XVI WOUND A WILD PIG 343 



travelling through an uninhabited country, quite bare 

 of game, though the pasture was good, and it being 

 the rainy season, there was water in every pool. On 

 the morning of the seventh day after leaving the 

 Zambesi, we came upon a small herd of seven 

 buffaloes, which unfortunately got our wind, and ran. 

 I did my best to run up to them, but found myself 

 terribly weak, and never managed to get within shot. 

 In the evening, whilst the Banyais were making a 

 camp, I went out again to look for game, and just at 

 dusk saw a wild pig looking at me from the other 

 side of a broad ravine, I fired at once, and knocked 

 him over, but he recovered himselt, and got into a 

 patch of long grass. Following on the blood spoor 

 for about fifty yards, we came upon him lying down. 

 He at once jumped up, and made off again towards 

 the dry rivulet at the bottom of the ravine. Before 

 he reached it, however, my gun-carrier, " April," 

 caught up to him, and stabbed him in the back with 

 an assegai, when he turned round, grunting loudly. 

 April got such a fright that he let go the assegai, and 

 left it sticking in the pig's back, and before I reached 

 the scene of action the brute had made good his 

 escape into a large hole in the bank of the gully, 

 assegai and all. Much disgusted, I went and in- 

 spected the hole ; but, not liking to creep into it, 

 and being unable to persuade any of the Kafirs to do 

 so, returned to camp. During the night, lions roared 

 loudly close to us. Early the following morning, 

 April and some of the Banyais returned to see if 

 they could not get the pig out of the hole, and soon 

 appeared with the meat of the same. They told me 

 they found it lying dead just outside the hole, April's 

 assegai still sticking in its back. 



April 15//;. — Reached a Banyai town on the river 



