XVII 



ORIBI 



I HAVE seen a good deal of this little animal 

 of late, both in the flesh and in the pot. 

 He is much to be admired in either capacity, 

 being beautiful to behold and very good 

 to eat. 



After the guinea-fowl or partridge, or anything 

 o' that ilk, the oribi easily holds premiere place 

 at dinner in the wilds, where one is for ever try- 

 ing to throw off the shackles of interminable 

 courses of antelope meat. There is not much of 

 him when he's divided up, it's true, but what 

 there is is "top hole." He is a beast after the 

 heart of the gourmet if not of the gourmand. 



Next to the dik-dik tribe, I take it he is the 

 smallest game animal in Africa throughout its 

 length and breadth : a sprightly light fawn- 

 coloured little gentleman, growing two slender 

 horns rather sloping backwards and then forwards, 

 but almost straight, with ring marks round their 

 bases for an inch or so up towards the tips. 



One finds them in Uganda and the Sudan in 

 almost all places not very far from water, generally 

 in pairs, but sometimes in company with one or 

 two others who have presumably come to pay 



213 



