Amarillo Daily News (Amarillo, Tex.), Vol. 20, No. 17, Ed. 1 Monday, December 3, 1928 Page: 6 of 12
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KHE AMARILLO DAILY NEW.
SIX. -
SAFARI:Saga Of The African
J
sas 17-year locui
■I
down to have a solitary drink at the home-made
thi* instance she has
waterhole we got other elephant and buffalo picture*.
R7
12-
33
P
I
out of our
Zebra* screech and
I *
2.2
2
Cattle are coin
peid in currency.
,‘3
ly.
kit, a lot of high-sounding phrases
; the chiefs by far in intelligence. By
Time meant almply dothing to them.
In endurance, too, none equal him.
food and water-bottle, travers-
ing wastes where we know from ex-
LUBBOCK TO AMARILLO
in him.
to
Connection at Piainvtew
guide—the “Little Haif-Brother of
T 0.1
He did not apeak bat waved ■• on.
seeret to tell mo. He then proceeded
with us. It
nd ear other guidi
1.2
'i
NM T
NATIVES SELDOM ATTACK THE
WHITES, MR. AND MRS.
MARTIN JOHNSON LEARN
a In me that we ehould never
ires M long as Ndundu, one
NORTH PLAINS COACHES
AMARILLO TO LUBNOCK
The manner of the animals' leaving
waa for them to vanish into thin air.
Before he eonfessed all of thia to mo
sixty milea apart—then reappear, hie
mission aecomplished, and take bio
But it waa not the mystery of him
nor the inserutabillty of hia wiad old
face that meet impressed us, it was
10180 a. m.
II tie A m.
1150 am.
12118 p.m.
12140 p.m.
1 til a. m.
1 tto p. m.
210 p.m.
tilt d.m.
2:30 p.m.
tilt d.m.
lite rm.
4130 p.m,
4158 p.m.
t:M p. m.
t:U p-m.
6183 d.m.
till p. m.
settled on our
over our food.
King’a African Riflea)? Well, he’s
the one."
denert on some mysterious errand,
fade away “in the blue," trek hun-
dred* ef mile* without tent or blank-
they thought I might prerent them
with something or have some work
they could do, but if I didn't, and
merely gave them a curt “hollo," they
wouldn’t feel at all unhappy about it.
2:0 p.m.
Silt p.m.
3:60 p. m,
4 lit p. m.
4:40 wau
lilt em.
660 p.m.
6130 e m.
Till p m.
to 4
wet
I
ereise of hi* pewer only for some
limmdiatendossty, ,
Ho turned on me a serious liquid
brown pair of eyes.
8103 Pm.
owepm
1:0 p.m,
123pm.
Site pm.
list p.m.
0100 aw
a:44 am
. . 9100 a m.
* .1141 A m.
. .1* 128 a m.
. .into a.m.
. .lilt* a. m.
. .111*4 noon
. :2100 Dm.
This female moat have been very lonesome, for during th* three year*
we lived at the lake we saw her quite often nnd she waa always alone. In
gotiations they would in the end have ion-like suffir— for station and post 1 w want to take posseasion and make
* m—- - --- 1~e" A-d — *-*------------- . pictures.
Ar. Lubboek 114* p m.
Conneetion at Lubboek at 714s a.
tor oweet water. Allene. Cimeo, Port
» :
i 4
11 see woo*
2100 pm.
tilt p m.
3:00 p. m.
Bill p m.
4100 p. m.
4:40 p. m.
fem4E
I I
■■■■ I 1
lue
Lv. Amarine . .
t Genyen ,
Ar Happy . . . .
Ar. Talia.....
Ar Kreur ...
Ae Plsingiew .
Ar Hai* Center •
Ar Abernathy . •
‘82Ma
"9
a)
n"
4r——4,
Mussolin rolled in one, thouzh he
room* to have nd organized fellow-
] ing. Ho I* contented with the ex-
stance. we have now statione, post-
officey-they seem to like this Itel.
‘ -2lajtd
) 7509
-4.: E8 10 It S'
We were fortunate Indeed In em-
ploying Boculy. He was born on the
alopes of Kilimanjaro, bet he seoms
to know every mountain and river,
in fact, every waterhole in Southern
Abysginia and British East Africa.
