144 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES chap. 



leaving the Mababi for Bamangwato, and without 

 the supply of meat thus obtained it would have 

 gone very hard with the large number of Khama's 

 people who were travelling with me, and who were 

 almost entirely dependent upon me for food. Khama 

 thanked me very heartily on my return to Bamang- 

 wato for the assistance I had given to his people. 



To return to buffaloes, old bulls are often said to 

 be very bad tempered and liable to charge without 

 the slightest provocation. Many instances can, no 

 doubt, be cited of men having suddenly been charged 

 and either killed or badly maimed by one of these 

 animals. If all these cases, however, had been 

 thoroughly investigated, I believe it would have 

 been found that such unprovoked attacks had for 

 the most part been made by wounded animals lying 

 in thick cover or long grass, which were suffering 

 from injuries inflicted either by lions or by human 

 hunters. Such animals would naturally be morose 

 and dangerous to approach. 



I have not shot many buffaloes when hunting on 

 horseback, as in my time these animals were seldom 

 found except in countries infested by the tse-tse 

 fly, which fatally affects horses and cattle. How- 

 ever, I have galloped after at least a dozen herds 

 of buffaloes, riding alongside of them and continually 

 dismounting and firing at one or other of their 

 number. Only on one occasion did an unwounded 

 buffalo leave the herd and charge me. This 

 was a cow which gave me a smart chase for perhaps 

 a hundred yards. It is astonishing at what a speed 

 a buffalo can run when charging. It certainly 

 takes a good horse to get away from one, although 

 when following a herd of buffaloes on horseback 

 one can easily keep alongside of them at a hand- 

 gallop. Even on foot I never found any difficulty 

 in keeping up with a herd of buffaloes and shooting 

 as many as I required to supply my native followers 



