by
Mahina and Mabruki, when suddenly we almost walked upon a lion which
was lying down at the side of the path and which had probably been
asleep. It gave a fierce growl and at once bounded off through the
bush; but to Mabruki--who doubtless recalled then the warning I had
given him in fun earlier in the day--the incident appeared so alarming
that he flung down his stick-load of meat and fled for his life, much
to the amusement of the others, even the usually silent Wa Kamba
joining in the general laughter as they scrambled for the discarded
meat. We saw nothing more of the lion, though a few steps further on
brought us to the remains of a zebra which he had recently killed and
feasted on; but after this Mabruki kept carefully in the rear.
Curiously enough, only a short while later we had an exactly similar
adventure with a rhino, as owing to the tortuous nature of the path, we
walked right into it before we were aware. Like the lion, however, it
was more frightened than we, and charged away from us through the
jungle.

For about two hours we pursued our journey into the plateau, and saw
and heard a wonderful variety of game, including giraffe, rhino,
bush-buck, the lesser kudu, zebra, wart-hog, baboons and monkeys, and
any number of paa, the last being of a redder colour than those of the
Tsavo valley. Of natives or of human habitations, however, we saw no
signs, and indeed the whole region was so dry and waterless as to be
quite uninhabitable. The animals that require water have to make a
nightly journey to and from the Sabaki, which accounts for the
thousands of animal paths leading from the plateau to the river.

By this time we were all beginning to feel very tired, and the bhisti's
stock of water was running low. I therefore climbed the highest tree I
could find in order to have a good look round, but absolutely nothing
could I see in any direction but the same flat thorny wilderness,
interspersed here and there with a few green trees; not a landmark of
any sort or kind as far as the eye could reach; a most hopeless,
terrible place should one be lost in it, with certain death either by
thirst or by savage beasts staring one in the face. Clearly, then, the
only thing to do was to return to the river; and in order to accomplish
this before dark it was necessary that no time should be lost. But we
had been winding in and out so much through the animal paths that it
was no easy matter to say in which direction the S