AN OLD WOUND. 26? 



if you are employed with native levies, you stand a 

 far greater chance of being shot by your own men 

 than by the enemy. How the struggle for life of this 

 poor creature was so protracted was simply the result 

 of William standing some distance off from the game, 

 and blazing into the carcass without taking definite 

 aim for any vital place. 



I have no dislike to the natives, whether they be 

 Zulus, Kaffirs, or Bechuanas, quite the reverse, but 

 they are, with the exception of the Boers, in their 

 treatment of the inferior animals, the cruellest, most 

 barbarous wretches that can be imagined, and their 

 women and infants are just the same. The slaughter 

 of a bullock or sheep they would not miss for any 

 other pleasure, and the longer that the tortures are 

 prolonged the greater do they enjoy the function. 



This bull giraffe was barely twenty feet and six inches 

 high, and twenty feet and two inches long, from the 

 apex of the crown to the termination of the tail. It was 

 extremely difficult to measure, from its configuration, 

 as regards height, but the summit of the head 

 between the horns was where I obtained its altitude ; 

 wither measurement in such a formed beast would 

 obviously give no idea of its stature. It was the 

 largest specimen I had seen, and the natives unani- 

 mously agreed that they had never known it sur- 

 passed. 



Obviously it was very old ; the tassel of the tail 

 was worn down to the length of the fibres of a 

 scrubbing brush, while its hoofs exhibited evident 

 signs of decay. From its left side, just in rear of 

 the shoulder blade, was extracted a 12-bore bullet, 

 which had made a lodgment between the inner and 

 outer skin, and, judging from all appearances, it 

 must have been there for a long time. The calibre 

 of this ball induces me to think that it was fired by a 

 European, as the Boers, until they became possessors 

 of modern breech-loading guns, only shot with 



