50 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



the syllables " qua-ha-ha " ; but of course our letters and syl- 

 lables were not made to represent, and can only in arbitrary 

 and conventional fashion represent, the calls of birds and 

 mammals; the bark of the bonte quagga or common zebra 

 could just as well be represented by the syllables "ba-wa- 

 wa," and as a matter of fact it can readily be mistaken for 

 the bark of a shrill-voiced dog. After one of a herd has 

 been killed by a lion or a hunter its companions are par- 

 ticularly apt to keep uttering their cry. Zebras are very 

 beautiful creatures, and it was an unending pleasure to 

 watch them. I never molested them save to procure speci- 

 mens for the museums, or food for the porters, who like 

 their rather rank flesh. They were covered with ticks 

 like the other game; on the groin, and many of the tender- 

 est spots, the odious creatures were in solid 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 plentiful, 

 and almost as tame as the zebras. As with the other game 

 of equatorial Africa, we found the young of 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 insepara- 

 ble companions of the zebra; but though they were by pref- 

 erence 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 ant-hills, which one sees 

 in every stage of development, from a patch of bare earth 

 with a few funnel-like towers, to a hillock a dozen feet high 

 and as many yards in circumference. On these big ant- 



