50 ON AN EAST AFRICAN RANCH [ch. ii 



They were covered with ticks Uke the other game ; on 

 the groin, and many of the tenderest spots, the odious 

 creatures w^re in soHd clusters ; yet the zebras were all 

 in high condition, with masses of oily yellow fat. One 

 stallion weighed six hundred and fifty pounds. 



The hartebeest — Coke's hartebeest, known locally by 

 the Swahili name of " kongoni " — were at least as plenti- 

 ful, and almost as tame, as the zebras As with the 

 other game of Equatorial Africa, we found the young ot 

 all ages ; there seems to be no especial breeding-time, 

 and no one period among the males corresponding to the 

 rutting season among Northern animals. The hartebeests 

 were usually inseparable companions of the zebras ; but, 

 though they were by preference beasts of the bare plain, 

 they were rather more often found in open bush than 

 were their striped friends. There are in the country 

 numerous anthills, which one sees in every stage of 

 development, from a patch of bare earth with a few 

 funnel-like toAvers, to a hillock a dozen feet high and as 

 many yards in circumference. On these big anthills 

 one or tw^o kongoni will often post themselves as look- 

 outs, and are then almost impossible to approach. The 

 bidls sometimes fight hard among themselves, and, 

 although their horns are not very formidable weapons, 

 yet I knew of one case in which a bull was killed in 

 such a duel, his chest being ripped open by his adver- 

 sary's horns ; and now and then a bull will kneel and 

 ffrind its face and horns into the dust or mud. Often a 

 whole herd will gather around and on an anthill, or even 

 a small patch of level ground, and make it a regular 

 stamping-ground, treading it into dust with their sharp 

 hoofs. They have another habit which I have not seen 

 touched on in the books. Ordinarily their droppings 

 are scattered anywhere on the plain ; but again and 



