70 THROUGH ANGOLA 



caught out in their tricks. Detection is about the 

 one crime that the African native considers really 

 serious. We kept the Sova and the guide prisoners 

 in camp, as otherwise they would have run away, 

 and I should never have seen them again. 



Next day, while the safari marched south-west 

 to the Bungo River, I went with two men to the 

 north-west to look for sable, arranging to meet the 

 carriers at the first village we met on the road. 

 While searching the beautiful open forest country. 

 we saw a solitary bull sable feeding in a glade 

 some 300 yards away. I crawled painfully across 

 a part of this open glade, pricked and cut by the 

 numerous small ant-hills and very hard stumps 

 of burnt grass. The sable spotted me when still 

 150 yards away, so I fired at once, and was 

 fortunate enough to kill him dead with the shot, 

 the bullet hitting him at the point of the shoulder. 



On approaching the sable, it was seen that his 

 head was much smaller than it had appeared from 

 the distance. The animal was a small one, and 

 the horns had looked big only in comparison with 

 his small body. They taped just over 52 inches, 

 and were the smallest yet obtained. The shoulder 

 height of this sable was 4 feet 5 inches. Like 

 all the sable killed up to the present, it was in- 

 fested with ticks, of more than one kind. One 

 variety, which had a dorsal plate coloured with 

 two quarterings of red and two of green arranged 

 alternately, bit me on the finger, raising a painful 

 lump, which remained irritable for many months 

 after the bite. 



Carrying the head and head-skin, but leaving 



