CHAP. in. ELAND. 151 



to rise knocked her down again. As is so often the case, 

 she would not die outright, though quite unable to rise, 

 and received either two or three more bullets in the head 

 before uttering her last moan. The instant, however, 

 that this was the case, A. and H., to my great amusement, 

 at once claimed her ; though an examination of the wounds 

 showed that she had received seven bullets, not including 

 those fired to finish her on the ground, viz., two of A.'s, 

 two of H.'s, and three of mine. The two of H.'s, though 

 they had really killed her, could by no possibility give 

 him any claim to her, as they were both fired after she 

 had left the herd, and the point in dispute was, whose 

 bullet had caused her to do so. A. had fired at her twice 

 on the ground after she had separated, but he said he had 

 missed her with the first shot, and that, therefore, as she 

 had two of his bullet-marks, one of them must have been 

 made when she was still with the troop, and that, as he 

 had fired before me, she was his. There was no question 

 but that I had struck her while she was with the troop, 

 as there were three of my bullets in her, and A. had only 

 fired twice since ; but arguing was of no avail, and -he 

 finally took the tail. The natives, however, all said that 

 both the buffaloes were undoubtedly mine, and so in all 

 probability they were ; but seeing that both H. and A. 

 were very keen to claim anything we jointly fired at, and 

 as I did not want the hides, I, though rather disgusted, 

 thought it better to let the matter drop, and say no more 

 about it. 



It was darkening twilight when we reached the 

 Umsundusi, but the two men who had been sent on 

 with the meat had collected a good deal of firewood, 



