168 THROUGH UNKNOWN AFRICAN COUNTRIES. 
managed to bring him down with another bullet, about 
forty yards off, when my boys ran up and cut his throat. 
From what experience I have had, I should say that a moose 
would never have risen to his feet again after receiving such’ 
a wound in the chest as I had given the water-buck. After 
loading the meat of the water-buck on my donkeys, I 
pushed down toward the river; but I had not gone far 
before I saw a wart-hog feeding about eighty yards away. 
As luck would have it, one of my donkeys commenced to 
bray just at this instant, and off went the pig. I could only 
get a snap-shot at him, but as the report of my rifle rang 
out the pig made a complete summersault, and then lay 
dead as a stone, having been hit by a lucky ball in the 
neck. I saw another lot of water-buck in the distance 
when we reached the river; but it was too late to stop then, 
as we had to build a little zareba before dark. 
What a night I had! It was too hot to draw my blanket 
over my face, and if I threw it off, I was devoured by mos- 
quitoes; so I finally had to sit by the fire, where my boys 
were huddled together in the thick smoke. Somalis as a 
rule have not the strong odor of negroes, but there were 
two of my boys that night who were very “ powerful,” as 
the cowboys say. 
Starting out the next morning, after a sleepless night, I 
hunted through groves of palm-trees along the river bank, 
and soon had the pleasure of seeing four water-buck walk- 
ing across the grassy plain, directly toward me. I hid 
behind a tree; but, just as I did so, two natives appeared a 
long way behind the water-buck. The animals, started by 
the natives, came on now on adead run directly toward 
me. I remained almost breathless until the animals got 
to within a few yards of me, when a little whistle caused 
them to come to a halt, and I had simply to pick out the 
best animal, and knock him over dead with the first shot. 
