In a few minutes I came out on to the edge a little to the right of the tunnel, as I could tell by comparing the positions of a large tree and the distant hill, and was about to turn when I noticed some objects moving, about a third of the way down the steep slope. I stopped to observe them, and was able to make out that they were vole-like animals about the size of rabbits, with blunt muzzles and short tails, and evidently lived in a large community in burrows in the hillside. Zoophilists tell us that by nature man is a fruit-eating animal, which is possibly true--when there happens to be fruit to eat. At present, however, there was none, and the sight of those rodents frisking in and out of their burrows aroused in me a very pronounced carnivorous impulse. I had noticed on the plateau a great number of nodular lumps of iron-stone lying on the surface, and I now returned and gathered an armful of moderate-sized pieces, which I carried to the edge of the slope. Then I concealed myself behind a bush and waited. Soon a little party of the rodents assembled on a small knoll immediately underneath, browsing on the herbage in leisurely security, all unconscious of the prowling carnivore above, until a lump of iron-stone about two pounds in weight dropped plump on to the back of one of them, rolling him over dead; when the parliament instantly dissolved, and I climbed down to gather up my spoil. I had not been back in my hiding place many minutes when the foolish-looking brutes reappeared and began nibbling away at the grass as if nothing had happened, so that in quite a short time I was able to secure four of them, with which I started off for the tunnel very cheerfully. Bukári was awaiting my return with the keenest anxiety, and reproached me for being so long absent. “I thought thou hadst gone away altogether,” he grumbled. “Where hast thou been, and what hast thou found?” “I have seen many strange things,” said I, “and I have found us a dinner,” and I put his hand upon the dead animals, which he felt with a grin of delight. “Grass-cutters!” he exclaimed. “I have not tasted flesh since I came to the mine. Let us cook them at once, for I am famished.” “How shall we cook them since we have no fire?” I asked. He seemed greatly surprised at the question. “Why, then, we must make a fire, of course,” he replied. This was a little embarrassing, for I had but the haziest notion of how to go about making a fire. I had, indeed, read in books of the fire-drill used by the Australian natives; but I had never tried to make one, and this was hardly a suitable occasion for amateur experiments. In our camp, the light had always been kindled by Musa, who had a flint and steel and kept a supply of tinder; without these appliances I was quite helpless, and had to admit the fact. Bukári laughed grimly. “Get me a lump of quartz,” said he, “and a bit of dry bark from some dead wood, and gather some sticks. If thou canst get some clay, so much the better.”