explained, tall and of fine physique. The cherished and prized weapon is
the long, narrow-bladed spear. This is five and six feet long, with a
blade over three feet by as many inches, and with a long iron shoe. In
fact, only a bare hand-hold of wood is provided. It is of formidable
weight, but so well balanced that a flip cast with the wrist will drive
it clear through an enemy. A short sword and a heavy-headed war club
complete the offensive weapons. The shield is of buffalo hide, oval in
shape, and decorated with a genuine heraldry, based on genealogy. A
circlet of black ostrich feathers in some branches surrounds the face
and stands high above the head. In the southern districts the warriors
wear two single black ostrich plumes tied one either side the head, and
slanting a little backwards. They walk with a mincing step, so that the
two feathers bob gently up and down like the waving of the circus
equestrienne's filmy skirts.
Naturally the Masai with the Zulu were the most dreaded of all the
tribes of Africa. They were constantly raiding in all directions as far
as their sphere of operations could reach, capturing cattle and women as
the prizes of war. Now that the white man has put a stop to the
ferocious intertribal wars, the El-morani are out of a job. The military
organization is still carried on as before. What will happen to the
morals of the people it would be difficult to say. The twelve years of
imposed peace have not been long enough seriously to deteriorate the
people; but, inevitably, complete idleness will tell. Either the people
must change their ideals and become industrious--which is extremely
unlikely--or they will degenerate.
As a passing thought, it is a curious and formidable fact that the
prohibition of intertribal wars and forays all through East Central
Africa had already permitted the population to increase to a point of
discomfort. Many of the districts are becoming so crowded as to
overflow. What will happen in the long run only time can tell--famines
are weakening things, while war at least hardens a nation's fibre. This
is not necessarily an argument for war. Only everywhere in the world the
white man seems, with the best of intentions, to be upsetting natural
balances without substituting anything for them. We are better at
preventing things than causing them.
At the age of thirty, or thereabout, the El-morani becomes an Elder. He
may now drink and smoke, vices that in the Spartan days of his military
service were rigorously denied him. He may also take a wife or wives,
according to his means, and keep herds of cattle. His wives he purchases
from their parents, the usual medium of payment being cows or sheep. The
young women who have been living in the El-morani village are considered
quite as desirable as the young virgins. If there are children, these
are taken over by the husband. They are considered rather a
recommendation than a detriment, for they prove the girl is fruitful.
Relieved of all responsibility, the ex-warrior now has full leisure to
be a gentleman. He drinks a fermented liquor made from milk; he takes
snuff or smokes the rank native tobacco; he conducts interminable
diplomatic negotiations; he oversees minutely the forms of ceremonials;
he helps to shape the policies of his manyatta, and he gives his
attention to the accumulation of cows.
The cow is the one thing that arouses the Masai's full energies. He will
undertake any journey, any task, any danger, provided the reward
therefor is horned cattle. And a cow is the one thing he will on no
account trade, sell, destroy. A very few of them he milks, and a very
few of them he periodically bleeds; but the majority, to the numbers of
thousands upon thousands, live uselessly until they die of old age. They
are branded, generally on the flanks or ribs, with strange large brands,
and are so constantly handled that they are tamer and more gentle than
sheep. I have seen upwards of a thousand head in sole charge of two old
women on foot. These ancient dames drove the beasts in a long file to
water, then turned them quite easily and drove them back again. Opposite
our camp they halted their charges and came to make us a long visit. The
cattle stood in their tracks until the call was over; not one offered
even to stray off the baked earth in search of grasses.
The Masai cattle king knows his property individually. Each beast has
its name. Some of the wealthier are worth in cattle, at settler's
prices, close to a hundred thousand dollars. They are men of importance
in their own council huts, but they lack many things dear to the savage
heart simply because they are unwilling to part with a single head of
stock in order to procure them.
In the old days forays and raids tended more or less to keep the stock
down. Since the White Man's Peace the herds are increasing. In the
country between the Mau Escarpment and the Narossara Mountains we found
the feed eaten down to the earth two months before the next rainy
season. In the meantime the few settlers are hard put to it to buy
cattle at any price wherewith to stock their new farms. The situation is
an anomaly which probably cannot continue. Some check will have
eventually to be devised, either limiting the cattle, or compelling an
equitable sale of the surplus. Certainly the present situation
represents a sad economic waste--of the energies of a fine race
destined to rust away, and of the lives of tens of thousands of valuable
beasts brought into existence only to die of old age. If these matchless
herders and cattle breeders could be brought into relation with the
world's markets everybody would be the better.
Besides his sacred cattle the Masai raises also lesser herds of the
hairy sheep of the country. These he used for himself only on the rare
occasions of solitary forced marches away from his herds, or at the
times of ceremony. Their real use is as a trading medium--for more
cattle! Certain white men and Somalis conduct regular trading
expeditions into Masailand, bringing in small herds of cows bought with
trade goods from the other tribes. These they barter with the Masai for
sheep. In Masai estimation a cow is the most valuable thing on earth,
while a sheep is only a medium of exchange. With such notions it is easy
to see that the white man can make an advantageous exchange, in spite of
the Masai's well-known shrewdness at a bargain. Each side is satisfied.
There remains only to find a market for the sheep--an easy matter. A
small herd of cows will, in the long run, bring quite a decent profit.
The Masai has very little use for white man's products. He will trade
for squares of cloth, beads of certain kinds and in a limited quantity,
brass and iron wire of heavy gauge, blankets and sugar. That, barring
occasional personal idiosyncrasy, is about all. For these things he will
pay also in sheep. Masai curios are particularly difficult to get hold
of. I rather like them for their independence in that respect. I
certainly should refuse to sell my tennis shoes from my feet merely
because some casual Chinaman happened to admire them!
The women seem to occupy a position quite satisfactory to themselves. To
be sure they do the work; but there is not much work! They appear to be
well treated; at least they are always in good spirits, laughing and
joking with each other, and always ready with quick repartee to remarks
flung at them by the safari boys. They visited camp freely, and would
sit down for a good lively afternoon of joking. Their expressions were
quizzical, with a shy intelligent humour. In spite of the apparent
unabashed freedom of their deportment they always behaved with the
utmost circumspection; nor did our boys ever attempt any familiarity.
The unobtrusive lounging presence in the background of two warriors
with long spears may have had something to do with this.
The Masai government is centred in an overlord or king. His orders
seemed to be implicitly obeyed. The present king I do not know, as the
old king, Lenani, had just died at an advanced age. In former days the
traveller on entering Masailand was met by a sub-chief. This man planted
his long spear upright in the ground, and the intending traveller flung
over it coils of the heavy wire. A very generous traveller who
completely covered the spear then had no more trouble. One less lavish
was likely to be held up for further impositions as he penetrated the
country. This tax was called the honga.
The Masai language is one of the most difficult of all the native
tongues. In fact, the white man is almost completely unable even to
pronounce many of the words. V., who is a "Masai-man," who knows them
intimately, and who possesses their confidence, does not pretend to talk
with them in their own tongue, but employs the universal Swahili.
XL.
THROUGH THE ENCHANTED FOREST.
We delayed at V.'s boma three days, waiting for C. to turn up. He
maintained a little force of Wakamba, as the Masai would not take
service. The Wakamba are a hunting tribe, using both the spear and the
poisoned arrow to kill their game. Their bows are short and powerful,
and the arrows exceedingly well fashioned. The poison is made from the
wood of a certain fat tree, with fruit like gigantic bologna sausages.