Somewhere in the wild* he has a
thousand cattle and two hundred
and fifty eamela, which the Boran*
or some one of hia wandering tribe
tend for him while he is oa safari
with the white man. The languages
ad each of these plain* and desert
windshields, swat------------
covered every inch of our faces and 1
PICKWICK STAGES
CORPORATION
3*3 Fillmore Street
Announce Change of Schedule
Effect Ive Sept. I*
Through ear* vast. Kansas City.
St. Louis and potato east, leave
Amarillo 1:00 a. m. and 12:30
stra". or.made out of hammered-out Ht wil slip away like A ghost of the
petrol tin* and oftering for salet pen- •
ny‘s worths of sugar and eheap cof- l
fee and eigarettes, were the only!
signs of life we saw in their neigh-1 .t
borhood. At th* dukas, little bihck
. . I
a 6»*
■•* Ma HMaaaaar, newspaper, maga-
xtxts: zsnsyrsa
2e.met bythe trmil used a sort of
’ Swahili; but it mH be eas-
changed into a hell when we saw
•loads of dust on the horizon and aa j
army of Samburu came loping up, I
with vast herds of cattle, c-mels:t
goals and donkeys. Tou never heard I
each a bellowing and bleating, nor
emailed such a stench of sweat, black '
flesh, stole eae-pieee skins, and dirty
Battle. Worst of all wore the ewarms
of flies which, like a plague of Kan-
s sort of free masonry he ean ae-
e uld from them when we need
it; and a mere look. from him or a
vave of- hi* hand will drive away
whole tribe* from waterholes when
E .
i
• tto p.t.
5140 pm,
6120 pm.
file pm.
Til* pm.
1M pm.
8ilo Dm.
Bite Dm.
4:40 bm.
gw®
Zml,c3
hit baffling knowledge of all the
four-footed inhabitant* of the wild
and their ways, particularly of the
elephants to which he is little half-
brother.
He seemed to have a peculiar and
mogeprerp,ey
.... .
also aad speed aad the direetion of
their travel by a crushed leaf or a
broken breach. A mere handful of
traeks would reveal to him the num-
ber in a hard.
-
It i» a wall-known legend that elephants are blind. I have not found
them so. They do plod along as though half asleep much of tho time;
but this, I believe, is because they are so powerful, are secure from death
at the elaws of other beast*, and have grown careless with the centuries.
When attacked by man they are as wide awake as anything that roams
forest or jungle.
to accept. Then they drove off, leav. office. And we had no sooner started
ing us the five camel* and every our engines again than Abdullah
one of the flies. I railed out to Osa that there was
Oa the trail in the ML Kenya dis-1 something the matter with her "mo-
| trict. we passed hundreds of Kikuyas toren,‘s foot.? She had a flat.
clad in one-piece skins and G-strings , These Kikuyu* and their herds, and
E-24.2 hy the ata ads et the little dukas, er native .„
bloating goats, oa the trek fop, new gar-loaf in shape, thatched with I
Erazing grounds. They seemed to
travel very alowly, moving on for a
little piece, then stopping while their
herds nibbled the short bunch grass
: which formed a scant cover in < thia
dryzenson for the red eUy ground.
I Durine these pausea the herdsmen
8 squatted on their haunches by the
* . * . •5
TNev
I -L * '
actually made the grove* as dark as I
night.
Down to the river brim the Sam-
buru women drove their donkeys,
laden with gourds for water, where I
they filled these natural urns, mean- 1
while screaming at and tongue-lash- .
m. 1004 a m., 2 p. m. aad 6.00 p m.
Worth end sU points east-
“But you smell," I told him frank- tle and paying him in eash fo rwhich
....The had no use. And on investigating
4 fi
ipg
Eu 3a
3h
------.----- ------—. “He‘s a faker." I said to Osa, one
perience the waterholo, are fifty to But she had more eonfidenee
Altogether he is Napoleon
f J,
---Tu---=Ai- . . —
Rainbow treat Osa eaught at Nanyuki where the cold stream* from 1
. One of thoce trout weighs five and
61
--ri..
were often unreliable. In sending
them on errand* I had to insist on
their bringing back something as
proof that they had reached their
goal. Sometimes it was a bullet from
Bocully who had gone ahead; again
the merest trifle, useless, but which
I pretended I wanted so that they
would not fall.
