MY GUN-BEARER FA AS GETS DRUNK. 
1 35 
of game, for C- and I later on made a trip to 
those parts, and had excellent and varied sport. 
The others next day returned by Lanjora, but I 
determined to go straight for Taveta instead of making 
the wide detour. Notwithstanding the assurance of 
my men that there was no road, after separating from 
the party at the head of the lake I soon struck a path 
leading direct to Taveta, which I afterwards discovered 
to be the proper Pangani road, though caravans coming 
inland usually make the detour byway of Lanjora. By 
taking this route I got to headquarters after a five and 
a half hours’ march, and saved myself a weary tramp of 
at least eight miles. On the road I met seven native 
hunters, armed with muzzle-loaders, who told me the 
Masai had just passed by Lanjora on their way to the 
coast. 
I saw a few mpallah, hut they were very wild ; and at 
the end of the day my bag consisted of a ground horn- 
bill, a handsome dark-plumaged bird the size of a large 
turkey, and a couple of monkeys. Of the latter I shot 
four, hut two stuck in the trees, and of those I brought 
home one skin was unfortunately ruined, owing to my 
gun-hearer, Faas, to whom I entrusted it, getting very 
drunk and button-holing it all over. I found him re¬ 
garding the result of his work mournfully, and exclaim¬ 
ing in indignation against the knife he had been using, 
“ I cut it! Me spoilt it ! Knife’s fault! ” Later on in 
the evening he got still more drunk, and during a 
forcible attempt to seizq some p>ombe, the property of a 
Taveta native, received a nasty cut over the eye from a 