It is cut fine, boiled, and the product evaporated away until only a
black sticky substance remains. Into this the point of the arrow is
dipped; and the head is then protected until required by a narrow strip
of buckskin wound around and around it. I have never witnessed the
effects of this poison; but V. told me he had seen an eland die in
twenty-two minutes from so slight a wound in the shoulder that it ran
barely a hundred yards before stopping. The poison more or less loses
its efficiency, however, after the sticky, tarlike substance has dried
out.
I offered a half-rupee as a prize for an archery competition, for I was
curious to get a view of their marksmanship. The bull's-eye was a piece
of typewriter paper at thirty paces.[27] This they managed to puncture
only once out of fifteen tries, though they never missed it very widely.
V. seemed quite put out at this poor showing, so I suppose they can
ordinarily do better; but I imagine they are a good deal like our
hunting Indians--poor shots, but very skilful at stalking close to a
beast.
Our missing porter, with the tent, was brought in next afternoon by
Kongoni, who had gone in search of him. The man was a big, strong
Kavirondo. He was sullen, and merely explained that he was "tired." This
excuse for a five hours' march after eight days' rest! I fined him eight
rupees, which I gave Kongoni, and ordered him twenty-five lashes. Six
weeks later he did the same trick. C. allotted him fifty lashes, and had
him led thereafter by a short rope around the neck. He was probably
addicted to opium. This was the only man to be formally kibokoed on the
whole trip--a good testimony at once to C.'s management, the
discrimination we had used in picking them out, and the settled
reputations we had by now acquired.
After C.'s return we prepared to penetrate straight back through the
great rampart of mountains to the south and west.
We crossed the bush-grown plains, and entered a gently rising long cañon
flanked on either side by towering ranges that grew higher and higher
the farther we proceeded. In the very centre of the mountains,
apparently, this cañon ended in a small round valley. There appeared to
be no possible exit, save by the way we had come, or over the almost
perpendicular ridges a thousand feet or more above. Nevertheless, we
discovered a narrow ravine that slanted up into the hills to the left.
Following it we found ourselves very shortly in a great forest on the
side of a mountain. Hanging creepers brushed our faces, tangled vines
hung across our view, strange and unexpected openings offered themselves
as a means through which we could see a little closer into the heart of
mystery. The air was cool and damp and dark. The occasional shafts of
sunlight or glimpses of blue sky served merely to accentuate the soft
gloom. Save that we climbed always, we could not tell where we were
going.
The ascent occupied a little over an hour. Then through the tree trunks
and undergrowth we caught the sky-line of the crest. When we topped this
we took a breath, and prepared ourselves for a corresponding descent.
But in a hundred yards we popped out of the forest to find ourselves on
a new level. The Fourth Bench had been attained.
It was a grass country of many low, rounded hills and dipping valleys,
with fine isolated oaklike trees here and there in the depressions, and
compact, beautiful oaklike groves thrown over the hills like blankets.
Well-kept, green, trim, intimate, it should have had church spires and
gray roofs in appropriate spots. It was a refreshment to the eye after
the great and austere spaces among which we had been dwelling, repose to
the spirit after the alert and dangerous lands. The dark-curtained
forest seemed, fancifully, an enchantment through which we had gained to
this remote smiling land, nearest of all to the blue sky.
We continued south for two days; and then, as the narrative will show,
were forced to return. We found it always the same type; pleasant sleepy
little valleys winding around and between low hills crowned with soft
groves and forests. It was for all the world like northern Surrey, or
like some of the live oak country of California. Only this we soon
discovered: in spite of the enchantment of the magic-protecting forest,
the upper benches too were subject to the spell that lies over all
Africa. These apparently little valleys were in reality the matter of an
hour's journey to cross; these rounded hills, to all seeming only two
good golf strokes from bottom to top, were matters of serious climbing;
these compact, squared groves of oaklike trees were actually great
forests of giants in which one could lose one's self for days, in which
roamed herds of elephant and buffalo. It looked compact because we could
see all its constituent elements. As a matter of fact, it was neat and
tidy; only we were, as usual, too small for it.
At the end of two hours' fast marching we had made the distance, say,
from the clubhouse to the second hole. Then we camped in a genuinely
little grove of really small trees overlooking a green valley bordered
with wooded hills. The prospect was indescribably delightful; a sort of
Sunday-morning landscape of groves and green grass and a feeling of
church bells.
Only down the valley, diminished by distance, all afternoon Masai
warriors, in twos and threes, trooped by, mincing along so that their
own ostrich feathers would bob up and down, their spears held aslant.
We began to realize that we were indeed in a new country when our noon
thermometer registered only 66 degrees, and when at sunrise the
following morning it stood at 44 degrees. To us, after eight months
under the equator, this was bitter weather!
FOOTNOTES:
[27] Eight by ten and a half inches.
XLI.
NAIOKOTUKU.
Next morning we marched on up the beautiful valley through shoulder-high
grasses wet with dew. At the end of two hours we came to the limit of
Leyeye's knowledge of the country. It would now be necessary to find
savage guides.
Accordingly, while we made camp, C., with Leyeye as interpreter,
departed in search of a Masai village. So tall and rank grew the grass,
that we had to clear it out as one would clear brushwood in order to
make room for our tents.
Several hours later C. returned. He had found a very large village; but
unfortunately the savages were engaged in a big n'goma which could not
be interrupted by mere business. However, the chief was coming to make a
friendly call. When the n'goma should be finished, he would be
delighted to furnish us with anything we might desire.
Almost on the heels of this the chief arrived. He was a fine old savage,
over six feet tall, of well proportioned figure, and with a shrewd,
intelligent face. The n'goma had him to a limited extent, for he
stumbled over tent ropes, smiled a bit uncertainly, and slumped down
rather suddenly when he had meant to sit. However, he stumbled, smiled,
and slumped with unassailable dignity.
From beneath his goatskin robe he produced a long ornamented gourd, from
which he offered us a drink of fermented milk. He took our refusal
good-naturedly. The gourd must have held a gallon, but he got away with
all of its contents in the course of the interview; also several pints
of super-sweetened coffee which we doled out to him a little at a time,
and which he seemed to appreciate extravagantly.
Through Leyeye we exchanged the compliments of the day, and, after the
African custom, told each other how important we were. Our visitor
turned out to be none other than the brother of Lenani, the paramount
chief of all the Masai. I forget what I was, either the brother of King
George or the nephew of Theodore Roosevelt--the only two white men
_every_ native has heard of. It may be that both of us were mistaken,
but from his evident authority over a very wide district we were
inclined to believe our visitor.
We told him we wanted guides through the hills to the southward. He
promised them in a most friendly fashion.
"I do not know the white man," said he. "I live always in these
mountains. But my brother Lenani told me ten years ago that some day the
white man would come into my country. My brother told me that when the
white man came travelling in my country I must treat him well, for the
white man is a good friend but a bad enemy. I have remembered my brother
Lenani's words, though they were spoken a long time ago. The white man
has been very long in coming; but now he is here. Therefore I have
brought you milk to-day, and to-morrow I will send you sheep; and later
I will send young men who know the hills to take you where you wish to
go."
We expressed gratification, and I presented him with a Marble fish
knife. The very thin blade and the ingenious manner in which the two
halves of the handle folded forward over it pleased him immensely.
