nothing to be done, and he 
plodded stolidly forward 
through the driving storm. 
My regular attendants ac¬ 
cepted it with an entire 
philosophy, which was fi¬ 
nally copied by the Kikuyus, 
who at first felt frightened. 
One of them had an old um¬ 
brella which he shared with a crony. He 
himself was carrying the marabou stork; 
his crony had long strips of raw oryx meat 
wound in a swollen girdle about his waist; 
neither had a stitch on save the blankets 
which were wrapped round their throats; 
and they clasped each other in a tight em¬ 
brace as they walked along under the bat¬ 
tered old umbrella. 
In this desolate * and lonely land the 
majesty of the storms impressed on the be¬ 
holder a sense of awe and solemn exalta¬ 
tion. Tossing their crests, and riven by 
lightning, they gathered in their wrath from 
every quarter of the heavens, and darkness 
was before and under them; then, in the 
lull of a moment, they might break apart, 
while the sun turned the rain to silver and 
theTainbows were set in the sky; but always 
they gathered again, menacing and mighty, 
-—for the promise of the bow was never 
kept, and ever the clouds returned after the 
rain. Once as I rode facing Kenia the 
