124 THE ABYSSINIAN FRONTIER behind a large bush, was away up the hill and lost amidst boulders and trees. It was a well-deserved lesson to me : had I not succumbed to laziness, and had but carried my rifle myself, he could scarcely have escaped. It must be confessed that the temptation is great in the heat of the day, when many miles are being traversed, to shift the burden sometimes to another, but it is often regretted.

The shamefaced shikari, smarting under my tongue, now applied himself to his business, and in my turn I was hardly prepared, when he pointed into the shade of the river-side trees, as we approached from across a bend, for a herd of kudu to break out. They were far out of range, and must have been watching our progress across the bare ground and through the burnt trees for full half a mile.

My own eyes had become pretty sharp through continual watchfulness, knowing I could place little trust in the keenness of the men now the meat had gone back, but I utterly failed to distinguish the forms of the kudu before they made off. To the shikari they were entirely clear, and the superiority of the native over even a trained European eye was again made manifest.

But keen eyesight is by no means the monopoly of the human inhabitant of the Sudan. Time after time I have been surprised at the wonderful vision of the crocodile. Movement, of course, is the great betrayer of the presence of life, and passage along a bank, although almost hidden, will be speedily