"No one but myself shall ever use this knife," said he.
He had no pockets, but he tucked it away in his armpit, clamped the
muscles down over it, and apparently forgot it. At least he gave it no
further attention, used his hands as usual, but retained it as securely
as in a pocket.
"To-morrow," he promised at parting, "very early in the morning, I will
send my own son and another man to guide you; and I will send a sheep
for your meat."
We arose "very early," packed our few affairs, picked out four
porters--and sat down to wait. Our plan was to cruise for five days with
as light and mobile an outfit as possible, and then to return for fresh
supplies. Billy would take charge of the main camp during our absence.
As advisers, we left her Abba Ali, Memba Sasa, and Mohammed.
At noon we were still waiting. The possibility of doing a full day's
journey was gone, but we thought we might at least make a start. At one
o'clock, just as we had about given up hope, the Masai strolled in. They
were beautiful, tall, straight youths, finely formed, with proud
features and a most graceful carriage. In colour they were as though
made of copper bronze, with the same glitter of high lights from their
fine-textured skins. Even in this chilly climate they were nearly naked.
One carried a spear, the other a bow and arrow.
Joyously we uprose--and sat down again. We had provided an excellent
supply of provisions for our guides; but on looking over the lot they
discovered nothing--absolutely nothing--that met their ideas.
"What _do_ they want?" we asked Leyeye in despair.
"They say they will eat nothing but sheep," he reported.
We remembered old Naiokotuku's promise of sending us sheep, sneered
cynically at the faith of savages, and grimly set forth to see what we
could buy in the surrounding country. But we wronged the old man. Less
than a mile from camp we met men driving in as presents not one, but
_two_ sheep. So we abandoned our shopping tour and returned to camp. By
the time one of the sheep had been made into mutton it was too late to
start. The Masai showed symptoms of desiring to go back to the village
for the night. This did not please us. We called them up, and began
extravagantly to admire their weapons, begging to examine them. Once we
had them in our hands we craftily discoursed as follows:--
"These are beautiful weapons, the most beautiful we have ever seen.
Since you are going so spend the night in our camp, and since we greatly
fear that some of our men might steal these beautiful weapons, we will
ourselves guard them for you carefully from theft until morning."
So saying, we deposited them inside the tent. Then we knew we had our
Masai safe. They would never dream of leaving while the most cherished
of their possessions were in hostage.
XLII.
SCOUTING IN THE ELEPHANT FOREST.
Here we were finally off at dawn. It was a very chilly, wet dawn, with
the fog so thick that we could see not over ten feet ahead. We had four
porters, carrying about twenty-five pounds apiece of the bare
necessities, Kongoni, and Leyeye. The Masai struck confidently enough
through the mist. We crossed neck-deep grass flats--where we were
thoroughly soaked--climbed hills through a forest, skirted apparently
for miles an immense reed swamp. As usual when travelling strange
country in a fog, we experienced that queer feeling of remaining in the
same spot while fragments of near-by things are slowly paraded by. When
at length the sun's power cleared the mists, we found ourselves in the
middle of a forest country of high hills.
Into this forest we now plunged, threading our way here and there where
the animal trails would take us, looking always for fresh elephant
spoor. It would have been quite impossible to have moved about in any
other fashion. The timber grew on hillsides, and was very lofty and
impressive; and the tropical undergrowth grew tall, rank, and
impenetrable. We could proceed only by means of the kind assistance of
the elephant, the buffalo, and the rhinoceros.
Elephant spoor we found, but none made later than three weeks before.
The trails were broad, solid paths through the forest, as ancient and
beaten as though they had been in continuous use for years. Unlike the
rhino and buffalo trails, they gave us head room and to spare. The great
creatures had by sheer might cut their way through the dense, tough
growth, leaving twisted, splintered, wrecked jungle behind them, but no
impediment.
By means of these beautiful trails we went quietly, penetrating farther
and farther into the jungle. Our little procession of ten made no noise.
If we should strike fresh elephant tracks, thus would we hunt them, with
all our worldly goods at our backs, so that at night we could camp right
on the trail.
The day passed almost without incident.
Once a wild crash and a snort told of a rhinoceros, invisible, but very
close. We huddled together, our rifles ready, uncertain whether or not
the animal would burst from the leafy screen at our very faces. The
Masai stood side by side, the long spear poised, the bow bent, fine,
tense figures in bronze.
Near sundown we found ourselves by a swift little stream in the bottom
of a deep ravine. Here we left the men to make camp, and ourselves
climbed a big mountain on the other side. It gave us a look abroad over
a wilderness of hills, forested heavily, and a glimpse of the landfall
far away where no white man had ever been. This was as far south as we
were destined to get, though at the time we did not know it. Our plan
was to push on two days more. Near the top of the ridge we found the
unmistakable tracks of the bongo. This is interesting to zoologists in
that it extends the southward range of this rare and shy beast.
Just at dark we regained our camp. It was built California fashion--for
the first and last time in Africa: blankets spread on canvas under the
open sky and a gipsy fire at our feet, over which I myself cooked our
very simple meal. As we were smoking our pipes in sleepy content,
Leyeye and the two Masai appeared for a shauri. Said the Masai,--
"We have taken you over the country we know. There are elephants there
sometimes, but there are no elephants there now. We can take you
farther, and if you wish us to do so, we will do so; but we know no more
of the country than you do. But now if we return to the manyatta
to-morrow, we can march two hours to where are some Wanderobo; and the
Wanderobo know this country and will take you through it. If it pleases
you, one of us will go get the Wanderobo, and the other will stay with
you to show good faith."
We rolled our eyes at each other in humorous despair. Here at the very
beginning of the reconnaissance we had run against the stone wall of
African indirectness and procrastination. And just as we thought we had
at last settled everything!
"Why," we inquired, "were not the Wanderobo sent at first, instead of
yourselves?"
"Because," they replied, with truly engaging frankness, "our chief,
Naiokotuku, thought that perhaps we might find elephant here in the
country we know; and then we should get for ourselves all the presents
you would give for finding elephant. But the elephant are not here now,
so the Wanderobo will get part of the present."
That was certainly candid. After some further talk we decided there was
no help for it; we must return to camp for a new start.
At this decision the Masai brightened. They volunteered to set off early
with Leyeye, to push ahead of us rapidly, and to have the Wanderobo in
camp by the time we reached there. We concealed somewhat cynical smiles,
and agreed.
The early start was made, but when we reached camp we found, not the
Wanderobo, but Leyeye and the Masai huddled over a fire. This was
exasperating, but we could not say much. After all, the whole matter was
no right of ours, but a manifestation of friendship on the part of
Naiokotuku. In the early afternoon the sky cleared, and the ambassadors
departed, promising faithfully to be back before we slept. We spent the
day writing and in gazing at the vivid view of the hillside, the forest,
and the distant miniature prospect before us. Finally we discovered what
made it in essence so strangely familiar. In vividness and clarity--even
in the crudity of its tones--it was exactly like a coloured photograph!
Of course the savages did not return that evening, nor did we really
expect them. Just as a matter of form we packed up the next morning, and
sat down to wait. Shortly before noon Leyeye and the Masai returned,
bringing with them two of the strange, shy, forest hunters.
But by this time we had talked things over thoroughly. The lure of the
greater kudu was regaining the strength it had lost by a long series of
disappointments. We had not time left for both a thorough investigation
of the forests and a raid in the dry hills of the west after kudu.
