A SIGHT ONLY TO BE SEEN IN AFRICA. 28l 



veritable cattle without owners or controllers. 

 Another piquancy of flavour may possibly be added 

 to the sight, by the knowledge that there are very 

 few Europeans indeed, whether born in the purple 

 or fed with a gold pap-spoon, who have witnessed 

 the like. 



This attraction cannot be because there is a spice 

 of danger associated with being an onlooker of such 

 gatherings, for there is absolutely none, unless a 

 crusty lion or spiteful leopard should be among 

 the herd, or an irate buffalo bull, or possibly worse, 

 buffalo cow with a calf, in whose way you suddenly 

 found yourself. 



A pack of highly bred fox-hounds in full cry, 

 followed by a well-mounted field of good horsemen, 

 streaming away over a wide grass country, is cer- 

 tainly a sight worth seeing, a sight that I have 

 known foreigners travel hundreds of miles to witness, 

 but even that is not a patch upon a view of a 

 hundred or two head of the larger tropical Africa 

 fauna, when trooped together in retreat before a 

 native " drive." 



The Massara well knew what he was about when 

 he assigned us to our respective places, for it was 

 now obvious that unless some very improbable, and 

 unforeseen contretemps occurred, the greater part of 

 the approaching cavalcade would pass my lurking 

 place within very moderate range. The first to come 

 inside of shooting distance was a mare zebra ; she 

 was an old, restless, fidgety, out-of-condition look- 

 ing beast, with very faded markings, and a perfect 

 rat-tail, but close at her heels followed another of 

 her sex, different in every respect, for she was as fat 

 and sleek as an easy life and plenty of food could 

 make her ; nevertheless, she was followed by a 

 youngster about a month old that seemed to resent 

 with an infinite display of temper, the parent's ob- 

 jection to halt, that it might gratify its appetite. 



