. On safari : big game hunting in British East Africa, with studies in bird-life . those open glades of naturalpasturage which are of such frequent occurrence in theseforests, and on which the buffalo feed by night. Wespent great part of our nights watching these spots, anda weird experience it was. As darkness overshadowedthe scene, the first peculiarity that attracted attentionwas a succession of hideous shrieks, issuing, it seemed,from various points of the compass. We wonderedwhat animal, or bird, could possibly be guilty of suchenormities, and were but slightly reassured on learning THE M
. On safari : big game hunting in British East Africa, with studies in bird-life . those open glades of naturalpasturage which are of such frequent occurrence in theseforests, and on which the buffalo feed by night. Wespent great part of our nights watching these spots, anda weird experience it was. As darkness overshadowedthe scene, the first peculiarity that attracted attentionwas a succession of hideous shrieks, issuing, it seemed,from various points of the compass. We wonderedwhat animal, or bird, could possibly be guilty of suchenormities, and were but slightly reassured on learning THE MAU FOKEST 199 from our tracker that the sounds emanated from SotikWandorobo—a tribe of forest-dwellers, one of thelowest of human types. We had previously observedtrees entirely stripped of bark, which, we were told,these poor creatures had eaten; and also found theirhuts in the forest—small, conical structures of greenbranches stuck into the ground, bent over, and inter-laced with smaller branches, hardly bigger than dog-kennels. Each hut had a slightly raised platform at. ANOTHER HORNBILL {Lophoceros). the further end inside; so that these wild men of thewoods evidently disapprove of sleeping on the bareearth. Although these savages were aware of our presenceand followed us throughout our nightly wanderings (aswe discovered by their tracks covering ours on the dewygrass at dawn), yet they in no way molested us, nor didwe ever see them. It was into these solitudes that we penetrated, eachwith a few followers and a light tent apiece, that waspitched amidst foliage so rank as to be invisible attwenty yards from any point of view—never could Ihave found my way back to mine but for our savageguides. 200 ON SAFARI Our quest finall}- failed, as, although shadowyforms of animals were occasionally distinguished by usin the moonlight, yet with an overcast sky and constantheavy rain, it was not possible to specify them. Theymight be cows or calves, we could not tell.
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