Often I thought they didn't know
what the word gratitude meant. At
least what one did for them did not
■oom to arouse that nense. The white
man waa superior; it was his place to
look out for the wash, though often
he robbed right and left. He was
your employer, therefore what he did
for you was not more than your
right. And if the black ever gave
you a present, he would expect an
equivalent in return.
There were exceptions, of course.
One day, an safari, I found a fine
sheep before my tent, and on inquiry
I learned that it had been left by a
desert chief who offered by the way
of explanation that I was his best
friend. Two days later, a donkey was
delivered by his Men. All through
that month's safari I was befriended
in this strange way by my unknown
bonefactor. It was quit* s mystery,
particularly since none of the na-
tives of his tribe ever waited for
anything in return, not even a hand-
ful of suit or sugar which they often
11 beg for from caravans on safari. Osa
at last solved th* riddle, after some
acm .ei aldi
V. amCakcfum-razge:woonwewe.man28Ez
ar Wopawarelont.: / 2,: a em
Lcav Amaril fet Seneeene NWfW MM KmM. OR MR. B Pme W
ALL BUM* LMAVE FROM UNION BTAGE us DRPOT
--1--------------
boys would come out and stand there.
um.=.2. .V- -------- . stark naked, at salute—a trick they
•rail. Such a jabboring and blahing had learned from the King's African
” bordamea and goats you never rinlen, the National Guard of Black*,
Ehezrd. . I officered by whit**, which patrols ...2.. .
Onee in a while Osa would signal this ragion. us but the minute before,
to* to atop and she would converse We hsd learned to handle natives
I "ith.them in Swahili, at which she on our previous visit and during our
had become mere expert than 1. This rears in the South Sea islands; to
I MR sort ef African Esperanto under- llke them also. Boculy was our best
, stood by the native tribes which ream c* - - "i ----
f Tanganyika, British Best Africa, and the Elephant*
cough. Lions often roar nearby; a
lion seems to enjoy giving a few
defiant roars at daybreak just be-
fore he goes to deep for ths day.
We reach the blind in about an
hour. Th* boy* have put it together
the day before with thornbush, pil-
ing up th* sides and top to cut out
th* light. . For suecessful camera
work an animal must not be abln to
detect any movement inside the blind.
We go in th* blind and set up th*
camera, arranging th* different lenses
•o that I ean got to any of them
quickly. The boys push in the
thornbush door at the bask aad hang
a blanket over it so no light can fil-
ter in. The Inside must be dark,
with the exception of what comes in
from around the lenses in front. Hav-
ing focussed my lense* on the water-
hole I wait until something’shows up.
I have a small peep hole arranged
from which I ean constantly see out.
I must keep watching, for th* gam*
makes almost no noise as it goes to
the water. As my blind is from 50 to
76 yards from the hole, l eannot
hear the animals even whsn they
drink.
From 0 in th* morning until 11,
and from 3:30 to 4:30 is the best
leedine the way with his peeuliar
crablike shampling gait up mere
dong, and through the brush. Every
now aad then he would stop like a
By MARTIN JOHNSON
CHAPTER B
"LITTLE HALF-BROTHER"
On* morning our safar was
their head* to eom* three day* on for year* afterward* showed that
•afar! Just to say “hello." Perhaps I piece of red paper to all whit* men
who earn* through. It was for this
prehensible. .Some of those whose -----------— — _
homes I hsd visited Would take it into the K. A. R. could read; and th* chief
Local west. Cloris and Way
Points, leaves Amarillo 11:15 a.m
Through ears west. Roewell. El
Peso. Arisons and California
points, leaves Amarillo 8:00 am
and 7:30 p. m.
plaee in camp quit* as if he had lef .? v2 u “mehanem th"aezl hi’.
260248
covered on* day when be called me
- aald*. toying he had something very
business."
