"FI GEDAD?" 103 Vituperation filled the air, and perhaps it was well that no literal meaning was conveyed to my mind. They stated it was poisonous, but natives so seldom discriminate between these and harmless ones that it was by no means unquestionable.

Some days are, naturally, barren in results save in pleasure—the pleasure of stalking and attaining close proximity to herds of antelope without the wish to interfere with them, as they feed unsuspiciously near.

In the evening comes the amusement of shooting guinea-fowl for the making of soup or as provision for breakfast. On occasion one of the Berberi servants would be detailed to obtain them, and it became an unbroken practice, on return to camp, to ask, " Mustapha, fi gedad ?" (Are there guineafowl ?) with the almost invariable answer, " Ma fisch" (There are none), and a lengthy explanation that they would not wait for him to fire. The desire of an Englishman to shoot birds flying is incomprehensible to them—it is so much easier to kill a bird when it is standing still on the ground ; but they are lost in admiration when birds fall dead in mid -flight.

One night the question " Fi gedad ?" failed to produce a smile on Mustapha's face. He rolled himself up in a blanket, and felt as helpless as a sea-sick lady in mid-Channel. Even the lion which talked to us that night failed to make INIustapha lie nearer the fire ; in fact, it is doubtful whether the idea of transmutation of Mustapha into lion troubled