90 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



out cattle disease. Like all the Wakamba they had flocks 

 of goats and sheep, and herds of humped cattle; but they 

 were much in need of meat and hailed my advent. They 

 were wild savages with filed teeth, many of them stark 

 naked, though some of them carried a blanket. Their 

 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 un- 

 broken. 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-colored 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 rest- 

 ing, 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 