She had no sooner said this than
Boculy stooped in the grass; posed
motionless liko a pointer again; pick-
ed up mere bits of mud; looked at
some leaves; sniffed th* trail this
way aad that on all sides for about
a rod; then said, "Bwana, over by
the Old Lady Waterhole (a name
Osa had given one of the small
oases), yew will find five bull tembo,
four females, and three little tote.”
It was unbelievabie, but when we
climbed some more boulders, cut down
a floweratrewn ravine aand earn* to
a great grove of mimosa watered by
a cascade fahing into a naturai sau-
cer, our faith waa restored. There
quietly grastag were th* elephants
our block paragon had promised us.
That even Boculy was human l dis-
The easy-going ways of the natives that threatened with imprisonment
in the manyotta*. or village*, whleh | any one who ever touched any cattle
stretched at great interval* through- of this tribe. Of course, it was sheer
out the plains, were quite as Incom- bluff, for it was anything but offi-
cial. Still, it took effect, for few ef
Lv ................. am,
Le Atoenethy......... am.
Lv ila-Cent- .... 0120 a. m.
Lv. .............4:44 a. m.
Lv Kima ...... .14:14 a. m.
Le fuBa.......1045 • m.
Lv Happy ...... .it if* a. m.
Lv. Canyon .......... noon
Ar. Amarillo • . . . a -12145 p. m: .
Onreetion st Amarilic to oil field every hour. —
tor urkto, and Vernon
So it all e*pie baek to m*. | I had
he had convinced my other porters been out with C»rl.Akeley, the great
of its truth. However, so rotten had • naturallst, when I earn* neross a com-
our luek been just then that I was pany of K. A. P.. who were comman-
almost ready to belleve it myself. It deering a great number of a chiefe’a
took a lot of tactful talk to dispel eattle. Now they had a right to do
Boculy'* dark beliefs. I thio, for they were on government
On* day I asked my laboratory boy business snd it wes sometimes the
why he didn’t take a bath, once, in six only way they could exist. Besides,
months. In the warmth of the little1 they paid the chief in dollar*. But
room in which we worked I found his the native doe* not always like to be
body smell particulnrly offensive.
way rush or a Donnybrook fair.
Among their herds were some cam-
els whose looks I liked; and after
each warrior had surveyed himself
in the little mirror to his heart's
content. I started to bargain for ‘
them. Th* precess was worse than ------- ------------- — --
the purchase of a rug in a Cairo ba- ■ Mt. Kenya make an angler’s paradise.
Baar. There is a standard price pre- three quarters rounds.
vailing j. East Africa of a haudred . * ... .
shilligs; but for formality’s sake and.who was at all observing and at-
they asked 300 and stayed pat at this tent l ,
price from dawn to dawn. It seemed To this dialect or African Yiddish
almost aa if they enjoyed seeing me are daily being added new terms, due
•wat their files. With sunup, how- to the advent of Europeans. For in-
ever, they agreed on the term.'which ------ *----------- ”
they knew from the beginning of ne-
teves amnEiMe f Daihan, Texiine, Clayton, Naito, Pueblo, Colorado
Borir" ”* ""2. ..neo
Lv. Amaril tor ffueumear and La Vegms, N M. 230 p m. each “
Conneettons to Banea GAVrvevi o^^u^ \
AMARILLO TO FEKKYTON '
I found that the guardsmen, who hap-
pened to be acting without an officer,
"Bwana,” he aaid quite without any were a little too high-handed.
intended rudeness, “to the black m*n | As soon as I discovered this l inter-
you smell too snd very bad. Even ceded on behalf of the chief, then
the elephant not like your smell as sat down and wrote on a piece of red
mueh as blaek man'*." paper that I happened to have in my
Again I gave it up.