Mavrouki said he knew of a place where that animal ranged. So we had
come to a decision.
We called the Masai and Wanderobo before us. They squatted in a row,
their spears planted before them. We sat in canvas chairs. Leyeye
standing, translated. The affair was naturally of the greatest
deliberation. In the indirect African manner we began our shauri.
We asked one simple question at a time, dealing with one simple phase of
the subject. This phase we treated from several different points of
view, in order to be absolutely certain that it was understood. To these
questions we received replies in this manner:--
"Yes, the Wanderobo told us," they knew the forest; they knew how to go
about in the forest; they understood how to find their way in the
forest. They knew the elephant; they had seen the elephant many times in
the forest; they knew where the elephant ranged in the forest--and so on
through every piece of information we desired. It is the usual and only
sure way of questioning natives.
Thus we learned that the elephant range extended south through the
forests for about seven days' travel; that at this time of year the
beasts might be anywhere on that range. This confirmed our decision.
Then said we to Leyeye:--
"Tell the Masai that the bwana m'kubwa is most pleased with them, and
that he is pleased with the way they have worked for him, and that he is
pleased with the presents they have brought him. Tell them that he has
no goods here with him, but that he has sent men back to the boma of
bwana Kingozi[28] for blankets and wire and cloth, and when those men
return he will make a good present to these Masai and to Naiokotuku,
their chief.
"Tell the Wanderobo that the bwana m'kubwa is pleased with them, and
that he thanks them for coming so far to tell him of the elephant, and
that he believes they have told him the truth. Tell them the bwana
m'kubwa will not fight the elephant now, because he has not the time,
but must go to attend to his affairs. But later, when two years have
gone, he will make another safari, and will come back to this country,
and will again ask these men to lead him out where he can fight the
elephant. And in the meantime he will give them rupees with which to pay
their hut tax to the Government."
After various compliments the sitting rose. Then we packed up for a few
hours' march. In a short time we passed the chief's village. He came out
to say good-bye. A copper bronze youth accompanied him, lithe as a
leopard.
"My men have told me your words," said he. "I live always in these
mountains, and my young men will bring me word when you return. I am
glad the white men have come to see me. I shall have the Wanderobo ready
to take you to fight the elephant when you return."
He then instructed the young man to accompany us for the purpose of
bringing back the presents we had promised. We shook hands in farewell,
and so parted from this friendly and powerful chief.
FOOTNOTES:
[28] V.'s native name--the Master with the Red Beard.
XLIII.
THE TOPI CAMP.
At the next camp we stayed for nearly a week.
The country was charming. Mountains surrounded the long ellipse, near
one edge of which we had pitched our tents. The ellipse was some ten
miles long by four or five wide, and its surface rolled in easy billows
to a narrow neck at the lower end. There we could just make out in the
far distance a conical hill partly closing the neck. Atop the hill was a
Masai manyatta, very tiny, with indistinct crawling red and brown
blotches that meant cattle and sheep. Beyond the hill, and through the
opening in the ellipse, we could see to another new country of hills and
meadows and forest groves. In this clear air they were microscopically
distinct. No blue of atmosphere nor shimmer of heat blurred their
outlines. They were merely made small.
Our camp was made in the open above a tiny stream. We saw wonderful
sunrises and sunsets, and always spread out before us was the sweep of
our plains and the unbroken ramparts that hemmed us in. From these
mountains meandered small stream-ways marked by narrow strips of trees
and brush, but the most of the valley was of high green grass.
Occasional ant hills ten feet tall rose conical from the earth; and the
country was pleasingly broken and modelled, so that one continually
surmounted knolls, low, round ridges, and the like. Of such conditions
are surprises made.
The elevation here was some 7,000 feet, so that the nights were cold and
the days not too warm. Our men did not fancy this change of weather. A
good many of them came down with the fever always latent in their
systems, and others suffered from bronchial colds.
At one time we had down sick eleven men out of our slender total.
However, I believe, in spite of these surface symptoms, that the cold
air did them good. It certainly improved our own appetites and staying
power.
In the thirty or forty square miles of our valley were many herds of
varied game. We here for the first time found Neuman's hartebeeste. The
type at Narossara, and even in Lengetto, was the common Coke's
hartebeeste, so that between these closely allied species there
interposes at this point only the barriers of a climb and a forest.
These animals and the zebra were the most plentiful of the game. The
zebra were brilliantly white and black, with magnificent coats.
Thompson's and Roberts' gazelles were here in considerable numbers,
eland, Roosevelt's wildebeeste, giraffe, the smaller grass antelopes,
and a fair number of topi. In the hills we saw buffalo sign, several
cheetah, and heard many lions.
It had been our first plan that C. should return immediately to V.'s
boma after supplies, but in view of the abundance of game we decided to
wait over a day. We much desired to get four topi, and this seemed a
good chance to carry some of them out. Also we wished to decide for
certain whether or not the hartebeeste here was really of the Neuman
variety.
We had great luck. Over the very first hill from camp we came upon a
herd of about a dozen topi, feeding on a hill across the way. I knocked
down the first one standing at just 250 paces. The herd then split and
broke to right and left. By shooting very carefully and steadily I
managed to kill three more before they were out of range. The last shot
was at 325 paces. In all I fired seven shots, and hit six times. This
was the best shooting I did in Africa--or anywhere else--and is a
first-rate argument for the Springfield and the high velocity,
sharp-pointed bullet.
Overjoyed at our luck in collecting these animals so promptly, so near
camp, and at a time so very propitious for handling the trophies, we set
to the job of skinning and cutting up. The able-bodied men all came out
from camp to carry in the meat. They appeared, grinning broadly, for
they had had no meat since leaving the Narossara. C. and I saw matters
well under way, and then went on to where I had seen a cheetah the day
before. Hardly were we out of sight when two lions sauntered over the
hill and proceeded to appropriate the meat! The two men in charge
promptly withdrew. A moment later a dozen porters on their way out from
camp topped the hill and began to yell at the lions. The latter then
slowly and reluctantly retreated.
We were very sorry we had not stayed. The valley seemed populated with
lions, but in general they were, for some reason, strictly nocturnal.
By day they inhabited the fastnesses of the mountain ranges. We never
succeeded in tracing them in that large and labyrinthine country; nor at
any time could we induce them to come to kills. Either their natural
prey was so abundant that they did not fancy ready-killed food; or, what
is more likely, the cold nights prevented the odour of the carcasses
from carrying far. We heard lions every night; and every morning we
conscientiously turned out before daybreak to crawl up to our bait
through the wet, cold grass, but with no results. That very night we
were jerked from a sound sleep by a tremendous roar almost in camp. So
close was it that it seemed to each of us but just outside the tent. We
came up all standing. The lion, apparently, was content with that
practical joke, for he moved off quietly. Next morning we found where
the tracks had led down to water, not ten yards away.
We spent the rest of that day spying on the game herds. It is
fascinating work, to lie belly down on a tall ant hill, glasses steadied
by elbows, picking out the individual animals and discussing them
low-voiced with a good companion. C. and I looked over several hundred
hartebeeste, trying to decide their identity. We were neither of us
familiar with the animal, and had only recollections of the book
distinctions. Finally I picked out one that seemed to present the most
marked characteristics--and missed him clean at 280 yards. Then I took
three shots at 180 yards to down a second choice. The poor shooting was
forgotten, however, in our determination that this was indeed Neumanii.
