Silverstein in Africa

The Fabled Thrills of big-game hunting in Africa are too enticing for the wandering adventurer to resist for long. Accordingly, after sketching the Arabs, Shel Silverstein went on safari. He proved hunter enough to fell a water buffalo, called the most dangerous game.

As our regular readers well know by now, Shel has traveled yon, hither and thither for Playboy these past two years, enjoying adventures in Japan, Scandinavia, England, France, Russia, Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Araby with hardly a scratch on the tough Silverstein hide (he doesn't count the minor wound received in a Spanish bullring). But, returning from this safari in Central Africa, driving along the nearly deserted road to Kampala in Uganda, Shel and photographer-friend Pat Morin collided head on with a truck full of natives. Both men were badly hurt, Shel with his side caved in and left leg slashed open. They asked the natives to take them to a hospital, but the aborigines would do nothing without payment, and the minds of the two men were so fogged by shock they couldn't remember where they had put their money. The natives left them lying by the side of the road. Hours passed under the white-hot African sun and the two men, unable to move, calculated that they would almost certainly die from their wounds and exposure, if prowling lions, drawn by the scent of blood, didn't eat them first.

Near dusk, a car carrying a Scottish couple came down the road. They took the injured pair 40 miles over a rough and rocky road to a tiny four-bed hospital at Fort Portal. Shel was hospitalized for three months; he came out of the experience 50 pounds lighter, his beard eight inches longer, toting a cane for a persistent, perhaps perpetual limp. But the Silverstein spirit remained undaunted: he brought back to the U.S. a sketch pad full of his humorous personal impressions of the Dark Continent.

"What do you mean — you just remembered you can't stand the sight of blood?!"

"To be honest with you, Silverstein, you've given me the greatest challenge in my 23 years as a white hunter. I've found lions for Hemingway... I've found white rhino for Gunther... I've found Mau Mau for Ruark... But 18–year–old blue–eyed blondes—that's really going to take some doing."

"Now these little white things called aspirins. You take two with a glass of water and in 10 minutes. . .headache gone!"

Having just felled a water buffalo, Silverstein strikes the classic pose of the triumphant hunter. The feat was accomplished in Ubangi country, where Shel hoped to see the fabled saucer-lipped women. He saw none. "Progress!" he snorted.

"…And if you see Edgar Rice Burroughs, tell him for me he's an ungrateful, cheap, plagiarizing, thieving. . . ."

"I guess I'd better explain this in a hurry. This is the bolt. . .after each round you pull it back and the shell ejects. This is your rear sight. . . you line this up with your front sight, allowing for windage and. . . ."

"I send your message to Gulu, Bwana. . . Gulu drummer relay message to Mombasa. . . Mombasa drummer relay message to Kantaga. . . Kantaga drummer relay message to Usumbura. . . Usumbura has no drummer, so they telephone message to Kampala. . .Kampala drummer. . . ."

"Rifle in hand, cartoonist Silverstein wades in the hippo-infested waters of Lake George in Uganda.

"Right between the eyes. How's that for fancy shooting?!"

"It just wouldn't work out, Mzaba — you have your world and I have mine!"

Watusi children contribute to Shel's sketch pad. Shel claims the adult Watusi "aren't as tall as they were in King Solomon's Mines." He also claims "the pygmies aren't as short."

…And so the good kind Lion let the little mousey go free and later when the lion was trapped in a big net and couldn't get loose, the grateful mousey came to his aid and gnawed through the net and saved his life and…."

…And so the good kind lion let the little mousey go free and later when the lion was trapped in a big net and couldn't get loose, the grateful mousey came to his aid and gnawed through the net and saved his life and. . . ."

…And so the good kind lion let the little mousey go free and later when the lion was trapped in a big net and couldn't get loose, the grateful mousey came to his and gnawed through the net and saved his life and. . .."

A shattered Silverstein was nursed back to health in this miniature four-bed hospital, manned by one English doctor, one German~nurse, and natives. He passed the time sketching.

A shattered Silverstein was nursed back to health in this miniature four-bed hospital, manned by one English doctor, one German~nurse, and natives. He passed the time sketching.