Mahina
philosophically remarked that after all it was only
a washenzi (savage), whose loss did not much
matter; and the other three Wa Kamba certainly
did not appear to be affected by the incident,
but calmly possessed themselves of their dead
companion's bow and quiver of poisoned arrows,
and of the stock of meat which he had left
on the bank.
I have since learned that accidents of this
kind are of fairly frequent occurrence along the
banks of these rivers. On one occasion while
I was in the country a British officer had a very
lucky escape. He was filling his water bottle
at the river, when one of these brutes caught
him by the hand and attempted to draw him
in. Fortunately one of his servants rushed to
his assistance and managed to pull him out of
the crocodile's clutches with the loss only of two
of his fingers.
As we made our way up the Sabaki, we
discovered a beautiful waterfall about a hundred
and fifty feet high - not a sheer drop, but a series
of cascades. At this time the river was in low
water, and the falls consequently did not look their
best; but in flood time they form a fine sight,
and the thunder of the falling water can then be
plainly heard at Tsavo, over seven miles away,
when the wind is in the right direction. We
crossed the river on the rocks at the head of
these falls, and after some hours' hard marching
reached camp without further incident.
CHAPTER XIV
THE FINDING OF THE MAN-EATERS' DEN
There were some rocky-looking hills lying to
the south-west of Tsavo which I was particularly
anxious to explore, so on one occasion when
work had been stopped for the day owing to
lack of material, I set off for them, accompanied
by Mahina and a Punjaubi coolie, who was so
stout that he went by the name of Moota
(i.e. "Fattie"). In the course of my little
excursions round Tsavo I gradually discovered
that I was nearly always able to make my way
to any required point of the compass by following
certain well-defined animal paths, which I mapped
out bit by bit during my explorations. On this
occasion, for instance, as soon as we had crossed
the river and had struck into the jungle, we were
fortunate enough to find a rhino path leading in
the right direction, which greatly facilitated our
progress. As we were making our way along
this path through the dry bed of a nullah, I
happened to notice that the sandy bottom sparkled
here and there where the sunbeams penetrated
the dense foliage.
