CHAPTER V 



An imaginative shikari and the dance he led us — A good game country — - 

 Two of us stalk the same herd — A waterless plain — Hartebeest, 

 ostrich, oryx, zebra, and aul — The Hawash valley — The hot spring 

 of Bilen — A great hunt for buffalo — They outwit us — A large herd 

 of elephants — I turn a charge — A great waste of meat. 



The men we sent out yesterday to verify a report of 

 elephant returned late in the day, with a very circum- 

 stantial account of the presence of a small herd in some 

 dense jungle on a hillside. They had seen their foot- 

 prints round a pool, at which the elephants went to 

 drink every night, and declared that there was one 

 large bull among the herd. On receiving this encourag- 

 ing report, we started, and, after four hours' riding, 

 reached the place, but only to find no pool, no dense 

 jungle, no fresh footprints — only an open hillside and 

 the tracks of four or five elephants which had passed ten 

 days before! The second shikari, a Midgan, who was 

 responsible for the lying report which reached us, was 

 roundly abused, not only by us, but by every one of the 

 party. It was a grilling day, and none of us were very 

 sweet-tempered on our return to camp after our fruitless 

 journey. Next day I was somewhat recompensed by 

 getting an aul and a couple of gerenuk, one with re- 



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