After eating, Hornface stretched, and then began to pick up his gear, while Maria cleaned up the dishes.

Hornface crouched down in front of the bed, tied the laces of his riding boots, pulled out a wooden box from under the bed, opened the lid, and placed a well-buttered musket inside, and checked the condition of the gun.

Dressed up, tied his belt tightly, checked the amount of ammunition, and put it in his pocket.

Then he wrapped the gun with a cloth band, carried it on his back, went to the wall, and took the straw hat off the wall.

"The water bladder has been filled, and I have put dry food and raincoat in my bag." Maria handed over a brown leather bag.

Hornface kissed Maria on the forehead and said, "Honey, I'm leaving." ”

Mary snuggled up in Hornface and said, "I'll get dinner ready, but be careful when you go out, and don't be too anxious when you ride a horse." ”

"Got it, I'll be careful." Hornface assured.

The two men went out of the house together, and Hornface came to the stable, took the whip off the stake, held it in his hand, fastened the saddle, and jumped on the horse's back as soon as he stepped on the stirrup.

"Wait until I'll get back!" Hornface said to his wife, and then rode his horse to meet his colleagues.

The village where Hornface is located has not many people, only a dozen households, and soon the villagers have gathered.

The village chief, Karl, counted the number of people, and after confirming that it was correct, said: "Go to the cattle pen and drive all the cattle out." ”

The cattle pen was built next to the village and was not small, with a total of more than 300 heads.

Hornface and his colleagues opened the cattle pen and drove the herd out, and a dozen people drove the cattle in the direction of the pasture.

"Drive."

……

East Africa is a natural pasture, and Hornface and his party drove their cattle to a place where water and grass were abundant, and then began grazing.

The cattle in northern Kenya are not the batch that Ernst imported from the Netherlands, but the domestic cattle native to Africa, which are mainly used as livestock power and later food, while the cows in the Netherlands are all raised in captivity in the upper coastal area, after all, they are more delicate, so it is better to be careful.

Naturally, these cattle from East Africa were snatched from the indigenous people and then concentrated in the East African colonies to raise them on pastures here in Kenya.

There are very few domesticated animals in Africa, but they are not absent, for example, the domestic donkey is said to have been domesticated from two subspecies of African wild ass in East Africa, the Nubian donkey and the Somali donkey, and these wild donkeys are still alive in Somalia and Ethiopia today, of course, this is a masterpiece of ancient Egypt and has little to do with the indigenous people of sub-Saharan Africa.

The origin of the African cattle is somewhat controversial, and there are three theories, but early archaeological research suggests that the cattle in Africa were not domesticated indigenously, but were transmitted by Asian and European cattle through the Nile Valley and East Africa (the Somali Peninsula).

In the late twentieth century, the archaeological community began to propose that African domestic cattle were domesticated from native African bison.

Later, it was said that the western desert region of Egypt was the third place of origin for the domestication of domestic cattle, and of course Ernst was inclined to the theory of multivariate domestication, after all, there are records of domesticated cattle in many parts of the world (except the Americas, Australia, and Oceania).

In any case, the existing cattle in East Africa are now the spoils of East African colonization.

In addition to African cattle, there was also a group of African zebu cattle in the East African colonies, which were brought to the East African region from the Indian peninsula by Arab and Indian traders mainly in the Middle Ages, and were distributed in many parts of East and Central Africa.

In East Africa, the two are now grazed in the grasslands of northern Kenya.

In the whole of northern Kenya, the number of cattle registered in the East African colony is about 130,000, and many cattle are raised in other parts of the East African colony, but the scale is not as large as that in northern Kenya, and it is mainly used as animal power.

Riding on his horse, Hohenfith watched around him, and although the East African colonies had repeatedly exterminated the large wild animals of northern Kenya, it was inevitable that fish would slip through the net.

So Hornface and other cattle herders are armed to graze cattle to deal with emergencies.

Before the development of the East African colony, the number of cattle in East Africa was much higher than today, but the number of cattle in East Africa itself was not much, such as the Sultanate of Zanzibar, the Kingdom of Buganda and other large farmers were only driven away by East Africa, and most of the cattle were taken away as an important asset when they fled.

These cattle in the East African colonies mainly came from the nomadic peoples of the East African grasslands, such as the Maasai and other nomadic peoples, after robbing their assets, some of them were turned into slaves by East Africa, and some were expelled westward by East Africa.

In addition to domestic cattle, there are a large number of African wild buffaloes in East Africa itself, but wild buffaloes are not treated in East Africa, and were used as rations by East African immigrants in the early days.

At the end of the rainy season, the sky gradually began to rain lightly, and Hornface and others draped their raincoats on their bodies, this kind of light rain season is the time when the water and grass are abundant and suitable for grazing, so the raincoat is a must-have.

The life of herding is generally boring, but it is also relatively leisurely, especially in East Africa, where cattle herders do not need to travel around like cowboys in the western United States, because East Africa does not have a large consumer market like the United States.

At the same time, the current cattle herd in East Africa is not large, and exports have not had much effect, and in recent years it has mainly been based on breeding cattle.

After some time, the light rain stopped, and it was almost noon, and Carl beckoned everyone to sit around for lunch.

"Alas, I really want time to pass quickly, and every day when I nibble on flatbread is the most homesick. Chief, aren't you from the Far East? Tell us about your hometown! Schubert, a young man from Bavaria, said.

That's right, the village chief Karl is a Chinese, although the name sounds completely European, but it is actually given in Europe, he was still an early student at the Heixingen Military Academy, and later because his spoken language was too poor, he was sent to a Berlin company for an internship, and gradually learned a pure Berlin accent.

As if recalling the days in the Far East, Karl said: "To talk about my hometown! The climate is similar to that of East Africa, but it is similar to Europe in terms of life, and it is also an endless wheat field, and there are a lot of people in every village.

But our village there, the houses are very different from Europe, the roads are similar to East Africa, before coming to Europe, I have hardly seen the city, I grew up in the village since I was a child, and then I only saw what the city looked like once before being brought to Europe, on the day I went to sea for the first time, the team leader told us that the port city is called Jiaozhou, which is a big city in the Far East, and it is from there that I went to Europe to go to Europe......"

"Village chief, don't talk about Europe! We are mainly interested in the Far East, and my wife has heard that they are there, so I would like to hear more about the Far East. Schubert said.

"The Far East is very big, I don't know if you and your wife are from the same place, later I saw the world map in Heixingen, we are almost as big as the whole of Europe, many local languages may be different, at that time many of my classmates and I came from the same place, but I can't understand the dialect of many people, it is estimated that it is similar to the difference between German and French, how do I know that your daughter-in-law is from that province, and I have not gone to school in the Far East, I only remember the name of my former village and the place where Jiaozhou went to sea, I don't know a lot about the Far East, so I heard some place names when I heard the village singing, but I didn't know where those places were. Karl said.

Probably, in this life, these villagers will not know that their wife and Karl are not from the same country at all, only that their wife is from the East, but where exactly? In this closed era, if you haven't studied knowledge and culture, you won't be able to figure it out for the rest of your life.

Even Carl only knew what his country looked like through the world map of the Heixingen School, and many rural people may have never been to the county seat once in their lives, and they have been trapped in the countryside all their lives.

The wives of the villagers, who come from all over Southeast Asia, have the same knowledge as Carl before he went to school, and may not even know where their home country is.

(End of chapter)