TOPI 



the time I had finished my impromptu dinner he 

 turned up again with two camels, and every scrap of 

 meat was taken back. Everyone was in the best 

 of spirits, and when I refused to give out any rations, 

 the men took it very well, only asking for plenty of 

 meat, which I gave them. 



The following day I continued southwards and in 

 the early morning I was again successful in obtaining 

 more meat. We entered a small open plain, about 

 two miles across, with a large swamp on the west, now 

 dry. I left the camels here to go on, while I turned off 

 to investigate, but I had not proceeded very far before 

 my syce gave a low whistle. I looked up, and there, 

 about lOO yards away, stood a solitary topi, looking 

 very handsome in the early morning light. I sat 

 down, and taking rather a quick sight, fired, and to 

 my delight the bullet clapped loudly, telling me of 

 a well-placed shot. The topi made a tremendous 

 spurt, but soon stopped, and I saw that it was in 

 great trouble, so I sat down and smoked a cigarette 

 before going cautiously forward. I soon saw her 

 lying down, and as she got up I gave her another 

 bullet at close quarters which finished her ofT. She 

 proved to be a splendid cow, with very long horns, 

 althouofh in basal Q-'mh they were much smaller than 

 those of topi in the more westerly parts of East 

 Africa. 



Later in the day I saw another small herd of 

 topi, of which I managed to bag three more. All 

 the meat was taken, and what was not eaten immedi- 

 ately was cut into strips and dried. The game was 

 very tame. They were not much alarmed at the 

 sound of a shot, but seemed bewildered, running round 

 and round unable to detect the direction from which 



90 



