88 RHINO AND GIRAFFES [ch. iv 



heads were curiously shaved, so that the hair-tufts stood 

 out in odd patterns ; and they carried small bows, and 

 arrows with poisoned heads. 



The following- morning I rode out with Captain 

 Slatter. We kept among the hills. The long drought 

 was still unbroken. The little pools were dry and their 

 bottoms baked like iron, and there was not a drop in 

 the watercourses. Part of the land was open, and part 

 covered with a thin forest or bush of scattered mimosa- 

 trees. In the open country were many zebras and 

 hartebeests, and the latter were found even in the thin 

 bush. In the morning we found a small herd of eland, 

 at which, after some stalking, I got a long shot and 

 missed. The eland is the largest of all the horned 

 creatures that are called antelope, being quite as heavy 

 as a fattened ox. The herd I approached consisted of 

 a dozen individuals, two of them huge bulls, their coats 

 having turned a slaty blue, their great dewlaps hanging 

 down, and the legs looking almost too small for the 

 massive bodies. The reddish-coloured cows were of far 

 lighter build. Eland are beautiful creatures, and ought 

 to be domesticated. As I crept toward them I was 

 struck by their likeness to great clean, handsome cattle. 

 They were grazing or resting, switching their long tails 

 at the flies that hung in attendance upon them and lit 

 on their flanks, just as if they were Jerseys in a field at 

 home. My bullet fell short, their size causing me to 

 underestimate the distance, and away they went at a 

 run, one or two of the cows in the first hurry and con- 

 fusion skipping clean over the backs of others that got 

 in their way — a most unexpected example of agility in 

 such large and ponderous animals. After a few hundred 

 yards they settled down to the slashing trot which is 

 their natural gait, and disappeared over the brow of a hill. 



