346 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES chap. 



courageous with dangerous game than the generaHty 

 of Kafirs. A friend of mine was once out looking 

 for game on horseback, accompanied by a single 

 Bushman. The Bushman, who was walking in front 

 of the horse, suddenly spied a lion lying flat on 

 the ground watching them, and less than fifty yards 

 away. Raising his left hand as a sign to my friend 

 to stop, he pointed at the crouching animal with his 

 spear, at the same time retiring slowly backwards 

 until he stood beside the horse. " Tauw ki-o" 

 (" There is a lion "), he quietly said ; but my friend 

 for the life of him could not see it. The Bushman 

 then again advanced, and taking the horse by the 

 bridle, led it a few paces forwards, when his master 

 at last saw the lion, and firing from the saddle, 

 disabled it with the first shot, and finished it with a 

 second. It was a fine big animal, but without much 

 mane. My friend said it was the lion's eyes that 

 he first saw, and then the twitching of its tail. He 

 was very much pleased with the coolness and 

 staunchness of the Bushman, quite a young man. 

 Oh, if I had only had that Bushman for a gun- 

 carrier on a certain day in 1877, when the most 

 magnificently maned lion I ever saw in my life 

 suddenly showed himself within twenty yards of 

 me, and the wretched Makalaka who was carrying 

 my rifle and was just behind me, instead of putting 

 it into my outstretched hand, turned and ran off 

 with it! Had I killed that lion, its skin would have 

 been my trophy of trophies, but — kismet ! it was 

 not to be. 



In 1874, '^^71 y ^^^ again in 1879, during 

 which years I shot a great number of buffaloes 

 along the Chobi river, and followed many of them 

 into very thick cover after having wounded them, I 

 always employed Bushmen to act as my gun-carriers, 

 and better men for such work it would have been 

 impossible to find, for not only were they always 