A vain hunt for lions occupied all the next day. The third morning C.
started for the boma, leaving Billy and me to look about us as we
willed. Shortly after he had departed a delegation of Masai came in,
dressed in their best, and bearing presents of milk. Leyeye was summoned
as interpreter.
The Masai informed us that last night a lion had leapt the thorn walls
of their boma, had pressed on through the fires, had seized a
two-year-old steer, and had dragged the beast outside. Then the pursuit
with spears and firebrands had become too hot for him, so that he had
dropped his victim and retired. They desired (_a_) medicine for the
steer, (_b_) magic to keep that lion away, (_c_) that I should assist
them in hunting the lion down.
I questioned them closely, and soon discovered both that the lion must
have been very bold, and also that he had received a pretty lively
reception. Magic to keep him away seemed like a safe enough proposition,
for the chances were he would keep himself away.
Therefore I filled a quart measure with clear water, passed my hand
across its untroubled surface--and lo! it turned a clear bright pink!
Long-drawn exclamations of "Eigh! Eigh!" greeted this magic, performed
by means of permanganate crystals held between the fingers.
"With this bathe the wounds of your steer. Then sprinkle the remainder
over your cattle. The lion will not return," said I. Then reflecting
that I was to be some time in the country, and that the lion might get
over his scare, I added, "The power of this magic is three days."
They departed very much impressed. A little later Memba Sasa and I
followed them. The manyatta was most picturesquely placed atop the
conical hill at the foot of the valley. From its elevation we could see
here and there in the distance the variegated blotches of red and white
and black that represented the cattle herds. Innumerable flocks of sheep
and goats, under charge of the small boys and youths, fed nearer at
hand. The low smooth-plastered huts, with their abattis of thorn bush
between, crowned the peak like a chaplet. Outside it sat a number of
elders sunning themselves, and several smiling, good-natured young
women, probably the spoiled darlings of these plutocrats. One of these
damsels spake Swahili, so we managed to exchange compliments. They told
us exactly when and how the lion had gone. Three nimble old gentlemen
accompanied us when we left. They were armed with spears; and they
displayed the most extraordinary activity, skipping here and there
across the ravines and through the brush, casting huge stones into
likely cover, and generally making themselves ubiquitous. However, we
did not come up with the lion.
In our clinic that evening appeared one of the men claiming to suffer
from rheumatism. I suspected him, and still suspect him, of malingering
in advance in order to get out of the hard work we must soon undertake,
but had no means of proving my suspicion. However, I decided to
administer asperin. We possessed only the powdered form of the drug. I
dumped about five grains on his tongue, and was about to proffer him the
water with which to wash it down--when he inhaled sharply! I do not know
the precise effect of asperin in the windpipe, but it is not pleasant.
The boy thought himself bewitched. His eyes stuck out of his head; he
gasped painfully; he sank to the ground; he made desperate efforts to
bolt out into the brush. By main strength we restrained him, and forced
him to swallow the water. Little by little he recovered. Next night I
missed him from the clinic, and sent Abba Ali in search. The man assured
Abba Ali most vehemently that the medicine was wonderful, that every
trace of rheumatism had departed, that he never felt better in his life,
and that (important point) he was perfectly able to carry a load on the
morrow.
XLIV.
THE UNKNOWN LAND.
C. returned the next day from V.'s boma, bringing more potio and some
trade goods. We sent a good present back to Naiokotuku, and prepared for
an early start into the new country.
We marched out of the lower end of our elliptical valley towards the
miniature landscape we had seen through the opening. But before we
reached it we climbed sharp to the right around the end of the
mountains, made our way through a low pass, and so found ourselves in a
new country entirely. The smooth, undulating green-grass plains were now
superseded by lava expanses grown with low bushes. It was almost exactly
like the sage-brush deserts of Arizona and New Mexico--the same coarse
sand and lava footing, the same deeply eroded barrancas, the same
scattered round bushes dotted evenly over the scene. We saw here very
little game. Across the way lay another range of low mountains clothed
darkly with dull green, like the chaparral-covered coast ranges of
California. In one place was a gunsight pass through which we could see
other distant blue mountains. We crossed the arid plain and toiled up
through the notch pass.
The latter made very difficult footing indeed, for the entire surface of
the ground was covered with smooth, slippery boulders and rocks of iron
and quartz. What had so smoothed them I do not know, for they seemed to
be ill-placed for water erosion. The boys with their packs atop found
this hard going, and we ourselves slipped and slid and bumped in spite
of our caution.
Once through the pass we found ourselves overlooking a wide prospect of
undulating thorn scrub from which rose occasional bushy hills, solitary
buttes, and bold cliffs. It was a thick-looking country to make a way
through.
Nevertheless somewhere here dwelt the Kudu, so in we plunged. The rest
of the day--and of days to follow--we spent in picking a way through the
thorn scrub and over loose rocks and shifting stones. A stream bed
contained an occasional water hole. Tall aloes were ablaze with red
flowers. The country looked arid, the air felt dry, the atmosphere was
so clear that a day's journey seemed--usually--but the matter of a few
hours. Only rarely did we enjoy a few moments of open travel. Most of
the time the thorns caught at us. In the mountain passes were sometimes
broad trails of game or of the Masai cattle. The country was harsh and
dry and beautiful with the grays and dull greens of arid-land brush, or
with the soft atmospheric tints of arid-land distances. Game was fairly
common, but rather difficult to find. There were many buffalo, a very
few zebra, leopards, hyenas, plenty of impalla, some sing-sing, a few
eland, abundant wart-hog, Thompson's gazelle, and duiker. We never
lacked for meat when we dared shoot it, but we were after nobler game.
The sheep given us by Naiokotuku followed along under charge of the
syces.
When we should run quite out of meat, we intended to eat them. We
delayed too long, however. One evening the fool boy tied them to a thorn
bush; one of them pulled back, the thorns bit, and both broke loose and
departed into the darkness. Of course everybody pursued, but we could
not recapture them. Ten minutes later the hyenas broke into the most
unholy laughter. We could not blame them; the joke was certainly on us.
In passing, the cachinnations of the laughing hyena are rather a series
of high-voiced self-conscious titters than laughter. They sound like the
stage idea of a lot of silly and rather embarrassed old maids who have
been accused by some rude man of "taking notice." This call is rarely
used; indeed, I never heard it but the once. The usual note is a sort of
moaning howl, impossible to describe, but easy to recognize.
Thus we penetrated gradually deeper and deeper into this wild country;
through low mountains, over bush-clad plains, into thorn jungles, down
wide valleys, over hill-divided plateaus. Late in the afternoon we would
make camp. Sometimes we had good water; more often not. In the evening
the throb of distant drums and snatches of intermittent wailing song
rose and fell with the little night breezes.
XLV.
THE ROAN.
Our last camp, before turning back, we pitched about two o'clock one
afternoon. Up to this time we had marched steadily down wide valleys,
around the end of mountain ranges, moving from one room to the other of
this hill-divided plateau. At last we ended on a slope that descended
gently to water. It was grown sparingly with thorn trees, among which we
raised our tents. Over against us, and across several low swells of
grass and scrub-grown hills, was a range of mountains. Here, Mavrouki
claimed, dwelt roan antelope.
