350 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



resent it with apparent friendliness, in the end it will 

 with vice. If they come to you for grain at an hour 

 they are in the habit of receiving it, do not disappoint 

 them. Of course there are old stagers of garrons who 

 have been spoiled by their previous owners, and whom 

 all the coaxing in the world will not recall to virtuous 

 courses, but with a young one it is different ; treat it 

 kindly and consistently, and it will reciprocate in the 

 same manner. 



The spoor was soon found, and we followed it up 

 briskly. There was no doubt the elephants were not far 

 ahead, and momentarily I expected to be in sight of them, 

 when five buffaloes, who seemed to drop from the heavens, 

 for they had not been seen before, charged right into 

 our party. Ruby sprung forward, jumped over an inter- 

 vening bush, and thus in a moment placed me in safety ; 

 but when I turned round to look at my bush-people, one 

 was finishing a somersault in the air, another hanging 

 by his hands from a limb, his feet not a foot above a 

 buffalo's head, who was madly but ineffectually charging 

 backwards and forwards at them. The poor fellow had 

 not strength to pull himself up, but simply to hold on, 

 and, of course, in time must have succumbed and dropped 

 in front of his foe, but I made a good shot off' the mare's 

 back, and placed a two-ounce bullet exactly in the proper 

 place behind the shoulder. Slowly, and uttering a 

 piteous complaint for being deprived of life, it sunk 

 down and died directly under the limbs of the climbing 

 savage. 



Blow the buffaloes ! They are the most dangerous 

 beasts on the whole velt, for they are as cunning as a 

 pet fox, as stealthy as a cat, almost as swift as a horse, 

 and possess power to lift a house, or, at any rate, a shanty. 