01 ' " a
N 2 510a
33,3 ■
EXPLORERS ME
LEARNNGMUCH
OF BUCK RACE
“God made water for hippo, not for of the realm to him, and this chief
black man,” he explained smilingly. could see no reason in taking his cat-
L,Amrte ::::: :1000m
[Diren zistisz..mtisopAnAKpaRe"FAnPA“ANh"lonagn
Lene Amenili toe Panhendie. Pampa aad Borwet 140 sod ever,
• hour arter * a.m Lae. ..14... ___ ;
Leaves Roeg* fee Panhendle, Pampa and Amarillo every two hours
, Tanganyika, British East Africa, and the Elephants.” I think he knew
I even Abyssinia far to the north. Like the pachyderm family better than
Yiddiah, which fa a conglomeration any man living. He eould tell th-'r
OtotoM^^^ri/ manspanrapomn
made up of native di a lee to and Ara-
Maa terma, first stirred into a lin-
i run! kgoulesh by the old Arab alavo
trader "he mod to range these
I Parts, drivinc their chained rangs
orblaeka before them down to Mom
‘ they were ahipped to oil
l partaoftheworid. The Purest Swa-
MM le spoken around Zanzibar and
TTWW otiy w*w given warlt, th*y|i« M.auss Utoy are children aad.
take from their white masters with-
' 33 21580*95
• ' -- ‘ ,4g
rains. But it was always safs to
trust Boculy.
service thst he now sent so many
welcome gifts whenever I went forth
in the desert, *o perhaps I am partly
wrong about their capacity for grat-
itude. When they do not show it. it
ar* few and'f*v between in th* water-
hoi* season. In th* rainy neason
there is eo much water that th* gam*
does not need to gather at any par-
ticular oaaia.
Impalla and Grant come and go
all day. They walk right to the
water without looking around very
much. Zebra and oryx come slowly
and atop every few! foot to look
around. Sometimes it takes them
two hours to get to water from the
time I first ses them. Thia badly
wears one’s patience.
Giraffe are the most shy of all
They will hang around sometimer
for hours without taking a drink. The
slightest thing that frightens them
sends them off never to return that
day. Other game can get many
frights but nili keep comiag back.
The trouble with the giraffe ia that
he ia eo painfully awkward. To
drink he must spread his four legs
■tiffly apart and lower hia long neck.
In that position he is not free tc
spring away in a gallop. He must
scramble for a few vital seconds if
there is a lion around. Ha aeema to
realize this.
Little game comes along in the
morning unless it is a very hot day.
On a cloudy day few animala come
at any time; but on hot days they
come in groups separated by a IOC
yards or so. As they amble along
they stop now and then and stand
dully vith their heads down. Ap-
parently the heat mukes them slug-
gish.
Zebra and oryx are alwaya fight-
ing with other members of their own
species. The** idots tear around
after each other, kicking and snort-
ing and fighting. Of courao this
atira up the alkali dust in big clouds.
As the fighting animals run through
the herd* they are snapped at by tho
othera who are much irritated. But
hardly has one pair finished their
franca* when another pair atari* off.
All during the day birds come down
to drink. These are fine Kavarando
crane, several varieties of storks,
heron, hawk* and others. Big vlu-
tures come down and stand in the
water. They are very picturesque
with their fine six-foot spread of
winga. For hour* they hold their
wings out, apparently to cool off
their bodies.
When some animal decides to ven-
ture to water, all stir. Often I have
counted many hundreds of head
grouped about. Zebra especial lykfol-
low the lead of a courageous or icRlike
■o many aheep. If he starts to drink
then they all try to drink with him.
But let one get the slightest atari
and away go the whole herd in a
cloud of dust. Some days the game
ia so nervous that a fly or a bee
will pet them all moving. I have
never been able to get a big uaneh
drinking at the same time.
Of course the reason for this nerv-
ousness lies in fear of carnivorous
animals which are never far away.
Liona. leopards and hyenas-live on
the plains. Their bread and bnther,
consists of zebra and giraffe. MSBe
can tell which will be the next vic-
tim in the daily slaughter. Aa a re-
ault, when giraffes, xebra or oryx
are drinking they prick up their ears
at the slight first sound of the
camera handle turning. I try to have
my machine noiseless, for the slight-
est click or murmur of gears reaches
the cars of these shy animal*.
The minute I start turning the
handle the animal looka around. But
aa the sound continues and nothing
happen*, ho goes ahead drinking.
When I stop, he igets another start
and looks around again. Strange to
say, the click of the stil! camera
frightena him more than the whirr
of the movie camera.
found th* poor boy ia a horrible con-
dition. Hia toft toe had been burned
t* th* bone, and he writhed on the
dirty straw ia th* hat moaning hor-
ribly.
