244 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



fear, would have had but a sorry time of It had they 

 chanced to fall into the hands of these ruthless 

 murdering scoundrels, whose greatest happiness is 

 to stab to death defenceless and unresisting women 

 and children, and in whose vocabulary such words as 

 pity or mercy find no place. 



After a prolonged parley, and when all the usual 

 questions had been asked and answered — during 

 which time our interlocutors had been eyeing with 

 greedy looks the giraffe meat which was hanging in 

 festoons from the neighbouring trees — they asked us 

 to saddle up our horses and try to shoot something 

 for their hungry followers, who, they averred, had 

 been without food for two days. Glad to get quit 

 of them so easily, we willingly agreed to do our best, 

 and had the horses brought up forthwith. Suffice it 

 to say that we shot that afternoon a solitary old 

 giraffe bull, and on the following day three cows, 

 all of which we gave to the Amandebele ; and 

 then, breaking up our camp, trekked higher up 

 the river. 



During the following fortnight we continued 

 hunting on the upper course of the Ramokwebani, 

 shooting several handsome specimens of the larger 

 antelopes, and four buffaloes, which are about the 

 last that have been shot in that part of the country. 

 Towards the end of the month we crossed over to 

 the river Tati, striking it about forty miles above 

 the settlement. It was whilst we were here that I 

 met with an afternoon's sport, of which I will now 

 give an account. The two or three preceding days 

 having been so rainy that we had been unable to do 

 any hunting, we were out of meat, and our gang of 

 about a dozen Kafirs and Bushmen consequently 

 were making sad inroads into our stock of corn 



