FIRST BUFFALO SEEN. 
lOT 
of hyaenas and jackals, and the low growl of lions 
close by, no beast came to drink. I supposed they had 
winded me and passed on to some of the pools lower 
down, so at daylight I descended from my crampeg 
position, feeling stiff and disappointed. 
At Taveta we had engaged a Swahili elephant- 
hunter, Ivicaga by name, who professed to be an 
expert at tracking. He was a curious-looking creature 
of a dirty chocolate-colour, with his head clean-shaved 
and the skin puckered all over his skull. He turned 
out to be a complete fraud as a tracker, but proved 
useful as an interpreter, being one of the few with us 
who could speak the Masai language and other dialects 
which even Martin did not understand. I took him 
out shooting with me after breakfast, as I intended 
to make my way to some bush about six miles off, on 
the north side of the plain near our camp. On the 
way I fired at a zebra without effect, and later on came 
across a small herd of buffalo in the bush about forty 
yards off, hut while I was crawling round them to try 
and get sight of a good bull, they got my wind and 
suddenly dashed off without giving me any chance of a 
shot. On the way back I again saw oryx and tried to 
stalk them, but before I got within five hundred yards 
they took alarm, and after two or three bounds and a 
few defiant kicks of the heels in the air, galloped straight 
out of my sight. I also saw a very fine Granti a long 
way off, but being by this time pretty well tired, I left 
him alone. I was very glad to get back to camp at 
5 p.m. after a tramp of eleven hours, following a mid- 