I did what I eould, swabbing oat
th* burnt with laboratory cotton,
bound him with doth* boiled la hot
water treated with carbolic acid and
uaed unguentine, bat the flesh burn-
•d to a crisp, earn* off in great wads.
Three days and nights Ndundu, Osa
and I worked over him, for all the
other natives were afraid of him, as
somethin aceursed. We had to re-
lieve each other, fer ao man eould
stand for long that horrible stench of
burned and decaying flesh.
Th* third day, tockjaw sot in, and
I know there waa no hope. At mid-
night he died and next morning I
summoned the boys to help with the
burial. With ora red looks they edged
off from me and ran into the forest.
I did the dreary job alone, putting
human pity ahead of impulse.
When we were thoroughly estab-
lished at Lake Paradise we set about
our safaris, the native term for ex-
peditions into the field. This was
the chief work of our expedition,
the purpose of which, as I have said,
was to record African wild life in its
native haunta in film form.
I picked the vnriou* neighborhoods
in which I was to work according to
tke season of the year and the kind
of game I was after. Elephants were
found right around our camp. We
had to go down to the plains to get
lions. Waterhole photography was
not profitable In wot wether, as
water was then too easy for the game
to get.
To the untraveled in the wilds of
Africa there is little distinetion be-
tween the species of big game as
far as habitat goes. But it must al-
ways be remembered that all the
varieties of gaxelle and antelope, gi-
raffe and warthog, xebra and lion,
are to be found in greatest num-
. bers on the plains; white elephants,
! buffalo, and sometimes rhino are
more at home in the forests such as
those that surrounded our base camp.
In the height of the rainy season
I the latter often journey forth while
the waterholes of plain and desert are
filled to the brim; but when the wont
of the raino are over they troop back
again. Boculy, that wise man of the
trail, tells me that some rhino never
leave the forest, even in the deluge.
As for the elephants, they aro al-
way* glad to get back, quee the rains
are past, to feed oa the wild sweet
young ends which they dote on.
As some of our best and most in-
teresting work was done around the
waterholes, it might be well for me
to describe a day at one.
By June the heat is terrific nnd
Iries up all standing water except
the larger oases. Our plan is usu-
ally to build a blind of thorn bushes.
Thorn branches are also put in spots
around the water where the camera
cannot reach. Thin keeps the game
before ua. We go in early and wait
for the animala to come. It is tedious
work.
I am out at 6, eat breakfast, and
call the boys to get the cameras.
Lunch haa been put up by the as-
aistant cook. Osa and I go afoot to
the blind, which is some distance
nway, just as the sun is coming up.
It is the most delightful pert of the
day. During our two or three milo
walk we pass hordes of all kinds of
game. Hyenaa and jackals scurry
buds had been eaten off dean while
the branch waa unbarked and un-
bruised, showing that big “twigga" .
(giraffe) had lately grazed there. A
hundred yards on, he would call
“tembo” where branches had been
pulled down, disjointed, and bark
stripped by th* clumsy elephant who
do** not graze daintily as does the
giraffe but gee* lumbering along, his
trunk carelessly rifling the trees and
leaving an unmistakable trail.
I hept up with him in the field a*
often as I could, for hie tor* to me
was fascinating. When I naked him
more about tracks, ke pointed out
the different prints—those of the
buffsle, whose sharp hoofs cut in
where no elephant’s hoof makes s
mark snd which utterly hill the
grass thst th* elephant only bruis-
ea; the leopara, whose pad differs
from the doglike cheetah (the form-
er'a elawa being aheathed when he
walks) aad ala* from the hyeaa,
which leaves a mark like a four-
leaved clover with the petals all an
top while the leopard's is shaped
Uh* a water lilly.
I Aa for Simba, King ef Beasts,
Boculy explained he does aot leave
many marks. His prists, if you ever
find them, are round like the leop-
ard’s but much larger; and the ezs-
iest way to track him is to find his
kill. At he usually drags this Into
the bush fer uninterrupted enjoy:
ment you will aot find him far away.
