SPORT IN MOZAMBIQUE 



and all four climb some mimosas for safety. Later 

 on I saw the trees, covered with thorns of two or three 

 inches in length, and wondered how these gentry 

 had been able to climb them. After the lions had 

 watched the ascent, they came and gravely sniffed 

 at the package and carbines, and then, disdaining these 

 unknown implements, were not long in disappearing 

 into the darkness of the twilight. In the morning, 

 at sunrise, a small troup of zebras regarded with aston- 

 ishment the four perching Kafirs, one of whom, dressed 

 in a gorgeous red blouse, looked like a macaw escaped 

 from a cage. It was not till after a careful inspection 

 that my four braves descended, not without many 

 grimaces, lame from sitting in the tree all night, and 

 their bodies pierced with thorns which they had 

 meanwhile not recognised. 



This narrative arouses in me a vivid desire to inter- 

 view these lions, and I decide to camp on the border 

 of a marsh close to the scene of adventure. I kill a 

 zebra which I leave as a bait, and which I find on the 

 morrow quite untouched. In compensation, this day 

 provided me with a pretty picture. After refraining 

 from killing numerous waterbucks, hartebeests, and 

 zebras, I shot four oribis, a bushbuck, two reedbucks, 

 and three gnus of a variety I had not previously 

 obtained. Black, with reflections of blue, grey, or 

 white, according to the light, this curious animal, 

 which, with the head of an ox, the shoulders of an 

 antelope, and the mane and tail of a horse, approaches 



(72) 



