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The Land of Footprints-Part1_Stewart Edward White(1873-1946)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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speculating a bit over my pipe as to how I would have liked it

myself.



Obviously, to write such a book the author must at the same time

sink his ego and exhibitfrankly his personality. The paradox in



this is only apparent. He must forget either to strut or to blush

with diffidence. Neither audience should be forgotten, and neither



should be exclusively addressed. Never should he lose sight of

the wholesome fact that old hunters are to read and to weigh;



never should he for a moment slip into the belief that he is

justified in addressing the expert alone. His attitude should be



that many men know more and have done more than he, but that for

one reason or another these men are not ready to transmit their



knowledge and experience.

To set down the formulation of an ideal is one thing: to fulfil



it is another. In the following pages I cannot claim a

fulfilment, but only an attempt. The foregoing dissertation must



be considered not as a promise, but as an explanation. No one

knows better than I how limited my African experience is, both in



time and extent, bounded as it is by East Equatorial Africa and a

year. Hundreds of men are better qualified than myself to write



just this book; but unfortunately they will not do it.

II. AFRICA



In looking back on the multitudinous pictures that the word

Africa bids rise in my memory, four stand out more distinctly



than the others. Strangely enough, these are by no means all

pictures of average country-the sort of thing one would describe



as typical. Perhaps, in a way, they symbolize more the spirit of

the country to me, for certainly they represent but a small



minority of its infinitelyvariedaspects. But since we must make

a start somewhere, and since for some reason these four crowd



most insistently in the recollection it might be well to begin

with them.



Our camp was pitched under a single large mimosa tree near the

edge of a deep and narrow ravine down which a stream flowed. A



semicircle of low mountains hemmed us in at the distance of

several miles. The other side of the semicircle was occupied by



the upthrow of a low rise blocking off an horizon at its nearest

point but a few hundred yards away. Trees marked the course of the



stream; low scattered bushes alternated with open plain. The

grass grew high. We had to cut it out to make camp.



Nothing indicated that we were otherwisesituated than in a very

pleasant, rather wide grass valley in the embrace of the



mountains. Only a walk of a few hundred yards atop the upthrow of

the low rise revealed the fact that it was in reality the lip of



a bench, and that beyond it the country fell away in sheer cliffs

whose ultimate drop was some fifteen hundred feet. One could sit



atop and dangle his feet over unguessed abysses.

For a week we had been hunting for greater kudu. Each day Memba



Sasa and I went in one direction, while Mavrouki and Kongoni took

another line. We looked carefully for signs, but found none



fresher than the month before. Plenty of other game made the

country interesting; but we were after a shy and valuable prize,



so dared not shoot lesser things. At last, at the end of the

week, Mavrouki came in with a tale of eight lions seen in the low



scrub across the stream. The kudu business was about finished, as

far as this place went, so we decided to take a look for the



lions.

We ate by lantern and at the first light were ready to start. But



at that moment, across the slope of the rim a few hundred yards

away, appeared a small group of sing-sing. These are a beautiful



big beast, with widespread horns, proud and wonderful, like

Landseer's stags, and I wanted one of them very much. So I took



the Springfield, and dropped behind the line of some bushes. The

stalk was of the ordinary sort. One has to remain behind cover,



to keep down wind, to make no quick movements. Sometimes this

takes considerable manoeuvring; especially, as now, in the case






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