We settled down quite happily. The country round about was full of game;
the weather was cool, the wide sweeps of country, the upward fling of
mountains and buttes were much like some parts of our great West. Almost
every evening the thunderstorms made gorgeous piled effects in the
distance. At night the lions and hyenas roared or howled, and some of
the tiny fever owls impudently answered them back.
Various adventures came our way, some of which have been elsewhere
narrated. Here we killed the very big buffalo that nearly got Billy.[29]
In addition, we collected two more specimens of the Neuman's
hartebeeste, and two Chanler's reed buck.
But Mavrouki's glowing predictions as to roan were hardly borne out by
facts. According to him the mountains simply swarmed with them--he had
seen thirty-five in one day, etc. Of course we had discounted this, but
some old tracks had to a certain extent borne out his statement.
Lunch time one day, however, found us on top of the highest ridge. Here
we hunted up a bit of shade, and spent two hours out of the noon sun.
While we lay there the sky slowly overcast, so that when we aroused
ourselves to go on, the dazzling light had softened. As time was getting
short, we decided to separate. Memba Sasa and Mavrouki were to go in one
direction, while C., Kongoni and I took the other.
Before we started I remarked that I was offering two rupees for the
capture of a roan.
We had not gone ten minutes when Kongoni turned his head cautiously and
grinned back at us.
"My rupees," said he.
A fine buck roan stood motionless beneath a tree in the valley below us.
He was on the other side of the stream jungle, and nearly a mile away.
While we watched him, he lay down.
Our task now was to gain the shelter of the stream jungle below without
being seen, to slip along it until opposite the roan, and then to
penetrate the jungle near enough to get a shot. The first part of this
contract seemed to us the most difficult, for we were forced to descend
the face of the hill, like flies crawling down a blackboard, plain for
him to see.
We slid cautiously from bush to bush; we moved by imperceptible inches
across the numerous open spaces. About half-way down we were arrested by
a violent snort ahead. Fifteen or twenty zebras nooning in the brush
where no zebras were supposed to be, clattered down the hill like an
avalanche. We froze where we were. The beasts ran fifty yards, then
wheeled, and started back up the hill, trying to make us out. For twenty
minutes all parties to the transaction remained stock still, the zebras
staring, we hoping fervently they would decide to go down the valley and
not up it, the roan dozing under his distant tree.
By luck our hopes were fulfilled. The zebra turned downstream, walking
sedately away in single file. When we were certain they had all quite
gone, we resumed our painful descent.
At length we dropped below the screen of trees, and could stand upright
and straighten the kinks out of our backs. But now a new complication
arose. The wind, which had been the very basis of our calculations,
commenced to chop and veer. Here it blew from one quarter, up there on
the side hill from another, and through the bushes in quite another
direction still. Then without warning they would all shift about. We
watched the tops of the grasses through our binoculars, hoping to read
some logic into the condition. It was now four o'clock--our stalk had
thus far consumed two hours--and the roan must soon begin to feed. If we
were going to do anything, we must do it soon.
Therefore we crept through a very spiky, noisy jungle to its other edge,
sneaked along the edge until we could make out the tree, and raised
ourselves for a look. Through the glass I could just make out the
roan's face stripe. He was still there!
Quite encouraged, I instantly dropped down and crawled to within range.
When again I raised my head the roan had disappeared. One of these
aggravating little side puffs of breeze had destroyed our two hours'
work.
The outlook was not particularly encouraging. We had no means of telling
how far the animal would go, nor into what sort of country; and the hour
was well advanced toward sunset. However, we took up the track, and
proceeded to follow it as well as we could. That was not easy, for the
ground was hard and stony. Suddenly C. threw himself flat. Of course we
followed his example. To us he whispered that he thought he had caught a
glimpse of the animal through an opening and across the stream bed. We
stalked carefully, and found ourselves in the middle of a small herd of
topis, one of which, half concealed in the brush, had deceived C. This
consumed valuable time. When again we had picked up the spoor, it was
agreed that I was to still-hunt ahead as rapidly as I could, while C.
and Kongoni would puzzle out the tracks as far as possible before dark.
Therefore I climbed the little rocky ridge on our left, and walked
along near its crest, keeping a sharp lookout over the valley
below--much as one would hunt August bucks in California. After two or
three hundred yards I chanced on a short strip of soft earth in which
the fresh tracks of the roan going uphill were clearly imprinted. I
could not without making too much noise inform the others that I had cut
in ahead of them; so I followed the tracks as cautiously and quietly as
I could. On the very top of the hill the roan leapt from cover fifty
yards away, and with a clatter of rocks dashed off down the ridge. The
grass was very high, and I could see only his head and horns, but I
dropped the front sight six inches and let drive at a guess. The guess
happened to be a good one, for he turned a somersault seventy-two yards
away.
C. and Kongoni came up. The sun had just set. In fifteen minutes it
would be pitch dark. We dispatched Kongoni for help and lanterns, and
turned to on the job of building a signal fire and skinning the trophy.
The reason for our strangely chopping wind now became apparent. From our
elevation we could see piled thunder-clouds looming up from the west.
They were spreading upward and outward in the swift, rushing manner of
tropic storms; and I saw I must hustle if I was to get my fire going at
all. The first little blaze was easy, and after that I had to pile on
quantities of any wood I could lay my hands to. The deluge blotted out
every vestige of daylight and nearly drowned out my fire. I had started
to help C. with the roan, but soon found that I had my own job cut out
for me, and so went back to nursing my blaze. The water descended in
sheets. We were immediately soaked through, and very cold. The surface
of the ground was steep and covered with loose round rocks, and in my
continuous trips for firewood I stumbled and slipped and ran into thorns
miserably.[30]
After a long interval of this the lanterns came bobbing through the
darkness, and a few moments later the dim light revealed the shining
rain-soaked faces of our men.
We wasted no time in the distribution of burdens. C. with one of the
lanterns brought up the rear, while I with the other went on ahead.
Now as Kongoni had but this minute completed the round trip to camp, we
concluded that he would be the best one to give us a lead. This was a
mistake. He took us out of the hills well enough, and a good job that
was, for we could not see the length of our arms into the thick, rainy
blackness, and we had to go entirely by the slants of the country. But
once in the more open, sloping country, with its innumerable bushy or
wooded ravines, he began to stray. I felt this from the first; but
Kongoni insisted strongly he was right, and in the rain and darkness we
had no way of proving him wrong. In fact I had no reason for thinking
him wrong; I only felt it. This sense of direction is apparently a fifth
wheel or extra adjustment some people happen to possess. It has nothing
to do with acquired knowledge, as is very well proved by the fact that
in my own case it acts only as long as I do not think about it. As soon
as I begin consciously to consider the matter I am likely to go wrong.
Thus many, many times I have back-tracked in the dark over ground I had
traversed but once before, and have caught myself turning out for bushes
or trees I could not see, but which my subconscious memory recalled.
This would happen only when I would think of something besides the way
home. As soon as I took charge, I groped as badly as the next man. It is
a curious and sometimes valuable extra, but by no means to be depended
upon.
Now, however, as I was following Kongoni, this faculty had full play,
and it assured me vehemently that we were wrong. I called C. up from the
rear for consultation. Kongoni was very positive he was right; but as we
had now been walking over an hour, and camp should not have been more
than three miles from where we had killed the roan, we were inclined
towards my instinct. So we took the compass direction, in order to
assure consistency at least, and struck off at full right angles to the
left.