Hi* padded courae leaves little
disturbance of th* ground. And tho
only marks on vegetation are the
wispa of hair oa the thorns which, I
am sure, prevents ths growth of those
fin* manes sne sometimes sees in
captivity. —
polnter deg. bend down, piek up a
plece of med, examine IL and shah*
his bead la affirmative ar negative.
If th* evidence *f th* trail seemed
to ba satistactory, he would examine
th* earth for a few yard* round-
about, then piek up th* trail again.
What ha aaw wa could not nee.
BAmatim**. a* he afterwards ex-
plained It to am, th* mad dropped
from a hoof would tell part of th*
rale, for rhino, elephant, aad buf-
falo ehoose different kinds of mud
for their baths. Sometimes he eould
tell that particles of mad come out
of th* erevices between th* to** *f
tomb*; again the bending of blade*
of grass, erushed leave*, and •» on,
would betray not only th* hind of
gam* bat th* direction It had taken
and its goal.
Further, the condition of th* bruia-
•d biades of grass to him waa elo-
quent. It takes only thro* hours for
trodden graas to spring up again; b*
••■Id toll th* time at passat > by th*
angle. Finally, knowing the locale
aad the boait*’ habit* and rate of
speed, he would predict the very spot
where we weald fled the herd.
Such signs a* these were difficult
for us to read; but there were other
and far more obvious ones. The
opeer, for instance, varied with the
kind of game; aad Ito condition too
would reveal th* time of passage;
white la wet ground or eell easily
impressed, oa* eould find three-toed
rhino or hippo print*, which ere the
usame in size but different in out-
dne. I got so I could even distin-
guish between those and th* track* of
elephants; for the elephant haa four
toe* aad •• he lifts his foot always |
scuffs a little. Some say sex to* ean i
also be detected, alleging that the 1
female elephant’s print 1* eval, her
mate’* cirealar.
Whit* hunters have learned to
read these more legible track*; but,
unlike Boculy, they are easily fool-
sd. Often we would have trailed a
herd because there were lots of hoof
prints when our guide would not
have given it a thought. Ha had
observed the abundance of small
tracks of the totes or baby elephants, ’
evidence enough to him that there ;
would be no ivory-bull elephants us-
ually hoeping by themselves during
the nursing season. “N* pembe
(ivory)," he would say.
The woods overhead were another
open book to him. He weald pich up
a dislocated branch and tell you with- l
looking helpmates stood around us,
many files deep and bristling with
spear-heads.
At flrot the encounter seemed very
ominous. A atrnnger to th* desert
weald have been apprehensive for his
life. But impressive as was that bris-
•Hag ring, we knew we had little to
fear. The black seldom attacks a
white man. In Africa it just isn’t
done. Every tribe seems to take for
granted Caucasian superiority. In-
deed, so thoroughly is it recognised
that the native is just a little scorn-
ful when the white man fails in nay-
thing ho tries to do, though none of
the miracles his master performs
seem to impress him. I here takes
boys from the frontier down to the
station and waited for the reaction
whoa they saw their first locomotive.
They never gave it a second look.
Perhaps this was because they had
seen my motor ears and electrical
equipment and were so impressed by
our witchcraft that after that any-
thing waa poasible for Bwana. Not
being interested in machinery for its
own sake, tke locomotive waa just an-
other iron keroe. But once let me
have engine trouble on the desert
aad fail to fix the ear instantly, and
I fall la their esteem.
They do not seem to envy us any
product of our civilisation. I have
already told how Phis hie, our cook,
ran serve eocktails and hors d’leuvres
and make a delicious floating islaad
pudding which the boys serve per-
fectly; but when the meal io over,
the three squat on their haunches,
toting their pot ho from rough bewit.
shough they could have anything we
have ourseives. Suka, ear house boy,
sometimes wears a suit of khaki; I
bet when he visits his father, who
is eled in a G-string and plowing
hia fields with s sharpened stick, he
flings oft that khaki and goes 99 per
cent naked around the manyetta.
None ean be more hysterical than he
at a native ceremonial or dance. Ex-
cept for wages sometimes, fresh moat
er a cigarette, the white man has
nothing that the black man desires.
