88 
THE NEW AFKICA 
visible above water, energetically struggled on through the reeds 
till they reached the opposite bank, where the first arrivals, 
lustily shaking themselves, ran up and down in great excitement, 
bleating encouragement to their still submerged companions 
until the last had arrived. Then, as if knowing the number by 
instinct, they troubled themselves no further, but sedately set to 
work, cropping the luxuriant herbage growing on the bank in the 
most business-like manner until we were ready to go on again. 
As soon as the boys took up their loads, the head goat, our 
favourite white milk producer, would give the signal by a loud 
baa, and off they all went, following the track without giving any 
trouble, never straying until the next camp was reached. At 
night, too, they displayed considerable sagacity by always in¬ 
truding themselves between the fire and the sleeping natives, 
and in cases of being accidentally disturbed by the boys during 
the night, knew how to defend the position they had marked out 
as their own in camp by vigorous butting at the naked feet of 
the natives who unwittingly kicked them in their sleep, often 
raising a laugh from the rest of us as the unconscious sleeper 
jumped up in terror at having his feet thus assailed by the sharp 
horns. 
As the matted grass along the Sunta banks here offered 
great difficulty to the passage of our bearers, I went some miles 
ahead and set it alight to clear the track, raising no end of flame 
and smoke, through which myriads of birds flew in chase of 
grasshoppers, butterflies, and moths, screeching with excitement 
as they darted hither and thither in the chase. Conspicuous 
amongst them was a black fork-tailed bird, the size of a thrush, 
whose appetite and hardihood against smoke seemed to have no 
bounds. 
As we were coming back from this task, two of the boys who 
accompanied me had an argument as to how long it would take 
the trunk of a large tree we passed to burn through so as to cause 
it to fall. One said it would take at least two days before the tree 
would fall, and the other contended that by next morning a fire 
would bring it down. Entering into the fun of the thing, we 
