giraffe order. With it he crops browse above high tide mark of

other animals, especially when as often happens he balances
cleverly on his hind legs. By means of it also he can, with his

body completely concealed, look over the top of ordinary cover
and see you long before you have made out his inconspicuous

little head. Then he departs. He seems to have a lamentable lack
of healthycuriosity about you. In that respect he should take

lessons from the kongoni. After that you can follow him as far as
you please; you will get only glimpses at three or four hundred

yards.
We remounted sadly and rode on. The surface of the ground was

rather soft, scattered with round rocks the size of a man's head,
and full of pig holes.

"Cheerful country to ride over at speed," remarked Billy. Later
in the day we had occasion to remember that statement.

The plains led us ever on. First would be a band of scattered
brush growing singly and in small clumps: then a little open

prairie; then a narrow, long grass swale; then perhaps a low,
long hill with small single trees and rough, volcanicfooting.

Ten thousand things kept us interested. Game was everywhere,
feeding singly, in groups, in herds, game of all sizes and

descriptions. The rounded ears of jackals pointed at us from the
grass. Hundreds of birds balanced or fluttered about us, birds of

all sizes from the big ground hornbill to the littlest hummers
and sun birds. Overhead, across the wonderful variegated sky of

Africa the broad-winged carrion hunters and birds of prey
wheeled. In all our stay on the Isiola we had not seen a single

rhino track, so we rode quite care free and happy.
Finally, across a glade, not over a hundred and fifty yards away,

we saw a solitary bull oryx standing under a bush. B. wanted an
oryx. We discussed this one idly. He looked to be a decent oryx,

but nothing especial. However, he offered a very good shot; so
B., after some hesitation, decided to take it. It proved to be by

far the best specimen we shot, the horns measuring thirty-six and
three fourths inches! Almost immediately after, two of the rather

rare striped hyenas leaped from the grass and departed rapidly
over the top of a hill. We opened fire, and F. dropped one of

them. By the time these trophies were prepared, the sun had
mounted high in the heavens, and it was getting hot.

Accordingly we abandoned that still distant river and swung away
in a wide circle to return to camp.

Several minor adventures brought us to high noon and the heat of
the day. B. had succeeded in drawing a prize, one of the Grevy's

or mountain zebra. He and the gunbearers engaged themselves with
that, while we sat under the rather scanty shade of a small thorn

tree and had lunch. Here we had a favourable chance to observe
that very common, but always wonderful phenomenon, the gathering

of the carrion birds. Within five minutes after the stoop of the
first vulture above the carcass, the sky immediately over that

one spot was fairly darkened with them. They were as thick as
midges-or as ducks used to be in California. All sizes were

there from the little carrion crows to the great dignified
vultures and marabouts and eagles. The small fry flopped and

scolded, and rose and fell in a dense mass; the marabouts walked
with dignified pace to and fro through the grass all about. As

far as the eye could penetrate the blue, it could make out more
and yet more of the great soarers stooping with half bent wings.

Below we could see uncertainly through the shimmer of the mirage
the bent forms of the men.

We ate and waited; and after a little we dozed. I was awakened
suddenly by a tremendous rushing roar, like the sound of a not

too distant waterfall. The group of men were plodding toward us
carrying burdens. And like plummets the birds were dropping

straight down from the heavens, spreading wide their wings at the
last moment to check their speed. This made the roaring sound

that had awakened me.
A wide spot in the shimmer showed black and struggling against

the ground. I arose and walked over, meeting halfway B. and the
men carrying the meat. It took me probably about two minutes to

reach the place where the zebra had been killed. Hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of the great birds were standing idly about; a

dozen or so were flapping and scrambling in the centre. I stepped
into view. With a mightycommotion they all took wing clumsily,

awkwardly, reluctantly. A trampled, bloody space and the larger
bones, picked absolutely clean, was all that remained! In less

than two minutes the job had been done!
"You're certainly good workmen!" I exclaimed, "but I wonder how

you all make a living!"
We started the men on to camp with the meat, and ourselves rested

under the shade. The day had been a full and interesting one; but
we considered it as finished. Remained only the hot journey back

to camp.
After a half hour we mounted again and rode on slowly. The sun

was very strong and a heavy shimmer clothed the plain. Through
this shimmer we caught sight of something large and black and

flapping. It looked like a crow-or, better, a
scare-crow-crippled, half flying, half running, with waving

wings or arms, now dwindling, now gigantic as the mirage caught
it up or let it drop. As we watched, it developed, and we made it

out to be a porter, clad in a long, ragged black overcoat,
runningzigzag through the bushes in our direction.

The moment we identified it we spurred our horses forward. As my
horse leaped, Memba Sasa snatched the Springfield from my left

hand and forced the 405 Winchester upon me. Clever Memba Sasa! He
no more than we knew what was up, but shrewdly concluded that

whatever it was it needed a heavy gun.
As we galloped to meet him, the porter stopped. We saw him to be

a very long-legged, raggedy youth whom we had nicknamed the
Marabout because of his exceedingly long, lean legs, the fact

that his breeches were white, short and baggy, and because he
kept his entire head shaved close. He called himself Fundi, which

means The Expert, a sufficient indication of his confidence in
himself.

He awaited us leaning on his safari stick, panting heavily, the
sweat running off his face in splashes. "Simba!"* said he, and

immediately set off on a long, easy lope ahead of us. We pulled
down to a trot and followed him.

*Lion
At the end of a half mile we made out a man up a tree. Fundi, out

of breath, stopped short and pointed to this man. The latter, as
soon as he had seen us, commenced to scramble down. We spurred

forward to find out where the lions had been last seen.
Then Billy covered herself with glory by seeing them first. She

apprised us of that fact with some excitement. We saw the long,
yellow bodies of two of them disappearing in the edge of the

brush about three hundred yards away. With a wild whoop we tore
after them at a dead run.

Then began a wild ride. Do you remember Billy's remark about the
nature of the footing? Before long we closed in near enough to

catch occasionalglimpses of the beasts, bounding easily along.
At that moment B.'s horse went down in a heap. None of us thought

for a moment of pulling up. I looked back to see B. getting up
again, and thought I caught fragments of encouraging-sounding

language. Then my horse went down. I managed to hold my rifle
clear, and to cling to the reins. Did you ever try to get on a

somewhat demoralized horse in a frantic hurry, when all your