i7.GOrON- A’ SHOOTING: TRIP. 167 
least afraid, but perching continually about the nest, so 
near to me that I could easily have touched them with a 
stick from where I. sat at the table. 
Leaving my caravan to rest at El Modu, I started with 
six boys on a hunting-trip to the Dawa. We tramped two 
hours along a good road, and then struck off among the 
bushes to hunt through a deep valley that opened out 
toward the river. We had just succeeded in climbing 
down a steep precipice, and reaching the broad river bed 
that passed through the valley, when my boy Yusif (a 
stupid fellow I had taken because Karsha was sick) called 
loudly to me that he saw a beast of some kind. Of course 
by the time I reached Yusif the animal was far off, and I 
had just time to perceive that it was a fine specimen of the 
greater kudu. Disgusted at not having got a shot, I 
walked ahead for some time, until at last I spied six water- 
buck far off on the hill, and I started to climb up after 
them; but the ground was so rough that I could not help 
making a little noise and frightening the animals, which 
ran down a valley and up a hill again on the other side. 
Here they stood gazing at me two hundred and fifty yards 
away. The distance was great, but I could not resist hav- 
ing a try at them; so picking out the largest buck, I took a 
steady aim and fired at it. Down went the animal to the 
ground, where he kicked about for some seconds, making 
me feel so sure that I had killed him that I took my time 
walking over to where he lay. When I got to within thirty 
yards of him, however, he suddenly sprang to his feet, 
and rushed away through the bushes as though untouched, 
taking me completely by surprise. There was a great pool 
of blood where he had lain, and as I tracked him I found 
quantities of blood from his lungs. 
Finally, after going half a mile, I got a glimpse of the 
water-buck walking slowly ahead through the bushes, and 
