136 
EAST AFRICA AND ITS BIG GAME. 
stick. Immediately lie snatched up a knife and rushed 
to me with the information that “ he meant having his 
assailant’s blood ; ” whereupon I took possession of the 
weapon, and made Martin tell him “ to shut up.” How 
Martin translated the phrase I do not know, but it had 
the desired effect; the man appeared to collapse at 
once, and, consoling himself with a good cry, within 
an hour or so became once more a comparatively sober 
and peaceable member of our community, and came 
humbly to me to have his head plastered up. 
I found Jackson still at Taveta, preparing to start 
for Ivahe, and he kindly provided me with a typical 
hunter’s dinner, consisting of soup, fish, uncommonly 
tough rhino, roast monkey, ibis curry, blanc-mcinge and 
honey, native beans, and stewed bananas. Had I not 
been warned that one course Avas to be roast monkey, I 
think I should have considered it good eating, hut the 
foreknoAvledge doubtless affected an unbiassed judg¬ 
ment, and the dish seemed to smell and taste of the 
creature’s quarters in our Avell-remembered ‘‘Zoo.” 
The next day the rest of our party arrived from 
Lanjora, bringing with them a hartebeest, a steinbock, 
and that excellent prize, a great bustard, shot by 
C-. One of H-’s men lost no time in getting 
mad drunk and attempting to shoot a native, so Ave 
immediately applied the handcuffs and tied him up to 
the flagstaff until there Avas no fear of his hurting 
himself or anybody else. Drunkenness is the AA T orst 
trait in the SAvahili character, and apparently the chief 
object of life directly a village is reached ; its complete 
