APPLAUDED By BABOONS. 445 



versification was not my forte ; still, here it is at least, 

 a line or two : 



" Where the bare slopes of rocks converging fell 

 On either hand into a craggy cleft, 

 And the free, fervid sun flowed down the dell," 



and so on. Well, I fhad scarcely got dressed when 

 Umganey came to inform me that plenty guinea-fowls 

 were to be had, so I went and sought them. In all 

 my previous experience I never found these birds so 

 abundant they were not in millions, as an American 

 friend said the hornets were that sallied out upon him, 

 but without exaggeration they were in thousands. 

 Having only a rifle, and still being very shaky, I fired 

 at least thirty shots for the five or six I killed ; and 

 every time the report echoed up the kloof, a troop of 

 baboons chattered, as if in applause at the row I was so 

 unsatisfactorily making. 



Among some rocks I sat down to have a look at my 

 claqueurs. As people go they were not a bad specimen 

 of their race. But what on earth is the matter ? there 

 they are scampering up the dell to the most inaccess- 

 ible crags. I have not alarmed them I doubt if I 

 could; but something has what is it? Looking 

 behind a point of rock I see a creature taking stock 

 of me a pair of hazel eyes and two prick ears. They 

 are real bonnie to look at, while the expression of 

 face is so earnest. I raise my Martini-Henry, and 

 take a steady shot. I have not much to fire at less 

 than the size of my hand, still the missile speeds 

 straight, and the winsome beast, with all his wondrous 

 spots and markings, is a corpse. And would you 

 believe it? of course you do not the baboons chat- 