So we were not at all concerned
by these armed warriors thst hsd de-
scended like wolves upon us; espe-
cially a* n minute after their arrival
they diacovered the little mirror at
•'aid* of one of our ears. They
wore black statues ne longer. imme-
diately there was such a shoving and
pushing as no one ever saw at a sub-
282=2262482882522862033 2
Our bathrooms often were dug in the sand'river beds. Water seeped
in and made excellent bathtubs, as Osa can testify.
seemed, he went on to explain, the’> questionin': of Boculy.
Ndundu had a peculiar hind of blood ! “Don’t you remember," she said to
which caused all the game to leave as 1 mo one night in our tent, “thst chief
soon as he came into a neighborhood, you saver from th* K. A. R. (The
ptople he knows and he surpasses
Union Stage Line Depot
We vniMonE ST.-DIAL ITt* ...T i
NORTH PLAINS COACHICU - LONGMORN COACHES
BAFRTT FIRST ROS LIN RS
for photographic work, for th*
la good. In dry weather the Q
atmosphere seems to eatch dust “& &
ouch an extent that in the late afF 3
noon the light becomes murky. A
light rain setiles the duet and washes
the air. The trouble 1» that raino
of fvmemhimnutestothe 'had * assed osa always drove this ear hrseir, and sometimes we were able to go
,hoy way. Or he would look up at hundreds of mile* across th* wide plains.
th* trees and notice that the tender EummwEaameam-maae-wrwzMMP
out question, na wo receive rain or
any other blessing from the greatest
Master of all.
And cer:ainly they wer very kind
when w* were sick. Whan Osa had
a touch of pneumonia, they (toyed up
wailing all night, thinking that she
would die; and in the morning Pishie,
the cook, and his heelper would bring
the most tempting of dainties and
lovk hurt if she could not eat. Nor
eould anyone be hinder to Ns chil-
dren than a native parent. I have
seen a father atop hie work to apeak
kindly to, or ploy wih, his offapring
wko swarmed abou him, while he and
hie wife repaired their poor grans
hut, which war eonstantty being dis-
turbed by the storms.
I waa altting one night in front of
our tent by a waterholo, whoa I heard
noise near the back, and running
around found a hyena walking off
with a tea her chair I had made. Has-
tily I pulled tU a shoe which I had
just unlaced aad threw it at him.
The hyena dropped the chair and
mad* off with the shoe. I had no
sooner ceased • cursing at him than
thro* black boys came to me on tke
run, crying. There was a black bay
at ear camp subject to epileptic fits
and this boy, they told me, had been
badly burned. A devil, they aaid.
had visited him and told Mm to
jump in the Ura. There was Nothing
to do bat make for camp and here I
almost super-natural instinct for
game. He eould scent it lihe a blood,
hound.. One morning, as wa* his cus-
tom, he had been up t nunrise aad
off to a waterhole three miles away,
where, he assured as, we would find
plenty of "tembo," or elephant. How
he kaow they won there waa beyond
us, since all the elephanta had mi-
grated from the foresta with the big
Mueh of Boculy’* skill, I thought
on reflection, could be cultivated by
th* white man if he gave year* of
time and concentration; but never
th* finer pointe.
Boculy was an exception even
among the Africans. None of our
other hunters, skinners or gunbear-
era even remotely approached him.
I hnow I was in despair when on the
plain* he weald took fear mil** away
and pick out, from what I thought
just a violet rose-red bln* of eraig
and sand and bash, a motionlesa
rhino which, even after being post-
ed, I could hardly discern through
the binoculars.
But we did not appreciate Boculy'*
craft at Tirst and sometimes aa he
shambled along, seemingly half
<teUop ilk* hla halfbrother, the
elephant*, and muttering to himself,
I thought he wa* just fooling us,
pretending to examine the earth in
which we could aee no marks of any
kind, and going through th* motion*
to earn hi* baksheesh.
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20**33
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Howe, Gene A. Amarillo Daily News (Amarillo, Tex.), Vol. 20, No. 17, Ed. 1 Monday, December 3, 1928, newspaper, December 3, 1928; Amarillo, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1567724/m1/6/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Library and Archives Commission.