in the store shed, which I found cooler than my tent, with a
cup of tea on the table by my side, I suddenly heard my
spoon jingle, and looking up hastily, I saw a large green
“ mamba” with its. nasty flat head over the tea-cup, its body
curled round my chair and table. I gave an involuntary
jump, the snake turned rapidly towards me with a hiss; I
remained stock still, then to my intense relief it slowly
uncoiled and glided.away. I am not ashamed to say I was
in a ghastly funk, and felt quite unnerved for the moment.
Half-an-hour afterwards I heard a rustling at my feet, and
looking down I saw a yellow-spotted brown snake gliding
between my legs; this was too much of a good thing, so I
called out to my people, and we had a regular hunt, pulling
out every rice-bag and killing several of the brutes.
My,cook now came forward, and told me that he had an
infallible remedy for-preventing any more snakes coming i n -
might he practise it ? I said by all means, and waited with
much curiosity to see what he would do, but lo and behold !
the infallible remedy merely consisted in sticking pieces of
lighted cotton cloth at intervals round the camp!
Before I left this “ half-way shed ” I saw another kind of
snake quite new to me coiled on some rocks on the river-
bank ; it was of a dark red colour and about 3 feet long,
and from its flat head. evidently poisonous.
One day I discovered a few tobacco-plants growing in a
fine grass glade a short distance from camp, which, I concluded,
had sprung from the seeds of tobacco originally
planted by the Wasania in an abandoned shamba near here.
That the tobacco, which was most healthy, should have withstood
neglect and the growth of grass and bush around it,
said much for the adaptability of the soil for its cultivation.
Near the same place I also found one or two old castor-oil
patches, some of them growing in the river-bed itself, and
looking extremely healthy. It was on this same morning
that I was awakened by a tremendous uproar on the other
side of the river; it was caused by an unfortunate baboon that
had been seized by a leopard, which was dragging it, in spite
of its struggles, into the bush.
During the last few days I had been greatly worried about