CH. xi] ORYX, EI.AND, ETC. 271 



neck of a fine cow, at four luindred and fifty yards. 

 Six or seven liundred yards off the survivors stopped, 

 and the biggest bull, evidently much put out, uttered 

 loud bawling grunts and drove tlie otliers roinid with 

 his horns. Meanwhile I was admiring the handsome 

 dun gray coat of my prize, its long tail and long, sharp, 

 slender horns, and the bold black-and-white markings 

 on its face. Hardly had we skinned the carcass before 

 the vultures lit on it ; with them were two marabou 

 storks, one of which I shot with a hard bullet from the 

 Springfield. 



The oryx, like the roan and sable, and in striking 

 contrast to the eland, is a bold and hard fighter, and 

 when cornered will charge a man or endeavour to stab 

 a lion. If wounded it must be approached with a 

 certain amount of caution. The eland, on the otlier 

 hand, in spite of its huge size, is singularly mild and 

 inoffensive, an old bull being as inferior to an oryx in 

 the will and power to fight as it is in speed and 

 endurance. '* Antelope," as I have said, is a very loose 

 term, meaning simply any hollow-horned ruminant that 

 isn't an ox, a sheep, or a goat. The eland is one of the 

 group of tragelaphs, which are as different from the 

 true antelopes, such as the gazelles, as they are from 

 the oxen. One of its kinsfolk is the handsome little 

 bushbuck, about as big as a white-tail deer — a buck of 

 which Kermit had killed two specimens. The bush- 

 buck is a wicked fighter, no other buck of its size being 

 as dangerous, which makes the helplessness and timidity 

 of its huge relative all the more striking. 



1 had kept four Kikuyus with me to accompany me 

 on my hunts and carry in the skins and meat. They 

 were with me on this occasion ; and it was amusing to 

 see how my four regular attendants, Bakhari and 