So we tramped for a long time. Every few moments Kongoni would want
another look at that compass. It happened that we were now going due
north, and his notion was that the needle pointed the way to camp. We
profoundly hoped that his faith in white man's magic would not be
shattered. At the end of an hour the rain let up, and it cleared
sufficiently to disclose some of the mountain outlines. They convinced
us that we were in the main right; though just where, to the north, camp
now lay was beyond our power to determine. Kongoni's detour had been
rather indeterminate in direction and distance.
The country now became very rough, in a small way. The feeble light of
our leading lantern revealed only ghosts and phantoms and looming,
warning suggestions of things which the shadows confused and shifted.
Heavily laden men would have found it difficult travelling by prosaic
daylight; but now, with the added impossibility of picking a route
ahead, we found ourselves in all sorts of trouble. Many times we had to
back out and try again. The ghostly flickering tree shapes against the
fathomless black offered us apparently endless aisles that nevertheless
closed before us like the doors of a trap when we attempted to enter
them.
We kept doggedly to the same general northerly direction. When you are
lost, nothing is more foolish than to make up your mind hastily and
without due reflection; and nothing is more foolish than to change your
mind once you have made it up. That way vacillation, confusion, and
disaster lie. Should you decide, after due consideration of all the
elements of the problem, that you should go east, then east you go, and
nothing must turn you. You may get to the Atlantic Ocean if nothing
else. And if you begin to modify your original plan, then you begin to
circle. Believe me; I know.
Kongoni was plainly sceptical, and said so until I shut him up with
some rather peremptory sarcasm. The bearers, who had to stumble in the
dark under heavy burdens, were good-natured and joking. This we
appreciated. One can never tell whether or not he is popular with a
native until he and the native are caught in a dangerous or disagreeable
fix.
We walked two hours as in a treadmill. Then that invaluable though
erratic sixth sense of mine awoke. I stopped short.
"I believe we've come far enough," I shouted back to C., and fired my
rifle.
We received an almost immediate answer from a short distance to the
left. Not over two hundred yards in that direction we met our camp men
bearing torches, and so were escorted in triumph after a sixteen-hour
day.
FOOTNOTES:
[29] "The Land of Footprints."
[30] Six months after I had reached home, one of these thorns worked its
way out of the calf of my leg.
XLVI.
THE GREATER KUDU.
Next morning, in a joking manner, I tried to impress Kongoni with a
sense of delinquency in not knowing better his directions, especially as
he had twice traversed the route. He declined to be impressed.
"It is not the business of man to walk at night," he replied with
dignity.
And when you stop to think of it, it certainly is not--in Africa.
At this camp we lingered several days. The great prize of our journeying
was still lacking, and, to tell the truth, we had about given up hope,
if not our efforts. Almost we had begun to believe our friends in
Nairobi who had scoffed at the uselessness of our quest. Always we
conscientiously looked over good kudu country, hundreds of miles of it,
and always with the same lack of result, or even of encouragement. Other
game we saw in plenty, of a dozen different varieties, large and small;
but our five weeks' search had thus far yielded us only the sight of the
same old, old sign, made many months before. If you had stood with us
atop one of the mountains, and with us had looked abroad on the
countless leagues of rolling brush-clothed land, undulating away in all
directions over a far horizon, you must with us have estimated as very
slight the chances of happening on the exact pin point where the kudu at
that moment happened to be feeding. For the beast is shy, it inhabits
the densest, closest mountain cover, it possesses the keen eyesight and
sense of smell of the bush-dwelling deer and antelope, and more than the
average sense of hearing. There are very few of him. But the chief
discouragement is that arising from his roaming tendencies. Other rare
animals are apt to "use" about one locality, so that once the hunter
finds tracks, new or old, his game is one of patient, skilful search.
The greater kudu, however, seems in this country at least to be a
wanderer. He is here to-day and gone to-morrow. Systematic search seems
as foolish as in the case of the proverbial needle in the haystack. The
only method is to sift constantly, and trust to luck. One cannot catch
fish with the fly in the book, but one has at least a chance if one
keeps it on the water.
Mavrouki was the only one among us who had the living faith that comes
from having seen the animal in the flesh. That is a curious bit of
hunter psychology. When a man is out after a species new to him, it is
only by the utmost stretch of the imagination that he is able to realize
that such an animal can exist at all. He cannot prefigure it, somehow.
He generally exaggerates to himself the difficulty of making it out, of
approaching it, of getting his shot; until at last, if he happens to
have hunted some time in vain, the beast becomes almost mythical and
unbelievable. Once he has seen the animal, whether he gets a shot or
not, all this vanishes. The strain on faith relaxes. He knows what to
look for, and what to expect; and even if he sees no other specimen for
a month, he nevertheless goes about the business with a certain
confidence.
One afternoon we had been hunting carefully certain low mountains, and
were headed for camp, walking rather carelessly along the bed of a
narrow, open valley below the bush-covered side hills. The sun had
disappeared behind the ranges, and the dusk of evening was just
beginning to rise like a mist from the deeps of the cañons. We had
ceased hunting--it was time to hurry home--and happened not to be
talking only because we were tired. By sheerest idle luck I chanced to
look up to the densely covered face of the mountain. Across a single
tiny opening in the tall brush five or six hundred yards away, I caught
a movement. Still idly I lifted my glasses for a look at what I thought
would prove the usual impalla or sing-sing, and was just in time to
catch the spirals of a magnificent set of horns. It was the greater kudu
at last!
I gave a little cluck of caution; and instantly, without question, after
the African fashion, the three men ahead of me sank to the ground. C.
looked at me inquiringly. I motioned with my eyes. He raised his glasses
for one look.
"That's the fellow," he said quietly.
The kudu, as though he had merely stepped into the opening to give us a
sight of him, melted into the brush.
It was magnificent and exciting to have seen this wonderful beast after
so long a quest, but by the same token it was not very encouraging for
all that. If we had had all the daylight we needed, and unlimited time,
it would have been quite a feat to stalk the wary beast in that thick,
noisy cover. Now it was almost dark, and would be quite dark within the
half-hour. The kudu had moved out of sight. Whether he had gone on some
distance, or whether he still lingered near the edge of the tiny opening
was another matter to be determined, and to be determined quickly.
Leaving Kongoni and Mavrouki, C. and I wriggled pantingly up the hill,
as fast and at the same time as cautiously as we could. At the edge of
the opening we came to a halt, belly down, and began eagerly to
scrutinize the brush across the way. If the kudu still lingered we had
to find it out before we ventured out of cover to take up his trail.
Inch by inch we scrutinized every possible concealment. Finally C.
breathed sharp with satisfaction. He had caught sight of the tip of one
horn. With some difficulty he indicated to me where. After staring long
enough, we could dimly make out the kudu himself browsing, from the
tender branch-ends.
All we could do was to lie low. If the kudu fed on out of sight into the
cover, we could not possibly get a shot; if he should happen again to
cross the opening, we would get a good shot. No one but a hunter can
understand the panting, dry-mouthed excitement of those minutes; five
weeks' hard work hung in the balance. The kudu did neither of these
things; he ceased browsing, took three steps forward, and stood.
