COOLER NIGHTS. 73 with us, so as to see us fairly on our way, appearing highly to appreciate our " flesh-pots ; " and we began to think he intended spending the rest of the winter in our camp.

The whole country swarmed with guinea-fowl, and there were plenty of partridges. We frequently shot the former for the pot, and cooked them in a variety of ways, but found them best of all curried. I think, too, they were not quite so dry as those one eats in England, where I regard them as the driest bird that comes to table. Shooting them is not much sport, unless they chance to fly over one's head, when they afford fine ''rocketing" shots. As a rule, they run; and it is often necessary to shoot them on the ground, if they are to be shot at all. In this way we sometimes obtained four or five at a shot. When stalking antelope, they are frequently a great nuisance, as they often alarm them by their sharp, metallic cry.

Our first night out of Haikota was the coldest we had yet experienced, and there was a very heavy dew. We began to think we had started short of blankets ; and I accordingly rode back for some, and returned just as the caravan was starting.

The nights afterwards were often colder still, and we were many times glad of the extra coverings. We made a six-and-a-half-hours' march, and formed quite a cavalcade. We all rode horses, and had as escort the sheik, some of his mounted retainers, and our five horsemen. Our next halting-place was Toadelook. About a quarter of a mile from the Gash, were a hundred acres or more of tall, rank grass, growing in what, for a long time after the rains, is a swamp, but, at the time we visited it, was all dried up, with the exception of a small piece at one end, where there was water, said to be much resorted to by game going to drink.

Water is always to be obtained in the Gash by digging, but it is often very far below the surface. At that time it fortu-