THEFT BY A MYTHICAL HY/ENA. 
i 37 
accomplishment converts a comparatively harmless in¬ 
dividual into a dangerous and uncontrollable maniac. 
As this was C-’s birthday, we opened a case of 
champagne and produced the original Christmas plum¬ 
pudding, which had been allowed to remain unattacked 
while we were on the march up-country. 
We had arranged to start for Useri the next day, but 
some hunters ran into Taveta to inform us that the 
Masai were passing by that way and in large force ; 
so, at Martin’s advice, we decided that a day’s delay 
was preferable to the risk of an encounter. 
During the night the head of the fine water-buck I 
had recently killed was stolen by a hysena. We were 
in the habit of cleaning the skulls we wished to keep 
by leaving them in the river attached to a rope, the 
other end of which was firmly fixed on the bank, as 
this method, though slow in its action, is much safer 
than that of boiling, which is apt to cause fissures in 
the bones if the water be too hot. It is difficult to 
conceive how under the circumstances any four-footed 
beast could have pulled the skull out of the water, 
so the chances are, my man must have been careless 
enough to leave it lying on the bank. 
On January 19th, starting early from Taveta, we had 
proceeded about twelve miles north, when we were 
brought to a sudden halt by the appearance of some 
thirty natives in the distance. Our men, who, after the 
late reports, had Masai on the brain rather worse than 
usual, at once declared we were confronted by a force 
of these fear-inspiring savages, and for a moment there 
