IN THE FOREST 



size of a big wild boar, with short tusks and hair long, 

 abundant, and a mixture of tints, white, black, and 

 red ; each side of the face is marked with two warts 

 between the eye and the ear. Since it is nocturnal, 

 this animal is but seldom encountered, and its acquisi- 

 tion is always regarded as a piece of good luck for the 

 hunter. 1 



The other leading events of this stay were an 

 encounter with two kudus, which I could not shoot, 

 and the discovery of pits dug by the natives for 

 elephants, in which a few weeks previously they had 

 taken a small male. It was owing to my sepoy that 

 I did not tumble headlong into these cleverly concealed 

 traps. 



I am disposed to return to my head-quarters, when 

 the information with which I am furnished decides 

 me to descend the hills of the Nioronga to the plains 

 where I have already hunted with Ganda. 



At the moment I arrive at the Nioronga, two negroes 

 accompanied by a couple of sepoys were carrying to 

 Bamboo Creek a chest containing the revenue cash 

 which the commandant is sending to Beira. It is five 

 o'clock in the evening ; and as it will be night an hour 

 later they hasten their pace in order to reach the village 

 of Chicari on the Pungwe. On a sudden they see in 

 the pathway traversing the plains two crouching 

 lions, which bar the way and are growling. The two 

 porters leave the chest, the two soldiers their guns, 



1 The Kafirs call it coumba. 



(71) 



