ome dry leaves and grass straw on the sanded bark, rested the
end of his arrow in the centre, and began to twirl the arrow round with
the palms of his hands with a steady downward pressure. In a short time
smoke was seen to issue, and, continuing the operation, two or three
sparks of fire shot out among the straw and leaves, which, being blown,
was soon nursed into flame.

"That is how the Watuta obtain their fire," said Kalulu to Abdullah,
with an air of superiority, which the latter thought was quite
pardonable, since Kalulu did really produce a fire on which meat might
be cooked for the benefit of his friend Simba.

"O Selim! Selim! O Selim!" cried Kalulu, "haste hither with the meat."

Abdullah, in his impatience to see Simba's jaws at work, reiterated the
cry, "O Selim! Selim! O Selim! come with the meat, come quick."

"Coming!" was the answer which that industrious young Arab gave, as he
turned his face toward the group with a shoulder of eland meat on his
back.

"Now, Niani, haste to get more. Think of poor Simba, thy father,
suffering for want of it; there's a good boy, bring plenty," said
Abdullah; while in the meantime Kalulu had chosen an arrow-blade, and
with it was preparing the slender sticks to impale the meat when it
would be cut into kabobs for broiling, and Moto had bound Simba's
wounded knee with bandages made out of Kalulu's loin-cloth, and had
staunched the blood that had been pouring from the wounded hips. Moto
also set to work at erecting a shed, which might shelter the whole
party, and made a luxurious bed of grass and leaves on to which his
friend was assisted.

Kalulu then, while the meat was broiling, and the most pressing duties
of the camp had been performed, turned to skin the leopard, whose hide,
he thought, would make an admirable loin-covering for himself.

Simba, after he had managed to eat as much of the eland as any two
ordinary men would have eaten, began to feel his strength returned to
him, and said:

"Ah! there is nothing like meat for medicine, after all. It makes a man
look kinder towards his fellows, and if he has his stomach full there is
nought that he cannot bear. If I had always plenty of meat in me I
would as soon fight a leopard every day as not; and if I had a good
knife I would be willing to fight a lion rather than run away from him."

Such sentiments, noble and worthy of the great man who spoke them, met
with hearty approbation from his repleted fri