178 CLEVER STALK. 



cording to promise, presented me with eggs and 

 pombe. Having introduced me to three of his wives, 

 he brought out his long gun and loaded it. Holding 

 the barrel in his left hand, he placed the muzzle at 

 the back of his neck, and, having curled his right 

 several times round his head, placed the charge in 

 while the gun was in that position. This, he inform- 

 ed me, was a charmed way of loading, and that un- 

 less his "footy" (gun) was thus loaded, it invariably 

 missed the mark ! He could not understand why I 

 did not load in the same manner, and he brought 

 me several charms, which he requested me to put 

 round my gun for the day, as the " jovo " (elephant) 

 was a great and fierce animal. These, however, I de- 

 clined. 



After a long and hot day's work, during which we 

 walked to Pambemba and back without seeing any 

 fresh spoor of elephant or buffalo, when close to my 

 guide's village, where I had an invitation to "a 

 drum," we came upon a solitary water-buck feeding 

 close to the river along whose banks we were return- 

 ing. The hunter, at my request, stalked him. It 

 was worth watching this wily sportsman as he 

 crawled like a snake through the long grass. He got 

 within some fifteen yards of the buck, after as clever 

 a stalk as I have ever seen, and shot him dead in the 

 head. I never saw anything like his pride at the 

 performance, but he attributed his success solely to 

 the " medicine." ^' No animals," said he, " ever run 

 away from this," pointing to some of the stuff on his 

 wrists, " and no gun can kill without these," alluding 

 to the roots on the stock. Savinsr he would return 