The game seemed blocked. The kudu had evidently settled down for a
snooze; it was impossible, in the situation, to shorten the distance
without being discovered; the daylight was almost gone; we could make
out no trace of him except through our glasses. Look as hard as we
could, we could see nothing with the naked eye. Unless something
happened within the next two minutes, we would bring nothing into camp
but the memory of a magnificent beast. And next day he would probably be
inextricably lost in the wilderness of mountains.[31]
It was a time for desperate measures, and, to C.'s evident doubtful
anxiety, I took them. Through the glasses the mane of the kudu showed as
a dim gray streak. Carefully I picked out two twigs on a bush fifteen
feet from me, and a tuft of grass ten yards on, all of which were in
line with where the shoulder of the kudu ought to be. Then I lowered my
glasses. The gray streak of the kudu's mane had disappeared in the
blending twilight, but I could still see the tips of the twigs and the
tuft of grass. Very carefully I aligned the sights with these; and, with
a silent prayer to the Red Gods, loosed the bullet into the darkness.
At the crack of the rifle the kudu leapt into plain sight.
"Hit!" rasped C. in great excitement.
I did not wait to verify this, but fired four times more as fast as I
could work the bolt. Three of the bullets told. At the last shot he
crumpled and came rolling down the slope. We both raised a wild whoop of
triumph, which was answered at once by the expectant gunbearers below.
The finest trophy in Africa was ours!
FOOTNOTES:
[31] Trailing for any distance was impossible on account of the stony
soil.
XLVII.
THE MAGIC PORTALS CLOSE.
It seemed hopeless to try for a picture. Nevertheless I opened wide my
lens, steadied the camera, and gave it a half-second. The result was
fairly good. So much for a high grade lens. We sent Kongoni into camp
for help, and ourselves proceeded to build up the usual fire for signal
and for protection against wild beasts. Then we sat down to enjoy the
evening, while Mavrouki skinned the kudu.
We looked abroad over a wide stretch of country. Successive low ridges
crossed our front, each of a different shade of slate gray from its
neighbours, and a gray half-luminous mist filled the valley between
them. The edge of the world was thrown sharp against burnished copper.
After a time the moon rose.
Memba Sasa arrived before the lanterns, out of breath, his face
streaming with perspiration. Poor Memba Sasa! this was almost the only
day he had not followed close at my heels, and on this day we had
captured the Great Prize. No thought of that seemed to affect the
heartiness of his joy. He rushed up to shake both my hands; he examined
the kudu with an attention that was held only by great restraint; he let
go that restrain to shake me again enthusiastically by the hands. After
him, up the hill, bobbed slowly the lanterns. The smiling bearers
shouldered the trophy and the meat, and we stumbled home through the
half shadows and the opalescences of the moonlight.
Our task in this part of the country was now finished. We set out on the
return journey. The weather changed. A beautiful, bright-copper sunset
was followed by a drizzle. By morning this had turned into a heavy rain.
We left the topi camp, to which we had by now returned, cold and
miserable. C. and I had contributed our waterproofs to protect the
precious trophies, and we were speedily wet through. The grass was long.
This was no warm and grateful tropical rain, but a driving, chilling
storm straight out from the high mountains.
We marched up the long plain, we turned to the left around the base of
the ranges, we mounted the narrow grass valley, we entered the
forest--the dark, dripping, and unfriendly forest. Over the edge we
dropped and clambered down through the hanging vines and the sombre
trees. By-and-by, we emerged on the open plains below, the plains on the
hither side of the Narossara, the Africa we had known so long. The rain
ceased. It was almost as though a magic portal had clicked after us.
Behind it lay the wonderful secret upper country of the unknown.
XLVIII.
THE LAST TREK.
Some weeks later we camped high on the slopes of Suswa, the great
mountain of the Rift Valley, only one day's march from the railroad.
After the capture of the kudu Africa still held for us various
adventures--a buffalo, a go of fever, and the like--but the culmination
had been reached. We had lingered until the latest moment, reluctant to
go. Now in the gray dawn we were filing down the slopes of the mountains
for the last trek. A low, flowing mist marked the distant Kedong; the
flames of an African sunrise were revelling in the eastern skies. All
our old friends seemed to be bidding us good-bye. Around the shoulder of
the mountains a lion roared, rumble upon rumble. Two hyenas leapt from
the grass, ran fifty yards, and turned to look at us.
"Good-bye, simba! good-bye, fice!" we cried to them sadly.
A little farther we saw zebra, and the hartebeeste, and the gazelles.
One by one appeared and disappeared again the beasts with which we had
grown so familiar during our long months in the jungle. So remarkable
was the number of species that we both began to comment upon the fact,
to greet the animals, to bid them farewell, as though they were
reporting in order from the jungle to bid us God-speed. Half in earnest
we waved our hands to them and shouted our greetings to them in the
native--punda milia, kongoni, pa-a, fice, m'pofu, twiga, simba,
n'grooui, and the rest. Before our eyes the misty ranges hardened and
stiffened under the fierce sun. Our men marched steadily, cheerfully,
beating their loads in rhythm with their safari sticks, crooning under
their breaths, and occasionally breaking into full-voiced chant. They
were glad to be back from the long safari, back from across the Thirst,
from the high, cold country, from the dangers and discomforts of the
unknown. We rode a little wistfully, for these great plains and
mysterious jungles, these populous, dangerous, many-voiced nights, these
flaming, splendid dawnings and day-falls, these fierce, shimmering noons
we were to know no more.
Two days we had in Nairobi before going to the coast. There we paid off
and dismissed our men, giving them presents according to the length and
faithfulness of their service. They took them and departed, eagerly, as
was natural, to the families and the pleasures from which they had been
so long separated. Mohammed said good-bye, and went, and was sorry;
Kongoni departed, after many and sincere protestations; quiet little
Mavrouki came back three times to shake hands again, and disappeared
reluctantly--but disappeared; Leyeye went; Abba Ali followed the service
of his master, C.; "Timothy" received his present--in which he was
disappointed--and departed with salaams. Only Memba Sasa remained. I
paid him for his long service, and I gave him many and rich presents,
and bade farewell to him with genuine regret and affection.
Memba Sasa had wives and a farm near town, neither of which possessions
he had seen for a very long while. Nevertheless he made no move to see
them. When our final interview had terminated with the usual "Bags" (It
is finished), he shook hands once more and withdrew, but only to take
his position across the street. There he squatted on his heels, fixed
his eyes upon me, and remained. I went down town on business. Happening
to glance through the office window I caught sight of Memba Sasa again
across the street, squatted on his heels, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on
my face. So it was for two days. When I tried to approach him, he glided
away, so that I got no further speech with him; but always, quietly and
unobtrusively, he returned to where he could see me plainly. He
considered that our interview had terminated our official relations, but
he wanted to see the last of the bwana with whom he had journeyed so
far.
One makes many acquaintances as one knocks about the world; and once in
a great many moons one finds a friend--a man the mere fact of whose
existence one is glad to realize, whether one ever sees him again or
not. These are not many, and they are of various degree. Among them I am
glad to number this fierce savage. He was efficient, self-respecting,
brave, staunch, and loyal with a great loyalty. I do not think I can
better end this book than by this feeble tribute to a man whose
opportunities were not many, but whose soul was great.
THE END
BOOKS BY STEWART EDWARD WHITE.
"_Mr. Stewart Edward White is a Thomas Hardy, so to
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history_."--_The Morning Post_.
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--_The Nation_.
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End of Project Gutenberg's African Camp Fires, by Stewart Edward White