Returning to the spot where we had lunched, we resumed the march, going another mile down the river before camping. When the tents were pitched, Ramathani busied himself in cooking our unpalatable meal of grantei-steak fried in an insufficiency of fat. Soon afterwards we heard an excited shriek of “Afreet! afreet!” (Devil, devil) from Ramathani and some of the other men near him. He rushed up to me and implored me to bring my “bunduki ya n’dege” (literally, “bird-gun”) and slay the “afreet.” I laughingly inquired where the “afreet” was, and he pointed upwards into the branches of a large tree, whose branches spread laterally over the fire at which he was cooking. I could not see anything, and was about to turn away, ridiculing him; but the men appeared so genuinely terror-stricken that I paused and looked up again. Judge of my surprise when I discovered that the “afreet” was nothing more than a large water-lizard stretched out on a branch. A dose of No. 6 shot on the side of the head brought it down with a thump on the ground. Examination showed that none of my shot had penetrated its skull or body, it being merely stunned by the shock. None of the men could be induced to touch it under any pretext whatever, saying that it was highly poisonous, and its bite meant instant death; so, seizing it by the tail, I carried it over to our table. It woke up while I was carrying it, and, squirming upwards, attempted to bite me, causing me to drop it hurriedly, to the intense amusement of the men. I killed and dissected it. Its heart beat for quite half an hour after I had removed it from the body. The reptile was four feet in length, and over a foot in girth. The next morning we divided the men into small parties and sent them out to search the surrounding country for inhabitants, while I climbed a hill near the camp and minutely examined, with the binoculars, the whole country round; but in vain. There was no sign of any inhabitants; the country seeming to be deserted by man and beast alike, and lay under the scorching sun “the abomination of desolation.” I returned to camp at midday, the search parties returning at the same time reporting that they had seen no signs of the Rendili nor indeed traces of anybody whatsoever. We therefore resumed our march down the river at half-past two in the afternoon. The vegetation had almost disappeared, with the exception that along the river-banks a few rows of thorn trees here and there indicated the position of lines of depression in the earth’s surface, probably the beds of sand rivers; the rest of the country was strewn with stony _débris_ which converted a march into a painful and difficult pilgrimage.