CHAP. III. ELAND. 139 



giving us a chance of a shot, all of the hunters disappeared 

 in pursuit, while my own boys, water-bearers, meat-carriers, 

 etc., probably thinking that I also had gone on, ran forward 

 without me. I, however, had already had one or two long 

 days after this same troop, and felt pretty sure that they 

 would not stop again that day, and that those who were 

 after them would, as they actually did, return empty- 

 handed ; and so, turning off, I made in the direction of 

 the Big Hill, before mentioned. After going one or two 

 miles I was so pestered with the unceasing attentions 

 of a honey-bird — which would not be driven away with 

 stones, and whose cry, recognised as it is by the game 

 as denoting the human presence, was not a pleasant 

 accompaniment to a hunter — that I turned and followed 

 it, and descending at the end of half a mile into a par- 

 tially dry watercourse, I saw it make a peculiar flutter, 

 such as I had formerly seen it do when it took me to, 

 and in that way pointed out, a big snake, and on cau- 

 tiously coming forward prepared to see a leopard, or at 

 the least a snake, I found a hunter in my employment 

 lying fast asleep. He was a white boy of eighteen or 

 nineteen years of age, white at least in blood and features, 

 though a native in education, habits, manners, and ways, 

 having been brought up among them on a Zulu mission 

 station, and therefore preferring at all times their society 

 as more congenial than that of his fellow-countrymen. I 

 had found him idling at the station, and oflfered him the 

 command of my hunters, and payment for whatever he 

 might personally kill, thinking that, as there was nothing 

 to do but to see that the powder was not stolen, and that 

 the hides were taken care of, he could not possibly go 



