-*> Stalking Expeditions in the Xyika 



observations, in the scorching heat of the sun, and sending 

 a number of booty-laden carriers back into camp. At 

 about ten o'clock a.m. my thirsty throat had been 

 refreshed by the last drop of boiling-hot water from the 

 big hunting-flask, so that now I had to go thirsty until 

 evening, when I was sure of finding water in the distant 

 camp. Hour after hour went by ; all I saw enthralled 

 me I was then a new-comer in the El Dorado of the 

 African zoology and made me forget my thirst. 



On our return the unusual mishap befell me of my 

 two remaining guides losing their way ; in the fast-coming 

 darkness we plunged into the myriad labyrinths of a 

 thorn-thicket, and by nightfall, scratched and torn by 

 the thorns, it was impossible to get any farther. We 

 had lost our bearings, had ended by wandering round 

 in a circle, and now it became quite clear to me that 

 we should be obliged to spend the night amidst the 

 prickly pears. So we crouched down on a bare place 

 a few feet broad, and as my foot knocked against a 

 hard object, I looked and found it to be the half- 

 mouldered skull of a buffalo, evidently a victim of the 

 rinderpest. In the hope of being heard in camp, I 

 foolishly fired away almost all my cartridges, but in vain ; 

 there was no answer. 



Dead-tired, my tongue literally cleaving to the roof 

 of my mouth, I now crouched down under a clump of 

 trees grown over by creepers, my gun beside me with 

 my four remaining cartridges. 



A monkey uttered his piercing yell ; an owl replied. 

 Listening, with strained ears, in the absolute darkness, 



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